CAA Signs ‘Rush’ Scribe Peter Morgan

COMMENTS (12)

• UTA did a great job for him. What a shame for them.

  Comment by bad taste — Monday February 25, 2013 @ 11:56am PST  Reply to this post

• He was too good for UTA. They package movies terribly. Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Banks for everything. No one ever, ever goes to see a movie for Banks. Rudd is awesome, but kind of annoying. His performance last night will hurt his casting appeal in anything other than Apatow movies. Plus, UTA’s agents are not the nicest. That’s just one person’s opinion, but why would you be at UTA if you could be at WME or CAA? More attention? Not really.

  Comment by com — Monday February 25, 2013 @ 12:12pm PST  Reply to this post

• He former agent hid every script he had in development. Complete disaster. CAA probably made 1 call and he was gonzo.

  Comment by hollywood insider — Monday February 25, 2013 @ 12:14pm PST  Reply to this post

  • Sorry, but what do you mean by “hid every script?” I’m not questioning this, I’m just not sure what you mean.

    Comment by bobbobkk — Monday February 25, 2013 @ 6:59pm PST  Reply to this post

• Huge loss for UTA, but they’re really not suited to keeping hold of top scribes, agency’s never been able to build up enough of a director or talent roster on feature side.

  Comment by TinstelTalk — Monday February 25, 2013 @ 12:16pm PST  Reply to this post

• Hey Bad Taste, I think you got it wrong. Peter Morgan did a lot for UTA. It’s not like the agency was dealing with a ho-hum writer of humdrum scripts. Peter Morgan is in the upper echelon of scribes, close if not right up there with the ranks of Aaron Sorkin and Steve Zaillian. Hardly a scrub. If the man didn’t have mad writing chops UTA would have never danced with him in the first place, right? Thought so.

  Comment by bobby the saint — Monday February 25, 2013 @ 12:24pm PST  Reply to this post

• U.T.A. is like I.C.M. in the Jim Wiatt dog days – if they can’t hang on to the directors who originate their own material (Cohn and Berg : Woody; Brooks, etc.; U.T.A. : the Coens, Wes Anderson)they’ll be stuck with dog Wiatt packages like his Rowdy Roddy Piper opus! You can only play Johnny Depp in so many directions as a packaging card and apparently it’s mostly Bruckheimer’s deck anyway. One of the many shrewd moves of both the Coens and Anderson is that they don’t let U.T.A. package them.

  Morgan’s a great sign. On the opposite end of the spectrum, after last night, you wonder if Adele might be able to act. Make a dent like Bette Midler in “The Rose.”

  Early Schlesinger, the Redgraves, Julie Christie, a Lynn Redgrave “Georgy Girl” thing. (And not, like, a re-make of “Georgy Girl” which would be some Hasty Pudding Club development “idea.” Mike Leigh, Terence Davies, Danny Boyle, etc.)

  Comment by T. Li — Monday February 25, 2013 @ 12:48pm PST  Reply to this post

• As others have said, hard for UTA to hold on to top writers because they can’t package. Morgan is an A-lister who writes great parts, but there are only two talent agencies who can package. Not good for the industry to be so concentrated, but can’t blame Peter for that.

  Comment by Billy — Monday February 25, 2013 @ 1:52pm PST  Reply to this post

• I’m sure no one will give a shit but. UTA clearly didn’t on the 79th Academy’s.

  Peter Morgan was the first writer in HISTORY to have TWO CHARACTERS from TWO OF his MOVIES win TWO OSCARS for BEST ACTOR, Forest Whitaker and BEST ACTRESS, Helen Mirren in the same year and yet they didn’t even manage one interview.

  If story is King WTF does that say about them and Hollywood?
  SM

  Comment by SM — Monday February 25, 2013 @ 2:26pm PST  Reply to this post

  • SM, just a quick note:

    Peter Morgan was with ICM when this Oscars took place.

    Thank you for your comment.

    Comment by Fact check — Monday February 25, 2013 @ 9:34pm PST  Reply to this post

• Being a feature writer at UTA is a no win after a point. They can’t package or steer you in a direction.
  They are great at discovering new writing talent but not at building a career. If you’re a writer-director then it’s terrific. They will work for you. But if you’re Peter Morgan you should be at CAA.
  UTA must know this or they would work harder for their screenwriters. What they do instead is steer them towards TV because they have a strong TV department.

  Comment by R.P. — Monday February 25, 2013 @ 2:44pm PST  Reply to this post

• Morgan will discover that the CAA promise has the same hollow ring to it as it has for so many others who have blindly made their way there, soon regretted it, and been too afraid to leave.

  Comment by Scribr — Tuesday February 26, 2013 @ 7:04am PST  Reply to this post