2ND UPDATE, 6:20 PM Writethru: It’s official. Resolution Agency Chairman Jeff Berg announced just now that, after 15 years at ICM, talent and literary agent David Unger
is joining. Unger is the first ICM agent to move to Berg’s new agency. Next will be lit agent Robert Lazar. Both agents had been Berg proteges with Unger taking international lead at ICM for over a decade. It looks like he will play the same role at Resolution. Unger is best known for resurrecting the career of Mickey Rourke in the Oscar-nominated role in The Wrestler. Unger’s clients include Mickey Rourke, Ray Winstone, John Hurt, Steve Coogan, Lindsay Lohan, Naomi Campbell, Gong Li, Anil Kapoor, Natalia Vodianova, Fred Durst, Courtney Love, Johnny Hallyday, Emmanuelle Seigner, Olivier Martinez, Vincent Perez as well as directors Tony Kaye, Johan Renck, Malcolm Venville, Michael Haussman and screenwriter Roger Avary among others.
Unger left ICM Partners today when he’d secured his release to head to Berg’s new agency. My sources say Unger always intended to leave ICM Partners after Berg’s exit and didn’t want a partnership under Chris Silbermann’s and Rick Levy’s management buyout. I hear one of the well-liked Unger’s roles will be to lead ”the younger generation” at Resolution. Unger will continue to represent film and television actors, directors and writers, and also serve in Resolution’s media finance group. Unger will be based in the agency’s Century City offices.
“I’ve had the pleasure of working with David for more than 15 years. He’s an accomplished agent and a strategic thinker. He represents leadings artists in the U.S., UK, France, India, China and Russia. I want to see him use these skills and relationships to assist in the growth of Resolution” Berg said in a statement. Said Unger: “Jeff has been an incredible mentor and this move is a logical next step for me. I’m excited to participate in this building process.”
Resolution-bound Lazar’s clients include Neil LaBute, Carl Franklin, Jonathan Hensleigh and Niels Arden Oplev.
Unger began his career at Propaganda Films and, because he is mutilingual, often reps local language stars. His father, Anthony Unger, was a film producer and his grandfather, Oliver A. Unger, was a film producer, distributor and exhibitor. His uncle, Stephen A. Unger, is an executive recruiter for the entertainment and media industries.
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Silbermann cannot retain anyone.
Good For Unger!!!
Congratulations, David. E-mail me.
David Unger was too much of a class act for the Titanic. Good for him
Lazar is a classy guy, Unger I do not know, but, heard how he fixed Rourke when no one would even take a meeting with the guy. Guess it was just a culture clash with the new owners. Nothing beyond that.
the resolution is here!!!!
They also need to lure away a few of the younger guns at the agencies. Inasmuch as the younger guys may not bring in as many dollars, they do a lot of the information gathering which is certainly key.
Lame. Who cares. Who do these two jokes even rep anyways? Only place they could get a job is at Resolution anyways.
How ya’ doing, Mr. Silberman??!! ;-D
Clearly you don’t know David Unger. He’d return your call even if no one would yours.
Looks like the ICM PR team aka their bad assistants are busy commenting. Get back to work.
Hey ICM Employee,
How are you posting comments on deadline with the power shut off?
Unger and Lazar are both great. Looks like Resolution is picking away the only good agents ICM has left.
Doubt he was offered a partnership. ICM cleaning house.
Cleaning house? Really? Are you drunk?
Right on, ummm noo, Hollywood is almost always about “perception” and “what have you done lately,” so me thinks these first exits put a dent in the revamped “ICM Partners” brand!
Someone has to tell me why ICM couldn’t get Berg to sign an iron-clad “anti-poaching/anti-compete” type of exit deal?? Where’s a business and legal affairs suit or entertainment attorney when I need them to reply here??!! ;-D
show me an iron clad contract at a talent agency – especially this one – if your smart enough to be an agent your smart enough to find a loophole. if your smart enough to create the agency, well then you pretty much write your own ticket
I’m not a lawyer, but I would guess it was because Berg had all the power because of how much money Silbermann, Levy, et al owed him as part of the management buyout. They had little if any leverage. They will also be writing monthly checks to cover Resolution’s startup costs (which has to sting).
Great guys. They are smart, classy and will continue to represent clients very well. Congratulations to all concerned.
Guess this is the beginning of a mini- or major-exodus from ICM to IceBerg’s Resolution??!! Boy, I would have thought ICM’s legal brass would have worked out an anti-poaching/anti-compete type of exit deal with Berg on his departure, but what do I know about these legal things??!!
Berg seems to have. indeed, worked out a Resolution that’s in his favor — okay, it’s another lame attempt at humor here! ;-D
Well, it’s fitting: 101 years ago an ice berg took down the titanic :0
There’s no one left that I talk to at ICM on the MP Lit side…guess I’ll have to start meeting assistants soon!
Harley Copen. Great MP Lit agent, smart as a whip!
Great for these guys! They found the escape hatch everyone is looking for at ICM. That place will always be the TV agency Broder 2.0. Lorrie Bartlett and Chuck James were better off staying at Gersh.
Lazar is a good guy. Nice move for him.
Wonder what’s in store for ICM. Seems to keep getting smaller and smaller and…
icm is done. not ever part of the conversation at wme or caa.
At this rate, ICMP is going to have to partner with Paradigm!
Big loss for ICM. David and Robert are great agents.
RESOLUTION is the new REVOLUTION. Sure sucks to suck.
Fred Durst…
There should be ’1 percenters’ on these boards…as in people who actually know what they are talking about. That goes for both sides of the argument.
Does anyone know how to find the contact information for this new agency?
It’s available online. Goodluck their swamped.
Telephone Book
the real story here is blake cole. that kid is a rockstar!
Leaving ICM for Berg? Career suicide. This is the guy who was booted from his own agency.
If getting booted means getting a huge amount of money and not losing a beat.
I like what’s going on. That said however – Resolution will need to hire at least a small handful – 3-5 – of “impact” players, not the type of marginal agents going over there. Until 4or5 impact players sign on, they’ll just be also rans.
Rick Levy is a sub-par lawyer and i’d love for someone to publish his ridiculous record. They never had a chance because call him what you want, berg will always be smarter than they’ll ever be. He had no non-compete because they had no leverage and owed him money they’ll never have. Counting on that Bonus partners? (good luck with that..) And being the smart guy Berg is, he already sold that debt to a third party and got his money out already. I don’t know if Resolution will make it or not make it, but i do know that ICM’s “partners” will start to bail at their first opportunity. Its a good opportunity for the Gersh’s, Apa’s and Paradigms to start picking off some agents. Silberman – this is your payback for Nancy Josephson and Ed Limato and you deserve all you have coming your way and we’ll all enjoy watching.
100% accurate
This is certainly among the more accurate and insightful postings in this thread. I was the “anonymous” who posted above about the lack of leverage the “partners” had and you certainly seem to see that, as well as many of the agency’s other shortcomings.
All one has to do is look at very publicly available dates to know that at some point in the late 90s someone at GDC had the “you’re never going to make partner, start thinking about your options” talk with him.