Creative Artists Deal for ICM Is Set to Reshape Hollywood’s Talent Business
(nytimes.com)
LOS ANGELES — Creative Artists Agency announced Monday that it was buying its smaller rival ICM Partners for an undisclosed amount, the largest talent agency consolidation in more than a decade and one that could have significant ripple effects in the entertainment and sports worlds.
The agencies’ top executives — Bryan Lourd at CAA and Chris Silbermann at ICM — positioned the deal as a supercharging of the representation business and an opportunity for CAA to expand in both publishing and sports. ICM has a substantial books division and sports assets that include the recently acquired National Football League agency Select Sports Group and the London-based soccer agency Stellar Group.
“We realized that the timing was right for us to join forces, and to not compete against each other, to build a company with resources that could serve clients in a much broader and, hopefully, more effective way,” Mr. Lourd said in an interview. “It’s us thinking about what an agency of the future should look like.”
To some degree, consolidation among talent agencies was inevitable. As tech giants have aggressively colonized Hollywood, spending billions of dollars to build streaming services like Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video, big traditional media companies like Disney, Discovery and Warner Media have sought to compete by getting even bigger. Smaller companies — Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which sold itself to Amazon in July, and now ICM Partners — have found themselves vulnerable.
By: Nicole Sperling and Brooks Barnes
Continue Reading at nytimes.com
(katv.com)
WASHINGTON (SBG) – Movies and TV shows being filmed in California have received $330 million in tax credits, according to watchdog group Open the Books.
“Nothing rankles taxpayers more than taking taxpayer dollars and putting it in the pockets of Big Hollywood,” said Open The Books’ Adam Andrzejewski to Jan Jeffcoat on The National Desk. “Eva Longoria doesn’t need $4.4 million of our money, and neither does Reese Witherspoon with another $10 million for her film.”
The California Film Commission’s executive director told Variety that 61 projects applied for that tax credit. What does the commission look for when deciding to award those credits?
“They judge the films, not only based on merit or budget but also based on who they hire for these films. So that there are diversity counts, there are ethnicity counts and all this is reported on an annual basis,” said Andrzejewski.
By: Elissa Salamy
Continue Reading at katv.com
(katv.com)
WASHINGTON (SBG) – Movies and TV shows being filmed in California have received $330 million in tax credits, according to watchdog group Open the Books.
“Nothing rankles taxpayers more than taking taxpayer dollars and putting it in the pockets of Big Hollywood,” said Open The Books’ Adam Andrzejewski to Jan Jeffcoat on The National Desk. “Eva Longoria doesn’t need $4.4 million of our money, and neither does Reese Witherspoon with another $10 million for her film.”
The California Film Commission’s executive director told Variety that 61 projects applied for that tax credit. What does the commission look for when deciding to award those credits?
“They judge the films, not only based on merit or budget but also based on who they hire for these films. So that there are diversity counts, there are ethnicity counts and all this is reported on an annual basis,” said Andrzejewski.
By: Elissa Salamy
Continue Reading at katv.com
