WME: Oscar-winning production designer and director of Maleficent, Robert Stromberg has shifted from CAA to WME for representation. Stromberg is the first production designer to win back-to-back Oscars for his work on Avatar and Alice In Wonderland. His directorial debut, Maleficent grossed over $750 million worldwide. He recently finished directing the 25-minute Virtual Reality experience for Ridley Scott’s The Martian, to be released in early 2016. He will next direct a film adaptation of the Liz Kessler bestselling children’s fantasy novel The Tail Of Emily Windsnap.
RPMedia: Sylvester Stallone has signed with a new manager, Rick Nicita who’s headquartered at RPMedia. Stallone’s agency representation remains at WME, the team that helped convince Stallone to take a gamble on Ryan Coogler’s vision for a new series of Rocky films. The film, Creed, has since grossed over $97 million and many say the feature will be nominated at this year’s Academy Awards. Stallone and Nicita previously worked together while Nicita was an agent at CAA.
WME: Stephen David Entertainment has shifted its representation from CAA to WME. The shift follows the company’s move into a major expansion into scripted television with the appointment of Dirk Hoogstra as Chief Creative Officer. The company’s credits include The Men Who Built America and The World Wars at History as well as The Making Of The Mob and the upcoming The West at AMC. Their first fully-scripted series, Sons of Liberty, airing on History, just earned a WGA Award nomination.
Elevate: Filmmaker Jake Hoffman has signed with Elevate Entertainment for representation in talent and literary. He most recently wrote, directed and produced the feature Asthma starring Krysten Ritter and Rosanna Arquette among others. His acting credits include Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf Of Wall Street and Barney’s Version alongside Paul Giamatti. He’ll next be seen in Danny Sangra’s Goldbricks In Bloom. He’s also repped by WME.
ICM: Screenwriters Samuel Franco and Evan Kilgore, whose script Mayday 109 was on this year’s Black List have signed with ICM Partners. Mayday 109 tells the story of then-Navy Lt. John F. Kennedy’s encounter with a Japanese destroyer in 1943 during World War II when he was aboard PT-109. The script has been acquired by Thunder Road with Beau Flynn producing. The pair are also developing a biopic on boxer Rocky Marciano to star Jeremy Renner.
WME: Screenwriter Chuck MacLean has shifted representation from CAA to WME. His script titled Boston Strangler, landed on the 2014 Black List and has since been set up at Warner Bros for Casey Affleck and Kevin McCormick. The story is set in the 1960s around a determined detective who puts his life and career on the line to solve the case of the Boston Strangler. He also wrote the script Mercy Seat for Fox Searchlight, which has Michael Roskam attached to direct.
ICM: Actress and model Dree Hemingway has shifted from WME to ICM Partners for representation. She recently starred in the film Starlet, an intergenerational drama that premiered at SXSW in 2012 and won the Robert Altman Award at the Indie Spirits. She most recently appeared in While We’re Young, Listen Up Philip and X/Y. She will next be seen in Love After Love, the feature debut of writer-director Russ Harbaugh. She is also known for being the daughter of Mariel Hemingway and great-granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway.