Michael Sugar

Anonymous Content

By VARIETY STAFF

Michael Sugar joined Anonymous Content three years ago and has assembled a strong list that includes directors Steven Soderbergh, Gavin Hood, Joseph Kosinski, Marc Webb, Dito Montiel, Cary Fukunaga and Michael Lander, and writers David Franzoni, Anthony Peckham, and Jack Amiel & Michael Begler. Not bad for a guy who, six years ago, ran his operation from his home.

The son of independent distribution veteran Larry Sugar, Michael found his way into the business after graduating with a law degree from Georgetown. Hoping to become a producer, he scratched out a living by signing and managing "waiters and valet parkers, people waiting for a break." Some of those early choices paid off. Hood, the award-winning "Tsotsi" director, just completed "X-Men Origins: Wolverine."

Sugar brought his client list to Anonymous and has built on it. The manager is married to Catherine Sugar, head of television business affairs at Endeavor.

GAVIN HOOD: "I've been with Michael since he worked out of his apartment and I could barely afford to live in one. He found me small acting gigs to stay alive while I wrote, and it has been fun to see both of us move up in this game together. You want someone you feel comfortable with when they are representing you in a room you're not in. He's not a hustler, something people can detect right away. He's a genuine guy, with a very smart business head on his shoulders."