In total seriousness, how out of the ordinary was the favor you did for Kevin B by looking at his work? Is that a common request you dealt with and declined?

Any examples you feel comfortable sharing?

It was the only unsolicited script I read in the entire time I worked there. It was basically the best thing that could have happened to him in the event it was actually good.

What is an agent's monthly expense account? How much do they spend on clients taking them out to dinner and what not? Do they have a certain amount they are expected to burn through or do they often only use some of it?

Well, no need to be sorry if that's your real opinion then.

I just have one question for you: are you a lawyer?

What's with the joke of everyone asking Riverman if he is a lawyer? I don't get it. Can someone explain? thanks.

Tyler D,

Riverman was kind enough to offer to read Kevin B's famous two-time award winning script. Kevin B. accepted the offer, and when Riverman posted in the thread saying that it was bad Kevin offered no rebuttal other than simply asking "Are you a lawyer?". I'm pretty sure it's hidden somewhere in the now locked monsterthread that Kevin B. started to promote his script.

Edit: Here it is: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...postcount=2599

really? didnt u want to be a lit manager or agent longterm?

I started out thinking that was what I wanted but I ended up in the talent department. I read basically every studio movie being made and most of the not obviously terrible indies, but there is really no reason to read specs in talent.

ah k..after u left BS i thought u were still on the lit path based on that exp...didnt realize u switched up to talent (way worse odds imo).
hopefully u didnt have to do a tour on a female agents desk

u going to stay in ohio for good? u ever consider going back n doing management/development?

New agents can expense about $1k/mo, senior agents/partners can get away with pretty much anything. Some agents do tons of dinners and set visits and stuff, others almost never do them. The company spends a fortune on travel for senior agents because they always go first class, always book late and always change their flights/dates/etc. I know of one mid-level agent, not even a partner, who booked a $25k plane ticket. And the board members often fly private, which is ridiculously expensive of course.

Oh man, that thing about the accountants made me laugh. I've worked on god awful lifetime movies that had like 4 accountants for the duration of the entire project and multiple weeks before and after and they were still completely ****ing swamped and forced to work overtime/6th days like mad. I can't even imagine what it's like at a studio.

To be a successful agent do you really need to have an eye for a great script? How easy is it to notice the scripts that will become great movies? How many do the artists read? Are there many examples of artists spurring lucrative jobs for something less lucrative but more interesting? Does the agent usually back it, knowing it could potentially lead to better jobs in the future?

He's an absolutely unbelievable agent. If you can get him to actually engage, there is no limit to what he can do for your career. Take Mark Wahlberg. He's a talented enough guy, but look at his career path. From Marky Mark underwear ads to legit A-lister. Beyond that, he's made him an absolutely unreal amount of money as a TV producer. Ari's background is in TV and he's probably the best TV agent ever, having made some serious **** you money.

Personality-wise, the Entourage character isn't that far off. Very charismatic, but a total spazz who is going full speed like 18 hours a day.

As an aisde, he's now reached a place Mike Ovitz found himself back in the day: having conquered traditional agenting, he's bored. Ovitz left for Disney; Ari is trying to get out in front of emerging distribution platforms to expand the company's revenue sources beyond commissioning and packaging. He spends more time on venture capital-type stuff than working for clients these days.

Depends on what you want to do, but there are very successful agents who don't have particularly good taste in my opinion. There is so much groupthink in the business, seasoned agents will read a Steve Zaillian script and swear up and down it's brilliant where had the same script been written by a nobody they would have thrown it away after 10 pages.

The art vs. commerce tradeoff does exist and the general rule is 'one for me, one for them,' meaning one money job for each artistically challenging / interesting job. Good agents, at least in talent, almost never push actors to take money jobs in bad movies. They kill careers and the client will remember the agent pushing them to do it.