uta Tagged Articles at Cinematical

To survive in this business you must have confidence and be resilient -- an agent told me this four years ago and I live by it each day. To survive in the film industry, resiliency will help you persevere even during the toughest of times. This advice works at any level in this business, even Hollywood's top agencies abide by it. ICM took a hard hit on Wednesday when two long-time agents Robert Newman and Matt Solo became partners at Endeavor talent.

A spokesman at ICM told Variety that the departure was a kind one, but despite this fact, they've still lost their head of motion pictures and TV lit department. The client roster that Newman created contained huge names such as Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth) and Robert Rodriguez, whose double horror feature with Quentin Tarantino has people talking and anticipating its release.

Why would an individual who has worked so long with a company choose to leave for another high profile agency position? Newman's reason was simple: he desired "a change in scenery" while Solo looked forward to reconnecting with former ICM agents and partners who left the agency before he did. Other rumors have spawned from the shift but none of which are worth repeating as they bear no fact whatsoever.

Odds and ends from Tuesday:

• Clint Eastwood's Flags of our Fathers has been selected to open the 19th Tokyo Film Festival, beginning October 21. The WWII epic is one of two films Eastwood is directing based on the famous battle for the island of Iwo Jima. Flags will be told from an American perspective, while Red Sun, Black Sand will be told from the Japanese POV. Of the 15 films screening for competition, only five were announced. They are: The Art of Crying (Peter Schonau Fog), The Exam (Pu Jian), Forgiveness (Udi Aloni) OSS 117, Cairo Nest of Spies (Michel Hazanavicius), and The Rocket (Charles Biname). Currently, no release date has been set for Red Sun. Flags of our Fathers will debut here in the States on October 20.
• Emily Blunt is saying goodbye to boring old Prada assistant and hello to super-stardom. The actress is in negotiations to star in The Great Buck Howard, alongside folks like Tom Hanks, John Malkovich and Colin Hanks. In the pic, a magician named Buck Howard (Malkovich) looks to revive his career when he takes on an assistant (Colin Hanks) fresh out of school. However, the assistant's father (Tom Hanks) isn't so crazy about his son's new job. That's right folks, real-life father and son will be playing father and son on screen for the first time. Oh joy! Can I get an 'awww' from the crowd? If Blunt signs on, she'll take on the role of Howard's self-assured publicist who is hired to promote a magic show that could potentially put our hero back on the map.
• Looks like someone doesn't want to pay the people responsible for getting him gigs. Variety reports Wesley Snipes is being sued by UTA (United Talent Agency) for over $1.49 million in commissions they claim were never paid. In 2002, the two parties apparently entered into an oral agreement in which Snipes agreed to shell out "10% on any gross sums or any other consideration" the actor received. Now, I'm no lawyer, but I can't imagine an oral agreement is as strong as, say, a signed contract. Seeing as this is ending (or beginning) with a lawsuit, I imagine Snipes has conveniently erased any and all oral agreements from his memory.