THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 63 MARCH 26, 2020
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Blood Moon. Morris also brought Jordana Brewster
back into the Fast & Furious fold for F9.
We’ve hit peak content when “As long as people
are watching and subscribing, they’re going to keep
making shows.”LITIGATION
Aaron Moss
Greenberg Glusker
HARVARD LAW SCHOOL
Moss has no shortage of billable hours thanks to “bro
sports network” Barstool Sports, for which he helped
fend off a number of lawsuits from “run-of-the mill,
copyright troll stuff” to a wiretapping case from the
mayor of Somerville, Massachusetts, and a conten-
tious battle with actor Michael Rappaport. Says
Moss, “The dozen or so Barstool Sports things took
up about a third of my time in 2019.”
Please reboot Alfred Hitchcock PresentsTA LE N T
Bob Myman
Myman Greenspan
USC GOULD SCHOOL OF LAW
Client Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen is an
unmitigated hit, but the lawyer and the writer-
producer took quite a roller-coaster ride thanks
to controversial political satire The Hunt, which
was pulled from release at the eleventh hour last
fall. When the feature finally hit theaters March 13,
it met another complication: the coronavirus
pandemic. Myman’s roster also includes Angela
Lansbury, Benjamin Bratt and Laura Prepon.
My biggest challenge now is “Trying to balance
work and spending time with my grandchildren.”TA LE N T
Peter Nelson
Nelson Davis
UC HASTINGS COLLEGE OF THE LAW
Nelson negotiated a precedent-setting deal with
Disney for the acquisition of Peter Jackson’s
documentary Get Back, featuring The Beatles’ last
recording sessions and concert in 1969. He also
closed a deal for Allison Janney to star in the Netflix
movie Lou, produced by J.J. Abrams, and reps one of
the most in-demand young actors, 10-year-old Azhy
Robertson, who appears in Marriage Story, HBO’s
The Plot Against America and Ray James for Apple.
If I could eat only one food forever, it’s “Fresh crab.”TA LE N T
Jeanne Newman
Hansen Jacobson
USC GOULD SCHOOL OF LAW
Newman’s client Tracee Ellis Ross is switching gears
from Black-ish to play a singing diva in Universal’s
High Note, while Patti LuPone is doing a Netflix show
with Ryan Murphy (“It’s a special role that people will
be surprised to see her in,” Newman teases). And she
helped revive Endemol’s Extreme Makeover (HGTV).
My biggest challenge now is “Staying positive.”TA LE N T
Robert Offer
Sloane Offer
UCLA SCHOOL OF LAW
Offer’s slew of superheroes includes Robert Pattinson,
who’ll star in The Batman and Christopher Nolan’s
Te n e t, and Gal Gadot, who renegotiated her Wonder
Woman deal and secured a big payday for Netflix’sRed Notice. Benedict Cumberbatch inked a Jane
Campion indie and a new Doctor Strange pact, and
Brie Larson landed Apple’s Life Undercover.
We’ve hit peak content when “The Bachelor gets
eight hours per week on the schedule.”LITIGATION
Anthony Oncidi
Proskauer
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LAW SCHOOL
As counsel for the Recording Academy, Oncidi is
embroiled in the explosive dispute between the
Grammys organizer and former CEO Deborah Dugan,
a case that threatened to upend the music industry
awards. He’s also the point attorney for Viacom
and other studios in their exec poaching battle with
Netflix and repped CAA against UTA over a group of
defecting agents (the two sides settled last year).
My biggest challenge now is “Making Hollywood
safe from the ‘seven-year rule.’ ”TA LE N T
Jodi Peikoff
Peikoff Mahan
BENJAMIN N. CARDOZO SCHOOL OF LAW
Viewers excited to see Cynthia Erivo play Aretha
Franklin in the next season of Nat Geo’s Genius have
Peikoff to thank, in part. She also negotiated America
Ferrera’s surprise exit as a star and exec producer
of NBC’s Superstore and role as EP of Netflix’s
Gentefied, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch writer
John Cameron Mitchell’s foray into podcasting.
Hollywood’s 2020 priority “The thoughtful dialogue
around inclusion is great and now the practice needs
to catch up.”— Walking Dead co-creator Frank
Darabont and CAA — are set to go
to trial against AMC in New York,
although both sides anticipate
COVID-19-related delays.
Each side is preparing to tell
a story about the sophistication
of the other’s attorneys. “Mr.
Darabont had the best agents and
lawyers in Hollywood negotiate
his deal,” says AMC’s attorney
Orin Snyder. “Now that The
Walking Dead is a huge success, heis trying to rewrite his deal years
later through litigation.”
Darabont’s attorney Dale
Kinsella counters, “ ‘All transac-
tions’ means all transactions,”
referring to a provision in the
contracts specifying that AMC’s
transactions with affiliates had
to be fair-market. “Even if their
super-sophisticated lawyers
wanted to limit ‘all’ [to deals out-
side of cable television], that could
have been put in [the contract].”Since Darabont sued in 2013,
industry changes have boosted
the profile of this case. Netflix
showed Hollywood its future in
streaming. AT&T acquired Time
Warner, Disney gobbled up Fox
and CBS merged with Viacom.
Now, these giants are launching
Netflix competitors and licens-
ing content from subsidiaries to
wholly owned streamers. More
affiliate dealmaking means more
EPs are claiming they’re being
shortchanged of fair license fees.
In fact, O’Melveny & Myers
litigator Daniel Petrocelli says
he has billions’ worth of affiliate
transactions being challenged in
arbitration: “My list involves all
the studios and a number of very
famous properties.” It may be the
trendiest area of his practice.
Snyder resists the notion that
his case has anything to do with
streaming. While it’s true those
Walking Dead deals predatedNetflix’s success, the trial will
nevertheless test something
significant in the age of affiliate
dealmaking: How does one deter-
mine what’s “fair market”?
Darabont’s lawyers, estimating
nearly $300 million in damages,
will call experts to testify as to
how much highly rated TV shows
receive in license fees. They’ll also
argue that, more than any other
series, including Breaking Bad
and Mad Men, the zombie show
made AMC what it is today and
Darabont and his agents deserve
to share in that success.
AMC asserts that this calcula-
tion ignores the fact that when The
Walking Dead was being shopped
a decade ago, other networks
passed. “Most didn’t think a post-
apocalyptic show about zombies
would be successful,” says AMC
attorney Scott Edelman, add-
ing, “Neither AMC nor any cable
channel has ever paid the types of
license fees they are arguing this
show should have received.”The Walking Dead co-creator and director
Frank Darabont on the set of the AMC series.MymanNelsonNewmanOfferOncidiPeikoff10fea_lawyers1-17_L [P]{Print}_53606986.indd 63 3/25/20 10:40 AM