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Once upon a time in the early 90s, Hollywood agents lived in the middle of the cultural conversation.
Although plenty of the time they were not quite either.
If you were anyone else, you were just happy to be part of the club.
We felt there was an opportunity to treat our writers and emerging directors like stars.
If we did that well, that could become the building block of the next major agency.
As a start-up, however, the agency wasnt immune to growing pains.
Sures was ultimately promoted and today serves as UTAs co-president.
Indeed, its the stuff of prestige-TV plotlines.
Over the intervening decades, the landscape of fame has dramatically shifted.
Zimmer agrees that agenting is at another inflection point.
Yet Zimmer is adamant that UTAs strategy and self-image hasnt changed all that much from its 90s glory days.
Were not so concerned with stealing clients as developing clients.
We take a stab at treat our clients like the future stars they are going to be.
Then, in rapid succession, came the cable and reality-TV booms ofthe 90s.
Now you have got all these different cable players and their demands, their appetites.
Now you have non-scripted clients, Zimmer says.
Its no longer something we all sneeze at.
Its a real business.
And then you have digitization.
At first it was as mundane as, Oh its this weird YouTube thing.
Theres a million different ways that the web shaped things, right?
To push a button and achieve global audience almost instantly, he says.
But how do you create that audience?
How do we use our celebrities and brands?
But COVID-19 brought the momentum behind Hollywood dealmaking to a standstill in the spring of 2020.
It was a humbling time, says Zimmer.
I think the CAA guys inherited an amazing company and have improved upon it tremendously.
And I think Ari has slammed together an incredible collection of assets.
We dont need them to fall apart for us to succeed, Zimmer adds.
In fact, the more they succeed, the more that success becomes a model for our success.
Looking back, the deal makes sense in the scheme of things.
