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EXCLUSIVE: Sarah Self, the well-regarded agent who reps Juno scribe Diablo Cody and regularly packages books for movies, has resigned from Gersh. She dropped the bomb last night. Word is already swirling that she might go to CAA, but Self has time on her contract and she has to be released before anything happens. It is another tough blow for Gersh, which just watched David Kopple move to CAA, with the expectation he will bring with him Spider-Man director Marc Webb when he actually lands there. The CAA speculation comes from the fact that she worked very closely with Kopple. Self didn’t return numerous calls, but the agency is dealing with this as we speak. Self actually started in the CAA mailroom but was made an agent at Gersh. She also reps a lot of young writer/directors that include Geoff LaTulippe, scripter of the recent Drew Barrymore-Justin Long comedy Going the Distance.
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Good, Gersh deserves a little of their own medicine..and yes this is coming from a client who was dropped after 8 years and over hundred of thousands of dollars in commissions for them. They don’t support an artists journey and growth and only care about what you have done for them that day. It’s a TV agency and needs to overhaul it’s ideals and remind themselves what comes around goes around! Guess in the end, it’s a blessing in disguise.
Good point…no agency has EVER dropped a client before. ESPECIALLY CAA.
TITANIC
I wonder who’s next?? Gotta be on the talent side…
Two things. One, EVERY agency is concerned about what you did THAT day. Two, if Gersh dropped you I can only assume that the commissions you spoke of dried up long ago and they no longer saw you as being valuable. It’s all business man, get over it.
My point exactly… business first, artist last…. it’s about balance, not dictatorship. So are you suggesting CAA needs to change their name to Creative Agents Agency? No wonder European and other countries make better films overall and America can only make hollywood crap to feed to their chickens… but everything is cyclical and it’s the only hope I have left for the industry in the US… the hope of making good films again like in the past.
If you look at the top 10 quality films in the US of any given year versus the top 10 of any other country, we win. Every time.
Maybe so, but so what? The US movie industry is so huge that statistically this is bound to be the case. The US produces some of the world’s most brilliant math students at the high school level (look it up if you don’t believe that), but that doesn’t mean that overall we have the best math educational system.
Conversely, just look at the 100 worst movies made any given year — most of them are coming from Hollywood.
Chad’s comment was that other countries make better films “overall,” and I have to agree this is the case, especially taking into account other countries smaller populations and smaller markets and VASTLY smaller filmmaking budgets.
And NO OTHER country spews out the bloated dreck quite like only Hollywood can do, so yeah, ON THE WHOLE other countries are doing pretty well for themselves.
What I’m saying is, dont let someone pushing the business side of things on you make you bitter and angry. From their perspective, they’re in the right to drop you if you’re no longer bringing in the cash. And from my perspective, they are 100% correct. So what can you do? Go off, write that killer spec, film that awesome indie, get Hollywood wanting to suck your dick again and then when that agent who dropped you comes begging for you as a client you go with someone else. If you can’t understand that despite what we all want it to be, Hollywood is a business not a creative space. Creativity and originality is better left to the indies. I’m not saying that’s what I like or that’s how i want it to be, but that’s the fucking harsh reality. You don’t like it? Check then you and your artistic chip on your shoulder should go elsewhere.
No, I’m sure Diablo Cody will stay at Gersh. What could CAA do for her?
Are you kidding? Why is this even a question? You should reverse it – will caa take sarah self without diablo?
YES, or she is crazy. Nikke this is how the agency’s rank in Features.
CAA – Number 1, Miles and Miles of distance between the rest.
WME – Number 2, Doing well, but not so slowly bleeding Directors and Stars, Where are they mostly going CAA. Cuz that is where you need to be if you want to be on top. Notice Hudson, Deniro, Cusack, Joe Carnahan, Bennet Miller! That is off the top of my Head. They were better as Endeavor and everyone knows it. In another year or two they should call themselves WMA. Cuz it is starting to look like the same monstrosity that is dying one tentacle at at a time in features. It is like history repeating itself. Remeber WMA in 1984 had 90% of the A listers in features, by 1986 CAA had most of those clients, is history going to repeat itself again. Who do they ever sign from CAA these days, not much!
UTA – As long as they have Johnny Depp, and the Cohen Brothers, and a few other cool clients, they are the Closest thing to the old Endeavor
ICM – Still a big name, just needs some stars and some directors. They are more of a book agency and BTL agency these days, and TV.
Gersh – Has good Actors, Lit is Average. Feature biz is medium at best. Too much Legacy. The best way for Gersh to get better is get rid of anyone with the name Gersh.
Paradigm – The most medium agency that Billions of Dollars ever built.
THEN THERE IS THE REST, fighting it out.
So yes Diablo, this is your chance to flex your muscle, and leave your starter agency behind.
Good Luck!!!!
I disagree with a lot of your assessment(the part about CAA being “miles and miles” ahead of the pack IS right on the blood money).
For instance, I think Gersh is severely lacking in talent. They can’t really package anything, and most of what they do package is stuff Cohen loves and not necessarily from Gersh clients.
WME is strong in television, but the feature division needs to stop jamming last year’s specs down buyers’ throats with mediocre talent attached. UTA actually possesses smart, honest agents who would probably be better served starting their own agency, like Verve.
Finally, I think the ONLY reason Sarah would land at CAA is because everybody knows she’s great at book-to-film deals. Those deals could only be made sweeter with CAA’s talent attached. My two cents.
Agree with everything but one: ICM is far ahead of UTA in features, comedy notwithstanding. ICM has few to no top actors but they have many top writers and directors, they are a lit agency and also strong in TV.
Love her or hate her, every agency in town would kill to have such a prolific client. Could it be that Diablo Cody stayed with her agent because she’s (gasp!) loyal?
Sarah started at CAA, but on Bob Bookman’s desk, not in the mailroom. Never an agent trainee there, she went from there to Mostow-Lieberman Productions.
Sarah is great.
She is a rare agent that also understands production from her days at Mostow.
Who ever gets her wins big.
Good luck Sarah!
What a fucking surprise.
A big lit manager likes a big lit agent.
Not a huge Diablo fan, but it’s hard to imagine she won’t go to CAA or wherever Sarah lands. And, yes, Its also quite possible that Diablo was leaving and Sarah is actually going with her. Anyway, tough couple weeks for Gersh.
Sarah is a perfect fit at CAA. Draw your own conclusions why this statement is true.
Has anyone even thought of the fact that Sarah’s boyfriend is a former Gersh agent who left there to go to CAA?
Nobody pointing that out?
Sarah is cool, though. And smart. And I wish her the best.
Sarah is a great agent and I wouldn’t be surprised if her clients followed.
And just waiting for the “Diablo Cody is a talentless slut who can’t write for crap she only got where she is by sleeping around, I loathe her because she’s achieved what I never will and she’s only a stupid dumb woman” comments in 5, 4, 3, 2…
Not one person has suggested anything of the like. But thanks to you, your countdown ended right when you started typing.
dun dun dun. another one bites the dust. gersh is sinking. so who does that leave?
(crickets)
oh, right.
(p.s. janeygotagun, i suspect the more apt assertion would be “is cody still relevant? i’d like to say yes, but i suspect otherwise after Jennifer’s Body and US of Tara)