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Author:
Marion Rosenberg
Executive producer, producer, representative, agent and manager, Marion recently added O.B.E. to her impressive list of accomplishments.
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Marion Rosenberg graduated from the Universities of Manchester, England and Grenoble, France. She started her show business career in the Bands and Acts Department of MCA. From 1960 to 1976 she worked in production on both sides of the Atlantic, on such films as I COULD GO ON SINGING (Judy Garland), THE BEST MAN (Henry Fonda), WHERE EAGLES DARE (Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood) and THE MISSOURI BREAKS (Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson). In 1976 she became head of EMI Films in Los Angeles, and set up such productions as THE DRIVER, CONVOY and THE DEERHUNTER, on which she served as Associate Producer.
In 1979 she became Vice President of The Lantz Office, a talent and literary agency, whose clients included Bette Davis, Milos Forman, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter Shaffer, Daryl Hannah, Theresa Russell, Liv Ullmann and Nastassja Kinski. In 1989 she formed The Marion Rosenberg Office, representing such clients as Paul Verhoeven, Jeroen Krabbe, Claire Bloom, LeVar Burton, Jane-Howard Hammerstein, Norman Lloyd, and Martin Bell. In 1999, she transferred her company from agency to personal management and production. Clients include, in addition to the above, novelist Allan Folsom, director Waris Hussein, and the literary estate of Agatha Christie. She served as Executive Producer on Columbia's HOLLOW MAN and recently produced an updated version of Agatha Christie's MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS for CBS television. She is the Executive Producer of REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, directed by Sam Mendes for Dreamworks.
Marion co-founded BAFTA LA, and was its Co-Chair from 1987 to 1995. She serves as Chair of the UK Film Council US Advisory Board. She has served on the Board of the Association of Talent Agents, and is a member of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, and also serves on the Board of the North American Foundation for the University of Manchester (NAFUM). She is also a member of the Board of Women In Film and of the Board of Trustees of the Women In Film Foundation. She received the Britannicus Award from the British-American Chamber of Commerce in 1996. In 2001, Queen Elizabeth II made her an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) for services to the British Film Industry.
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AGENTS AND MANAGERS
Agents and managers: who needs them? Well, if you want to be in "the business" the chances are, you do. Unless you are one yourself.
Terence and Plautus probably didn't have an agent, nor did Shakespeare, and it's unlikely that Sarah Bernhardt found herself on a list of ten other beauties vying for the same role in Racine's new hot drama. Racine probably didn't have an agent, either.
So why do we need them today?
The film business was created from whole cloth in the early part of the century by men and women who had no idea where it might go, but they knew they were creating something of moment that could bring them lots of money and lots of glory. However, the bricks and mortar of which their studios were constructed were of no use without talent with which to inhabit them. Thus the newly minted studio moguls "bought" the talent. They found writers, directors, actors, technicians and put them under contract. They owned them. They groomed them. And they abused them.
Along came the keepers of the talent. Sure, there had been "bookers" in vaudeville and theatre for years, but now what the industry needed was an extra element to protect the talent from the studio - to negotiate deals, help with financial disputes and make creative decisions.
As studio contracts became extinct, the studios found they had to go through the agents in order to hire talent. And over the years, the agencies developed more and more power. Smaller agencies merged with larger agencies, and larger agencies merged with other larger agencies. So it might be said that, as we look at the business today, the agents are as powerful - perhaps even more powerful - than the studios.
And what about managers? In the early days, they simply didn't exist. They entered the movie business primarily through the music business, and today have taken on a new and different role. Some music managers were legends: Colonel Tom Parker managed Elvis Presley's career from day one; Brian Epstein took the Beatles and turned them into a behemoth; forty years ago, you couldn't say the name Johnny Mathis without mentioning Helen Noga in the same breath.
As the agencies grew in size, it seemed that the talent was missing a vital element: personal attention. How could an agent with twenty-five 25 year-old blondes on his list of clients possibly give each one of them personal attention? So along came the managers. Over the years, their job has been to act as intermediary with the agency; to fashion careers; to give advice; sometimes to pick up the dry cleaning. But most importantly, the work they do with their clients gives the agent more space to find the work and make the deals.
So what's the practical difference between agents and managers? Here goes:
Agents are licensed by the State and franchised by the Guilds (SAG, WGA, DGA, AFTRA etc.). Their income derives from a 10% cut of the client's fee. They are authorized to seek work for their clients and to negotiate deals. (The exception comes in television packaging, where the agency can negotiate a "piece of the action" for themselves if they put together enough elements in a television show).
Managers are prohibited by law to seek work for their clients and to negotiate deals. There is no limit on the amount of commission they can take from their clients, though most now take 10%, just as the agents do. Some, however, take much more than that - legally, because managers are not regulated.
In a grown-up world, agents and managers should work hand in hand. After all, they have a mutual interest in seeing their clients work: if the client doesn't work, they don't get paid. Simple as that.
So how do you get an agent? Or a manager? And which comes first? Well, that's a subject for another time - but if you think there's a magic formula, think again. Like everything else in the movie business, it's all done with smoke and mirrors.
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