The Circuit

by Tatiana Siegel
Barry Levinson's “What Just Happened?” is viewed as a contender for The Big Sale O' Sundance. But who's doing the selling?

Both Cinetic Media and CAA claim to be handling sales on the film, a sort-of adaptation of Art Linson's eponymous memoir that stars Bruce Willis, Stanley Tucci, Catherine Keener and Robert De Niro (pictured) as part of an ensemble cast.

CAA -- which reps Tucci and De Niro, as well as costars Sean Penn and John Turturro -- lists the title among its slate of 16 Sundance films and describes Cinetic as the project’s co-representative.

John Sloss's Cinetic, meanwhile, doesn’t acknowledge CAA as having anything to do with the film. Specifically, a Cinetic spokesperson said Cinetic is the sole sales agent.

Why the bad blood? Well, let's see: In October, Dan Steinman left Cinetic to join CAA's indie finance department. One month before that, CAA lit agent Bart Walker left CAA to join Sloss. And two years ago, Sloss' longtime staffer (and later, partner) Micah Green left Cinetic to join CAA.

"What Just Happened?" has its world premiere Jan 19.

(Anne Thompson contributed to this report.)