Michael Ovitz recently appeared in an article for All Things Digital, the Wall Street Journal's digital/tech blog. The article covers his interview with Netscape founder and Silicon Valley VC Marc Andreessen. An embedded video of the interview is included in the article. The video details how Andreessen's VC firm is taking a page from Michael Ovitz and the style of CAA (Creative Artists Agency, the Hollywood talent company founded by Ovitz), applying business practices to the Silicon Valley culture.
"There is no question that legendary entrepreneur Marc Andreessen is a power player in Silicon Valley. Nor that Michael Ovitz, who used to be the power player in Hollywood, is one of the people who did most to disrupt the way business was done in the entertainment industry, with his bare-knuckle approach at his groundbreaking Creative Artists Agency. So, if you put them together, as happened recently at the Sand Hill Road offices of the Andreessen Horowitz venture firm, you get what turned out to be a very interesting discussion."
Read the full article here.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Michael Ovitz - Museum of Broadcast Communications
A fairly extensive Michael Ovitz biography is featured on the official site of the Museum of Broadcast Technology. An excerpt:
"Ovitz's career at CAA was multifaceted. As talent agent for major film stars such as Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Costner, Michael Douglas, Sylvester Stallone, and Barbra Streisand, in addition to prominent directors such as Steven Spielberg, Barry Levinson, and Sydney Pollack, Ovitz was credited with putting together the major elements of hit films such as Rain Man, Cliffhanger, and Jurassic Park. But Ovitz's power and influence extended far beyond the creation of specific works of entertainment and into the very organization of the media industries in the United States and throughout the world. As a well-known broker between talent and financiers, he was hired as investment adviser for several significant industry transactions, including Sony's 1989 purchase of Columbia Pictures for $3.4 billion, the French bank Credit-Lyonnais' rescue of MGM in 1993, Matsushita's purchase of entertainment conglomerate MCA for $6.6 billion in 1990, and its subsequent sale of that organization to the Seagram Company in 1995. On another front, Ovitz and CAA shook up the advertising industry by winning Coca-Cola's global advertising account in 1991. Seeking to target fragmented television audiences with diverse and innovative commercials, CAA produced the "Always Coca-Cola" advertising campaign, which successfully popularized Coke-drinking computer animated polar bears.
Ovitz's canny strategies for winning clients and making deals are evident in his earlier work as a television "packager." Talent agencies often combine elements of a proposed program, choosing actors, script, and a director from among their stable of clients, then shopping this "package" to the networks for approval and financing. If a network accepts the package deal, the talent agency receives an overall packaging fee from the network, usually a percentage of the program's production budget and a percentage of the syndication profits. Packaging fees are more lucrative for a talent agency than individual clients' fees. In the 1970s, CAA packaged television programs such as the game show Rhyme and Reason, the Rich Little Show, and the Jackson Five Show.
To compete with other talent agencies, CAA set its packaging fee at 3%, undercutting the 5% charged by other agencies. Ovitz also developed close ties with entertainment lawyers, who brought new clients to CAA. Furthermore, Ovitz understood that good stories and scripts would attract important acting and directing talent. His cultivation of the literary agent Morton Janklow, whose clients include fiction writers Jackie Collins, Danielle Steele, and Judith Krantz, enabled CAA to package nearly 100 hours of successful television miniseries, including Rage of Angels, Princess Daisy, Mistral's Daughter, and Hollywood Wives. Recent CAA packages include Beverly Hills 90120 and The John Larroquette Show.
Under Ovitz, CAA applied similar strategies to the film industry. CAA has attracted top acting and directing talent, in part by representing successful screenwriters who produce desirable scripts, but also because CAA often "packages" film projects with client writers, actors, and directors before shopping the projects to film studios for financing and production. Despite film studio executives' accusations that CAA has driven up the cost of talent, CAA agents have had close relations with film studio executives, especially with those who rely on CAA to negotiate their own employment contracts with the studios. "
Read the full article here.
"Ovitz's career at CAA was multifaceted. As talent agent for major film stars such as Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Costner, Michael Douglas, Sylvester Stallone, and Barbra Streisand, in addition to prominent directors such as Steven Spielberg, Barry Levinson, and Sydney Pollack, Ovitz was credited with putting together the major elements of hit films such as Rain Man, Cliffhanger, and Jurassic Park. But Ovitz's power and influence extended far beyond the creation of specific works of entertainment and into the very organization of the media industries in the United States and throughout the world. As a well-known broker between talent and financiers, he was hired as investment adviser for several significant industry transactions, including Sony's 1989 purchase of Columbia Pictures for $3.4 billion, the French bank Credit-Lyonnais' rescue of MGM in 1993, Matsushita's purchase of entertainment conglomerate MCA for $6.6 billion in 1990, and its subsequent sale of that organization to the Seagram Company in 1995. On another front, Ovitz and CAA shook up the advertising industry by winning Coca-Cola's global advertising account in 1991. Seeking to target fragmented television audiences with diverse and innovative commercials, CAA produced the "Always Coca-Cola" advertising campaign, which successfully popularized Coke-drinking computer animated polar bears.
Ovitz's canny strategies for winning clients and making deals are evident in his earlier work as a television "packager." Talent agencies often combine elements of a proposed program, choosing actors, script, and a director from among their stable of clients, then shopping this "package" to the networks for approval and financing. If a network accepts the package deal, the talent agency receives an overall packaging fee from the network, usually a percentage of the program's production budget and a percentage of the syndication profits. Packaging fees are more lucrative for a talent agency than individual clients' fees. In the 1970s, CAA packaged television programs such as the game show Rhyme and Reason, the Rich Little Show, and the Jackson Five Show.
To compete with other talent agencies, CAA set its packaging fee at 3%, undercutting the 5% charged by other agencies. Ovitz also developed close ties with entertainment lawyers, who brought new clients to CAA. Furthermore, Ovitz understood that good stories and scripts would attract important acting and directing talent. His cultivation of the literary agent Morton Janklow, whose clients include fiction writers Jackie Collins, Danielle Steele, and Judith Krantz, enabled CAA to package nearly 100 hours of successful television miniseries, including Rage of Angels, Princess Daisy, Mistral's Daughter, and Hollywood Wives. Recent CAA packages include Beverly Hills 90120 and The John Larroquette Show.
Under Ovitz, CAA applied similar strategies to the film industry. CAA has attracted top acting and directing talent, in part by representing successful screenwriters who produce desirable scripts, but also because CAA often "packages" film projects with client writers, actors, and directors before shopping the projects to film studios for financing and production. Despite film studio executives' accusations that CAA has driven up the cost of talent, CAA agents have had close relations with film studio executives, especially with those who rely on CAA to negotiate their own employment contracts with the studios. "
Read the full article here.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Lindsay Lohan's $575 dress is sellout hit for designer Kimberly Ovitz
Fashion designer Kimberly Ovitz, daughter of Michael Ovitz, received "the most incredible free press she could ever hope for" when Lindsay Lohan wore the Ovitz designed "Glavis Albino" minidress to court this week.
"There's some good news and some bad news for you Lohan fans out there. Bloomingdale's, and Neiman Marcus, as well as online sellers Intermix and Shopbop, had already sold out of the dresses way before Lohan made the item a white-hot trend."
Ovitz, who got her start in fashion as a J.Crew intern at age 14, describes her line as "sexy, sophisticated and androgynous." And while she probably appreciates the buzz, Ovitz is already associated with a big Hollywood name: Dad is former Walt Disney Co. president and Creative Artists Agency founder Michael Ovitz.
Read the full article here.
"There's some good news and some bad news for you Lohan fans out there. Bloomingdale's, and Neiman Marcus, as well as online sellers Intermix and Shopbop, had already sold out of the dresses way before Lohan made the item a white-hot trend."
Ovitz, who got her start in fashion as a J.Crew intern at age 14, describes her line as "sexy, sophisticated and androgynous." And while she probably appreciates the buzz, Ovitz is already associated with a big Hollywood name: Dad is former Walt Disney Co. president and Creative Artists Agency founder Michael Ovitz.
Read the full article here.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Michael Ovitz Interview with Charlie Rose
Michael Ovitz' recent interview with Marc Andreessen brings to light his past interview with Charlie Rose entitled, 'An Hour with Michael Ovitz about the Entertainment Industry'. We've featured it here before; if you haven't seen this already, click here to watch the video in its entirety.
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