One of Hollywood’s most prolific showrunners is switching agencies.
Greg Berlanti has signed with CAA for representation in all areas. The architect of The CW’s Arrowverse and, more recently, co-creator of Netflix’s You and producer of the feature My Policeman, is moving to CAA from WME, where he’d been for 15 years.
Berlanti had been repped for the past 15 years by WME’s Ari Greenburg and will now be with a team at CAA led by Bryan Lourd.
The news comes as Berlanti has been in the midst of negotiations with Warner Bros. Discovery to extend his $400 million overall deal, which he signed in 2018. It’s unclear if he will do so, given that his current deal was made years before the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger. That deal included bonuses for the number of series Berlanti was able to get picked up. The prolific producer, who owns the record for the most scripted originals on the air or in the works, has seen that volume take a hit following The CW’s sale to Nexstar. Berlanti Productions is behind eight series on the network, but three of them — The Flash, Stargirl and Riverdale — are ending this season, and new owner Nexstar has signaled its intentions to pursue lower-cost scripted series as it attempts to make The CW profitable.
Also of growing concern is Berlanti’s future role with DC Studios, given the studio’s new leadership and executives’ interest in better unifying both its TV and film universes à la Marvel. Berlanti, who ushered in TV’s comic book craze with The CW’s Arrowverse, has also seen his DC slate shrink to the final season of The Flash, Superman & Lois and the upcoming Gotham Knights, all for the Nexstar-controlled platform (Stargirl aired its series finale Dec. 7). He’s also reworking a Green Lantern series with a new creative direction for HBO Max, the WBD-backed streamer that previously axed Berlanti’s Strange Adventures series.
Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that Berlanti, who turned 50 this year, is looking toward his next chapter in the industry and wanted a team of agents to assist with that charge. Berlanti is known to value loyalty and had been with Greenburg and WME for the past 15 years. Still, the move to CAA happens as Berlanti has pushed further into film work with such features as Amazon’s My Policeman, starring Harry Styles, and Apple TV+’s Project Artemis, in which he’ll direct Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum. Berlanti/Schechter Films, the movie company he formed last year with longtime producing partner Sarah Schechter, has Red, White and Royal Blue in postproduction for Amazon and recently wrapped filming on Netflix’s Atlas, starring Jennifer Lopez. Berlanti/Schechter has a first-look deal with Netflix.
Sources say Berlanti’s legal team, led by Patti Felker, recently sent a letter to WME that said if the super-producer were to leave, the agency would get no commissions on a potential new overall deal, should Berlanti indeed re-up at Warner Bros. His current deal expires in 2024, but WBD CEO David Zaslav was eager to extend one of the studio’s most important deals. Should CAA close Berlanti’s new deal, commissions could top $40 million, a massive windfall for the agency that acquired ICM Partners this year.
Also of interest is that Berlanti will be repped by Lourd at CAA. Lourd also reps Ryan Murphy, giving him two of TV’s most powerful and prolific showrunners.
It’s also a loss for WME, who in recent weeks has also seen A-listers Charlize Theron and Michael Bay leave the agency.
Berlanti continues to be repped by Felker at Felker Toczek and Slate PR.
