June
18Stars Get Their Share of Indian Coin
Aside from DreamWorks, a number of top stars including Brad Pitt, Jim Carrey and George Clooney also are benefiting from the Indian largesse. The stars, along with filmmakers like Jay Roach and Chris Columbus, quietly closed financing deals this week under which Reliance (the company that hooked up with DreamWorks) will fund development slates for stars and star filmmakers.
Engineered by CAA, the deal provides renewable funds of $1.5 million per star that will be used to develop scripts. The projects then will be shopped to the studios with Reliance having the right to put up 50% of the production funding on each project.
The deals are important for CAA as well as for the stars. As the studios resist expansive gross participation, agents have been having a tough time carving deals with the majors. With fully developed material and half the funding, CAA is in a far stronger position to make the deals it has coveted in the past and counter the studios’ belt-tightening.
Engineered by CAA, the deal provides renewable funds of $1.5 million per star that will be used to develop scripts. The projects then will be shopped to the studios with Reliance having the right to put up 50% of the production funding on each project.
The deals are important for CAA as well as for the stars. As the studios resist expansive gross participation, agents have been having a tough time carving deals with the majors. With fully developed material and half the funding, CAA is in a far stronger position to make the deals it has coveted in the past and counter the studios’ belt-tightening.

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