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EXCLUSIVE: That didn’t take long. Just a day after Warren Zavala left CAA to go to WME, he has brought with him Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Paul Dano, Big Bang Theory‘s Johnny Galecki, Amber Heard and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Zavala, who spent the last three years at CAA and the previous seven at Gersh, has numerous other clients that are still in play. They include Lizzy Caplan, Anna Faris, Shiloh Fernandez, Kelli Garner, Jackie Earle Haley, Rian Johnson, Felicity Jones and Adam Scott. This is the second recent agent who moved from CAA to WME and brought over clients. Almost all of Dan Aloni’s clients joined him when he moved including Chris Nolan, David Dobkin, Mike Myers, Jay Roach, David Goyer, Tom Shadyac, Michel Gondry, Raja Gosnell, Mandeville Films, Jonathan Mostow, Dean Parisot, Neal Moritz, Andy Fleming and David and Ian Purchase.
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Not a bad list.
Well, this certainly proves that WME -unlike ICMP – knows the value of film peeps. With these strategic hirings, WME will soon be bleeding off the ICMP clients when they want more action in the feature playground. Duh. CAA? They’ll be OK.
What exactly is your gripe about with ICMP anyway? Do you actually have personal contact and dealings as a client (or more likely an ex-client)with them that puts you in such a critical position? Or are you just talkin’ s*+t because you’re such a big boy with a big job at a big desk in NeverNeverland and because you’re so powerful and smart you KNOW every deal that gets made at every agency in town?
i love the smell of agents fighting
Even with that client list Kevin Durant makes more money in a week playing basketball than the agent makes in an entire year. go zavalla. You should be a sports agent with your skills.
This is one of the most puzzling, and troubling, posts I’ve seen in a while. If you want to work in sports, work in sports. If you just want to make money, wherever the most of it is, well…then I think you’d lose some of your most scintillating clients for that very reason. Better be careful who you clue into your thought process.
If you really are an agent, it must be at someplace like Paradigm for you to make such an absurd comment. First, sports agents are capped at 3% and 4% (for NFL and NBA) vs. 10% for film and tv. Secondly, the commissions on Galecki’s Big Bang contract alone dwarf anything an agent would make off of Durant. Thirdly, the whole analogy is apples and oranges.
Good day for WME!
CAA will continue to see more agents defecting taking their clients with them. It will soon be a flood an exodus of people tired of working for the Death Star.
For those not privy to the inner machinations?
If TALENT 1 signs a rep contract with AGENCY A and their agent leaves, isn’t TALENT 1 legally obligated to still be repped by AGENCY A until the end-date of their contract?
How are clients allowed to leave with no penalty?
If you’re an earner (as most of these appear to be) wouldn’t AGENCY A have protective clauses regarding that?
We read so many industry stories about AGENT X leaving a firm and taking clients with them.
How does that happen?
(Lax contracts?)
Neither clients nor agents have a contract to stay with an agency for any amount of time. Either the agency or talent/agent can terminate the contract/relationship at any time. However, the agency will continue to reap a percentage of any and all deals that their (former) agent and talent were a part of while they were under that agency’s umbrella.
Money stays with agency and unless you have a key man clause you continue to pay old agency until contract expires.
I also don’t think CAA worries about contracts for some of these actors nor do they really care about ten percent of an indie film or weekly television. They want the packaging fees for the real money
I wonder how much of this has to do with Jim Parsons signing at CAA. Just thinking out loud
Clients at this level of the game aren’t required to sign paperwork – contracts in talent representation are mostly used by smaller, boutique agencies who are protecting themselves from client poaching by larger agencies.
Agent, the most honest and trusted species in Hollywood. They never betray or lie. They just defect.
Do people actually sign contracts with their agencies? Doubt it.
Dear Please Explain,
Firstly, client of that caliber don’t have to make commitments such as that. Those types of contracts usually come into play when an agency or management company is trying to develop talent and don’t want to lose them as soon as they start to take-off (which still happens anyways…)
Second, it’s all about good will. Even if those contracts existed, who wants to try to force clients to stay? That would severely deduce the chance of them ever coming back. Ideally, CAA will be cooperative in handing over anything that will help Zavala’s clients in hopes that by being a class act, some might consider coming back to CAA in the future. You can’t burn bridges! This type of thing happens all the time, and if agencies are smart, they do their best to make the transition smooth for the talent, who should never suffer over something like this. Furthermore, how CAA treats these parting clients will get around. If CAA treats Zavala’s clients poorly, word will spread and talent will know.
CAA will earn full commission on deals that they have already negotiated, and will work out with WME details of how things in the works will be handled and how the commission will be split.
So, in conclusion, the contracts aren’t lax. Agents don’t keep clients by having them sign in blood, they keep clients by doing a good job!
Hope this helps.
Forget how much of a miserable grind the film biz has become–it’s rejuvenating to see the young turks of wme fulfilling their longterm plan of overtaking caa, they’re outmaneuvering Lovett’s outdated system constantly, gotta Love It!!!!!
Contracts protect commissions,”Please Explain.” No agency would be crazy enough to demand a client stay where he doesn’t want to be. The ripple effect would be bad PR. and said agency would have a hell of a hard time signing new clients. No one wants to be enslaved to an agency.
A good question but there are two realities that generally operate during all such matters. First is that as defined by SAG (though many agencies are not signatories, most follow these kinds of bylaws regardless) a client can fire his/her agent if they do not procure them work for 90 days. So if pushed, a client can just twiddle their thumbs and then fire the agency. More important: it’s is an understood custom of the client servicing business that you don’t put people in this situations. It’s bad for business and bad for morale. It is generally understood that you can def ask for a sitdown, a fair shot to pitch the client and try to keep them, but of they want to leave, no agency will try to force a client to stay. It’s just best practices and the custom of the business.