Bryan Lourd speaks onstage throughout the Lincoln Center American Songbook Gala honoring Bonnie Hammer at Broadway Theatre on January 29, 2020 in New York City.
Slaven Vlasic | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
After surprising the company world final 12 months with the information Discovery Communications would merge with WarnerMedia, incoming Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav had a mission: study as a lot about Hollywood as attainable and select the proper leaders to assist him run the mixed firm.
Zaslav begun a year-long quest to tell his choice making. He reached out to dozens of Hollywood’s elite, together with ex-Disney CEO Bob Iger, former WarnerMedia CEO Bob Daley, former chairman of Walt Disney Studios Alan Horn, Endeavor Group Holdings CEO Ari Emanuel, and Creative Artists Agency co-chairman Bryan Lourd.
Lourd, 61, is not a family identify, however he wields a surprising quantity of affect in Hollywood. He has helped run CAA, one of many two largest world expertise companies, since 1995. Lourd’s Hollywood shoppers aren’t simply A-listers, they’re A+-listers: Brad Pitt. George Clooney. Scarlett Johansson. Octavia Spencer. Alejandro González Iñárritu. Lorne Michaels. The listing goes on and on.
While Zaslav solicited Lourd’s recommendation about whom to rent for Warner Bros. Discovery, he floated an thought by him: Would Lourd think about giving up his job at CAA to come back run the famed Warner Bros. studio?
The Lourd of Hollywood
Superagent Bryan Lourd is a pivotal dealmaker and consigliere to CEOs in a time of nice upheaval for Hollywood.
The greatest executives in Hollywood get pleasure from working with Lourd, at the same time as he wins profitable offers for his star-studded listing of shoppers, together with George Clooney and Brad Pitt.
Lourd has performed main roles in latest offers involving Apple, which has expanded into the leisure enterprise, and Disney, which has turn out to be a significant participant in streaming.
“He’ll let you know to go to Hell so properly that you will ask for instructions,” stated one studio govt.
Agents have made comparable profession strikes earlier than. In 1995, Universal precursor MCA employed CAA co-founder Ron Meyer to run its operations. Weeks later, Disney employed one other CAA co-founder, Michael Ovitz, to be the corporate’s president after which CEO-Michael Eisner’s No. 2.
Ironically, these hires, together with third co-founder Bill Haber leaving in the identical six-week interval to run the Save the Children Federation, have been what catapulted Lourd into working CAA, a part of a bunch of so-called Young Turks who took over in 1995.
Lourd heard Zaslav’s pitch however by no means severely thought of leaving CAA, in keeping with individuals conversant in the matter who requested to not communicate as a result of the discussions have been non-public. At the time, Zaslav was contemplating Michael DeLuca, who not too long ago departed MGM as its movement image chairman when the corporate offered to Amazon, to run Warner’s DC Comics movie and TV division. Lourd finally really helpful Zaslav rent DeLuca and fellow MGM govt Pam Abdy to run the Warner Bros. studio.
In June, Zaslav listened. He employed DeLuca and Abdy as co-chairs and CEOs of Warner Bros Pictures Group. The DC job stays unfilled.
It’s not arduous to know why Lourd selected to maintain his job.
A relentless in a time of upheaval
The leisure trade is in an “age of nice anxiousness,” Iger stated earlier this month, “as a result of that is an period of nice transformation.” The greatest world media corporations are consolidating and remodeling their companies to revolve round streaming video. Technology giants Apple and Amazon have turn out to be energetic, deep-pocketed opponents. A brand new technology has taken over: The CEOs of Disney, NBCUniversal, WarnerMedia and CBS have all turned over previously 4 years.
On prime of that, traders have soured on streaming video chief Netflix, driving shares down about 60% this 12 months. That’s giving media leaders much more agita as an existential query hangs over the trade: Have one of the best days in media and leisure handed us by?
That has triggered company leaders to lean on Lourd greater than ever earlier than, in keeping with greater than a dozen media executives interviewed by CNBC. Zaslav calls him “probably the final true Hollywood star.” An old style expertise agent who loves discussing outdated films and would not thoughts stating the failings in his personal shoppers’ work, Lourd has turn out to be arguably probably the most highly effective particular person in Hollywood. He’s a “clever consigliere,” within the phrases of ex-HBO chief Richard Plepler, to almost each main firm within the leisure trade.
Whether it is advising Zaslav on whom to rent at Warner Bros., or convincing Apple TV+ to outspend everybody on his shoppers’ future tasks, or advising corporations on potential board members, Lourd has turn out to be a man-behind-the-curtain determine who stands out not just for his energy but additionally for his lack of public persona.
“He’s one of the highly effective individuals within the historical past of Hollywood,” stated Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos. “But you’d by no means understand him to be highly effective.”
Lourd declined to take part on this story.
This is not ‘Entourage’
“Trustworthy,” “constant,” “supportive,” “very good” and “nearly quiet” aren’t phrases usually related to Hollywood illustration — an trade many affiliate with Plepler’s outdated HBO present “Entourage.” That sequence options superagent character Ari Gold, who’s performed by actor Jeremy Piven and loosely based mostly on the brash, in-your-face Emanuel.
But these phrases of endearment are how 5 prime showbiz executives – Iger, Paramount Pictures head Brian Robbins, Starz CEO Jeff Hirsch, NBCUniversal chief Jeff Shell and Zaslav, respectively – describe Lourd.
“He’s distinctive,” stated Iger. “He’s a statesman in an trade outlined by superagents who rose to positions of energy by being intimidating. He’s trustworthy. He’ll say issues like, ‘Yeah, that would have higher.’ He brings individuals collectively and takes positions that individuals impress round.”
Ari Emanuel speaks onstage throughout the 2017 LACMA Art + Film Gala Honoring Mark Bradford and George Lucas introduced by Gucci at LACMA on November 4, 2017 in Los Angeles, California.
Stefanie Keenan | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images
While Emanuel has turn out to be well-known for brief conversations and one-word e-mail responses, one govt after one other famous Lourd at all times appears to have time for longer discussions about technique, problem-solving and checking in on private lives.
“Bryan by no means feels rushed,” stated Apple TV+ co-head Zack Van Amburg. “He’s able to have as lengthy of a dialog because it takes. That’s a brilliant talent, as mundane as that will appear.”
Emanuel’s job additionally now not mirrors Lourd’s. Emanuel has turn out to be a public firm CEO, rising Endeavor first with quite a lot of company acquisitions after which shopping for well-liked skilled mixed-martial arts league UFC. The purchases have turned Endeavor into an $10 billion firm.
Lourd’s persona is “good counter positioning” to Emanuel, stated Sarandos. Lourd and his co-chairmen have stored CAA non-public, not too long ago doubling down on the enterprise with an acquisition of expertise company ICM.
“I do not assume it is by chance,” stated Sarandos. “It’s two very completely different types at play.”
Emanuel declined to remark for this story.
Born on the Bayou
Lourd has been a mainstay in Hollywood for many years regardless of rising up in New Iberia, Louisiana (inhabitants 28,143), a bit greater than a two-hour drive west from New Orleans.
After graduating from the University of Southern California as a double main in worldwide relations and journalism, Lourd started considering of turning into an agent after studying a New Yorker journal article on the Hollywood illustration trade, in keeping with a CAA spokesperson.
Lourd joined William Morris Agency in 1983, actually working his manner up from the mailroom to agent. He left William Morris to hitch CAA in 1988. By the time he was serving to to run CAA in 1995, Lourd was already representing Woody Harrelson, Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, amongst others.
Lourd’s obsession with Hollywood bled into his private life. He dated actress Carrie Fisher from 1991 to 1994. The two had a daughter, Billie, who can also be an actress. Lourd later married longtime boyfriend Bruce Bozzi, who labored as govt vp of the Palm Restaurant Group for many years, together with working its L.A. hotspot for leisure trade stars and moguls. Lourd shares a second daughter, Ava, with Bozzi. She was born in 2007.
Sure, he is good, however he is nonetheless an agent
Lourd is the quintessential behind-the-scenes maestro, stated Zaslav, with aspirations that reach past Hollywood.
Lourd not too long ago held a cocktail party at his residence for Vice President Kamala Harris, after strongly advocating on her behalf behind the scenes to be Joe Biden’s working mate, in keeping with individuals conversant in the matter. He’s on quite a lot of charitable boards, together with New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and two foundations developed by his shoppers — the Clooney Foundation for Justice and Sean Penn’s J/P Haitian Relief Organization.
When Plepler determined he would depart HBO in early 2019, Lourd was considered one of a really small handful of individuals with which he shared his choice weeks earlier than he made it public or advised his then-boss, AT&T CEO John Stankey.
“He’s an ally you possibly can belief in a world that may be purely transactional,” Plepler stated.
Still, regardless of his appeal, Lourd is an agent. His main position is to extract cash for his shoppers. That’s not totally misplaced on Zaslav.
David Zaslav, President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery talks to the media as he arrives on the Sun Valley Resort for the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference on July 05, 2022 in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images
“He’s each charming and sensitively considerate, however on the identical time, he is usually a actual killer shark,” stated Zaslav. “But not like a shark, the place you are feeling the enamel, you dangle up the cellphone feeling good, earlier than every week or two later, whenever you understand you have spent much more than you thought you have been going to spend. But by some means, you do not really feel unhealthy about it, and you’re feeling he’ll make it as much as you on the subsequent one.”
Or, as Lionsgate Vice Chairman Michael Burns stated: “He’ll let you know to go to Hell so properly that you will ask for instructions.”
Not-so-mysterious methods
Lourd’s arms are on almost each a part of the enterprise of leisure. That’s a part of why Zaslav thought of him to guide the Warner Bros. studio.
A typical agent has an inventory of shoppers and works to get these individuals as a lot cash as attainable. But Lourd’s shoppers are such bankable stars that it is equally necessary for Hollywood executives to be pleasant with him as it’s helpful for Lourd and CAA. Of all of the individuals CNBC spoke with for this story, not one had a single vital factor to say about Lourd, apart from blaming him for ballooning expertise prices. It’s a testomony to his pure character – a number of executives weren’t as variety about Emanuel – however it could additionally communicate to Lourd’s energy.
While it appears random to outsiders how or why sure movies or TV sequence find yourself on specific streaming providers, it begins to make extra sense when seen by the lens of Lourd.
Step 1: CEOs ask him for recommendation on whom to rent due to his mixture of trustworthiness and data of the trade.Step 2: Those executives, lots of whom can not less than partially thank Lourd for his or her jobs and excessive salaries, come to him to workers tasks.Step 3: Lourd will get prime greenback for his shoppers by offers signed by those self same executives.Step 4: Those tasks ship billions in income for executives.*
Step 4 comes with an asterisk, as a result of solely a few of Lourd’s tasks ship. Not each film is successful, even with Lourd’s roster of stars. But his affect is just rising because the variety of surefire stars dwindle.
This 12 months, Lourd satisfied Apple TV+ to pay greater than $200 million for a Formula 1-themed film starring Brad Pitt that did not have a script. Lourd’s asking value was so outrageous to Warner Bros. Discovery that some executives scoffed on the pitch, privately calling it frothy and “bells and whistles” with no certainty it may very well be a tentpole franchise, in keeping with individuals conversant in the matter.
Apple TV+’s Van Amburg and co-head Jamie Erlicht have been additionally not sure of Lourd’s pitch, however they knew the film can be written and made by the group that did “Top Gun: Maverick” — director Joseph Kosinski, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and screenwriter Ehren Kruger. The solely drawback was “Top Gun: Maverick” had but to hit theaters on the time of the talks.
Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick”
Source: Paramount
So the Apple group obtained permission to display the movie early. After watching it, they walked away assured. “Top Gun: Maverick” turned one of many highest grossing field workplace films of all time, surpassing $1 billion globally. The Apple deal additionally consists of unprecedented income sharing for key expertise, in keeping with an individual conversant in the matter. Lourd crafted a contract permitting Pitt, Bruckheimer and different CAA shoppers to take part in quite a lot of future income streams that will set a brand new commonplace for the way main expertise is paid for streaming films, the particular person stated.
Apple TV+ will likely be counting on Lourd and his shoppers to ship on a number of different big-budget tasks, together with a yet-to-be-titled thriller starring Pitt and Clooney, and “Project Artemis,” a interval romantic comedy starring CAA shoppers Channing Tatum and Johansson, which price Apple a reported $100 million.
The trade’s altering dynamics, and easy methods to pay film stars as extra viewing shifts away from the field workplace and towards streaming, could make negotiating with Lourd difficult even because it seems like a partnership, Van Amburg stated.
“Bryan enjoys the position of being the final word diplomat,” Van Amburg stated. “But I do not assume we now have underpaid for something we have ever accomplished with him.”
Standing up for ScarJo
Lourd flexed his muscle tissue final 12 months in a transfer that caught trade executives off guard as a result of it put him in a uncommon public adversarial position to a significant Hollywood govt.
Johansson sued Disney for concurrently releasing “Black Widow” on Disney+ on the identical time it was launched in theaters. She claimed her wage was based mostly on an unique theatrical launch for the movie.
Disney shot again on the lawsuit with a public assertion, outing how a lot Johansson had already made on the film ($20 million) and blaming her for being callous to trade modifications round Covid-19.
Lourd felt Disney’s assertion was each misogynistic and offensive not solely to Johansson however to all of his shoppers, in keeping with individuals conversant in the matter. That prompted him to fireplace again a stern response at Disney and its comparatively new CEO, Bob Chapek, who had taken over for Iger the earlier 12 months.
“Disney’s direct assault on her character and all else they implied is beneath the corporate that many people within the inventive neighborhood have labored with efficiently for many years,” Lourd stated in a press release on the time. “They have shamelessly and falsely accused Ms. Johansson of being insensitive to the worldwide COVID pandemic, in an try and make her look like somebody they and I do know she is not.”
Disney ultimately settled the Johansson go well with, giving Johansson greater than $40 million, in keeping with Deadline. Chapek stated he and Lourd have put the incident behind them and proceed to have a “working dialogue” that goes nicely past particular offers.
“[We talk] concerning the trade at massive and the way it’s all evolving,” stated Chapek. “It’s a relationship I worth. Our trade is fortunate to have him.”
This is the way in which
Navigating altering trade dynamics has pushed Lourd to get inventive with a number of offers to fulfill the wants of each corporations and shoppers.
When Disney signed a cope with director Jon Favreau in 2018 to govt produce and write Star Wars sequence “The Mandalorian,” Lourd labored with Disney’s then-head of streaming, Kevin Mayer, to get Favreau a novel deal of money and Disney inventory. The considering behind the contract was “The Mandalorian” would result in a increase in Disney+ subscribers, and Favreau needed to have the ability to take part within the potential upside. Mayer and Lourd determined one of the best proxy for Disney+ efficiency was Disney inventory, understanding the corporate’s shares would largely commerce on the efficiency of the flagship streaming service.
Temuera Morrison stars as Boba Fett in “The Mandalorian.”
Source: Disney
That turned out to be correct. Disney shares boomed throughout the pandemic, even with theme parks closed, as a result of Disney+ subscribers grew by leaps and bounds every quarter. Favreau signed his cope with Disney shares round $90. By February 2021, they’d doubled to greater than $180 per share. They’ve since come again down amid broader market declines, with Disney at slightly below $100 per share as of Friday’s shut.
Disney+ ended its fiscal third quarter with greater than 152 million world subscribers.
“He helps individuals with company-level strategic selections,” Mayer, who has since based the media funding agency Candle Media, stated about Lourd. “He’s an excellent agent, however he transcends that.”
Shell, of NBCUniversal, and movie producer Jason Blum even have Lourd to thank on a extremely uncommon so-called first-look deal struck in 2014 that is turned out to be “wildly profitable” for each events, Blum stated.
Instead of NBCUniversal paying Blum charges for his movies, which have included 2017’s “Get Out” and 2018’s “Halloween,” each of which grossed over $250 million worldwide on budgets of $10 million or much less, Blum needed to construct fairness in his personal manufacturing firm, Blumhouse. Lourd architected a cope with then-Universal Pictures Chairman Donna Langley through which NBCUniversal took a non-controlling fairness stake in Blumhouse, with Blum’s charges going again into the corporate relatively than into his checking account.
At first, Shell, who on the time ran Universal, was skeptical of the concept. But Lourd crafted an advanced 10-year contract, giving the corporate quite a lot of community and cable tv reveals, digital properties, and, in fact, low-budget horror films.
Shell echoed sentiments from Sarandos, Van Amburg, Starz’s Hirsch and Zaslav that conversations with Lourd ceaselessly go nicely past expertise offers, spanning topics from potential hires to the metaverse to how reside sports activities needs to be built-in in streaming video.
“Bryan is an issue solver,” Shell stated. “He’s the closest factor within the trade to the age-old superagent of yesteryear.”
Blum summed it up extra succinctly.
“I do not see him as an agent,” Blum stated. “He’s a Hollywood govt.”
WATCH: Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel breaks down the media and leisure panorama.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the father or mother firm of CNBC.