2020-03-26 The Hollywood Reporter

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 55 MARCH 26, 2020

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into Tinseltown. He repped Pokémon in adapt-

ing Detective Pikachu and negotiated toy brand

Spin Master’s growing expansion into film and TV,

including a PAW Patrol animated feature. Says Black,

“That old adage of all roads lead to Rome, well, most

entertainment roads lead to Hollywood.”

Hollywood’s 2020 priority “Equality in

the workplace.”

TA LE N T

Gordon Bobb

Del Shaw

COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL

“We’re in the business of building careers, not just

doing transactions,” says Bobb, who negotiated Ava

DuVernay’s eight-figure Netflix pact after her Emmy-

winning When They See Us. Meanwhile, Pose’s Janet

Mock became the first transgender woman to lock in

a multimillion-dollar overall deal at Netflix, and Lena

Waithe landed an overall at Amazon Studios.

My biggest challenge now is “Dealing with circum-

stances outside of my control, like the WGA-ATA

fight or the coronavirus.”

TA LE N T

Leigh Brecheen

Brecheen Feldman

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW

See page 58.

LITIGATION

Andrew Brettler

Lavely & Singer

BROOKLYN LAW SCHOOL

Since the dawn of #MeToo, Brettler has been one of

the busiest attorneys in town, representing clients

including Bryan Singer, Danny Masterson and Ryan

Adams. He also recently took the reins on Chris

Brown’s defense (he’s accused of facilitating a sexual

assault). Outside of #MeToo matters, Brettler helped

extinguish the media wildfire that engulfed Kevin

Hart after his life-threatening automobile accident.

If I could eat only one food forever, it’s “Coffee.”

TA LE N T

Harold Brown

Gang Tyre

UC BERKELEY SCHOOL OF LAW

“Subject to God knows what happens with this virus,”

Brown says, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale are

taking their Back to the Future musical to the West

End and George Miller is gearing up for the latest

Mad Max film and Three Thousand Years of Longing.

He also inked Steven Spielberg’s deal for West Side

Story and Stephen King’s for HBO’s adaptation of

The Outsider.

If I could eat only one food forever, it’s “Doughnuts.

And I probably could, but it would be a short life.”

CORPORATE

Joseph Calabrese

Latham & Watkins

CORNELL LAW SCHOOL

After Parasite’s surprise Oscar success, Calabrese

closed a $275 million deal in which client Skydance

Media received an investment from the film’s studio,

CJ Entertainment, and Red Bird Capital Partners. He

also extended HFPA’s TV deal for the Golden Globes

with NBC through 2026 and advised the International

Olympic Committee on multiple matters.

Please reboot Weekend at Bernie’s

LITIGATION

Dale Cendali

Kirkland & Ellis

HARVARD LAW SCHOOL

Cendali has helped Fortnite developer Epic Games

ward off a number of copyright lawsuits from

Bobb

Brecheen

Brettler

Brown

Calabrese

Cendali

same question: “Am I going to get paid?”

The answer isn’t so simple. Events of

force majeure traditionally give studios

latitude to make decisions they can say

were motivated by the incident. “During

a force majeure, your compensation

is typically suspended. And then after

that period, which is usually about eight

weeks, the employer can terminate [the

contract] if it doesn’t look like it’s going

to go anywhere,” says attorney Linda

Lichter, whose client Niki Caro had her

film Mulan’s relea se pushed back amid

the frenzy. “If we actually get to this

stuff, which God forbid we don’t, it’s

going to be a fucking mess.”

During the 2007-08 strike, the last

time there was a major work stoppage,

studios used their newfound power to

kill certain unproductive deals, and

there’s already chatter about whether

they might do it again. “We always

knew the Writers Guild strike, should

it happen, could be the basis for stu-

dios terminating deals,” says attorney

Jamie Mandelbaum, who represents

several showrunners with overall pacts.

“Perhaps the coronavirus will provide

the studios with the same opportunity.”

For those who aren’t under overall

deals, there’s even less certainty. Say

you’re an actor on a television show that

suspended production before the season

could be finished. Do you get paid for

the episodes you didn’t shoot? Most

dealmakers agree studios wouldn’t

be obligated to pay for episodes that

weren’t actually filmed. That’s because

contractually most actors get paid for

all episodes “produced,” and studios

often define that as episodes in the can.

But just because studios aren’t obli-

gated to pay doesn’t mean they aren’t

doing so. For instance, a source says

NBC has committed to compensating

its Saturday Night Live employees for

their three weeks off. And Netflix set up

a $100 million coronavirus relief fund

for the industry’s hardest-hit workers.

However, with the chances high that

those short-term delays may become

indefinite, some are wondering just

how long studios can postpone proj-

ects without violating contracts. “If we

assume this lasts six months, clients,

especially actors, will start asking when

they can ‘get out’ of their contracts,”

notes one rep, who suggests that unions

should work with studios to clear up

the ambiguity. “But where the fuck else

are they going to find work during a

pandemic? Are there a bunch of projects

hiring actors on the moon?”

Late night hosts, including Stephen Colbert, seen here

taping his March 12 show, are performing sans audience

or filming new monologues from home.

‘Am I Going to Get Paid During the Pandemic?’

10fea_lawyers1-17_L [P]{Print}_53606986.indd 55 3/25/20 10:35 AM