Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: I’m hearing that ICM and Hal Sadoff have come to a parting of the way after seven years. Sadoff, a former investment banker at Cobalt Media Group and the London-based National Westminster Bank joined ICM seven years ago and has been the agency’s Head of International and Independent Film. Between ICM and the banks, he has played a role in putting together more than 400 films, with budgets totaling over $3.5 billion. This has been in the works for some time, and was a rumor going around Sundance and Berlin. Sadoff is a well liked guy whose annual Cannes Film Festival bash at La Pizza was always a highlight of the festival. It isn’t clear what he’ll do next, but I expect he’ll figure it out shortly.

Before joining ICM, Sadoff was exec producer and financial consultant on several films including Hotel Rwanda, which was nominated for three Academy Awards. Before that, Mr. Sadoff was co-founder, partner and head of the Los Angeles office of Cobalt Media Group, a media financing and international sales company. At Cobalt, he was directly involved in structuring and arranging financing for over twenty-five productions including House of Sand and Fog, Open Range, Chicken Run, The World is Not Enough, Swimfan and Band of Brothers. Prior to forming Cobalt, Mr. Sadoff also served as Senior Vice President and Head of the Los Angeles office of London-based National Westminster Bank. After completing the bank’s training program in the New York and London offices, over the next thirteen years, he spearheaded the building of NatWest’s Los Angeles Media and Entertainment Finance Group. In this role, he structured and provided financing for companies such as MCA/Universal, Universal Studios Florida, New Line Cinema, Samuel Goldwyn, All American Communications, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, The Walt Disney Company, Twentieth Century Fox, Mandalay, Artisan, Live Entertainment, Republic Pictures and Cinergi Pictures. Financing transactions include Wild Things, Lost in Space, In Love and War, Seven Years in Tibet, Les Miserables, Stargate, Die Hard: With a Vengeance, Waking Ned Devine, Evita, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Much Ado About Nothing, and A Bronx Tale.

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