A number of agents from CAA, WME and UTA are leaving their respective agencies and joining forces with former CAA agent Peter Micelli, who is launching a new management and production company, Variation has confirmed.
CAAs Dave Bugliari, Michael Cooper, Jack Whigham, and Mick Sullivan are part of the new venture. Whigham was a co-head of the motion picture department, while Bugliari was a co-head of the motion talent department.
WME’s Rich Cook and UTA’s Susie Fox, Chelsea McKinnies, Lucinda Moorhead and Mackenzie Roussos are also on board, according to sources familiar with the situation.
The move comes in the wake of layoffs and furloughs at key agencies amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which saw 90 CAA agents and 275 support staff with pink slips all over the offices in Los Angeles around July , New York, Nashville and London. WME parent Endeavor has cut staff and UTA has trimmed salaries to deal with the economic realities of the global health crisis.
Hedge fund manager Steve Cohen is one of several major investors in Micelli’s new venture.
Micelli was recently the Entertainment Strategy Officer of Entertainment One for television, film and digital, and left the British-Canadian content company in April after two years. He had previously spent more than two decades at CAA as a TV agent, from 1995 to 2018, and joined eOne shortly after Mark Gordon took on the role of chief content officer at the company. Micelli, who focused mostly on TV packaging and household sales at eOne, was tasked with finding partnerships and potential acquisitions for the company. He left eOne less than a year after Gordon moved on and transitioned to a production deal with the company.
At CAA, Micelli had been Gordon’s agent for four years; the latter in 2018 named Micelli “an expert in building media companies to become leaders in an increasingly digital and global landscape.” Micelli is known for his enterprising approach to developing TV projects, and was an early adopter in striking original content relationships with Netflix, Amazon and other streamers.
Deadline reported first.
