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Hollywood Transom debuts today as part of your Ankler subscription. Written by Jeff Sneider, the column’s mission is to deliver brief scoops and news about this industry’s current state of play and its players. Let us know what you think, and hope you enjoy — RR
1. Which ICM Agents Are Poised to Join CAA?
Remember the big CAA-ICM merger? Announced last September one whole variant ago to much fanfare, it’s been pretty quiet on that front since, with the merger, under scrutiny from the DOJ, likely not winning approval until Q2.
As such, CAA can’t make any deals with ICM staff until the merger is formally closed, because that would be tantamount to tampering with a merger (not advisable!). But that doesn’t mean that lists aren’t being made — some discreetly, some not — about who’s coming and going.
On Jan. 3, Deadline announced that ICM agents JR Ringer, Brett Pacis and Kevin Hussey were leaving to go to Verve, UTA and Range Media Partners, respectively. Notably, none of those three agents were under contract at ICM, as their contracts had lapsed.
Those who are under contract at ICM are not being let out of their deals to pursue work elsewhere, as a slew of exits would be bad for optics, though many of those agents have still been taking meetings all over town, including at WME, UTA and Paradigm.
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Also on The Ankler:
The Superagent Behind Sinead O’Connor, the Obamas and Billie Eilish Josh Braun helped bring Mr. & Mrs. O an Oscar win with American Factory, and Eilish set a record in the $26 million sale of her documentary to Apple. Now Braun talks about how he pursued O’Connor for years for a documentary, and how the tragic death of her son right before Sundance almost changed everything. How he does it, and his thoughts on the new entertainment market.
In Wall St. Just Handed Netflix a Golden Opportunity to Grow Up, Entertainment Strategy Guy discussing eight ways the streaming service can emerge from a disastrous week. A few weeks before the Netflix subscriber miss, ESG also delivered four charts predicting Netflix’s challenges in Streaming’s Winner-Take-All Theory Collapses. Because the news isn’t all-Netfix all the time, he also recently weighed in on The Worst Case Scenario for Disney, now facing some of the same downward pressures afflicting its rival.
However, Is Bob Chapek Secretly the One Hollywood’s Been Waiting For? Richard Rushfield looks at the mobs forming against Disney’s still-getting-comfortable kingpin and asks, what if we’re getting it all wrong? A look at the business under Chapek, the Iger ghost that haunts the company, and how the low key, non-nonsense boss might in fact be what Disney needs (if not what they want).
The Optionist, edition two is a good one!
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