"We don't want to produce, that's not our goal," says Chris Rice, co-president of Endeavor Content. The content division of talent agency WME-IMG does, however, want to disrupt the mechanics behind production as well as find business where it historically does not exist. Rice oversees the company's global TV and film…

By way of explaining Endeavor Content's aim, Co-President Graham Taylor told the INTV conference here in Jerusalem today, “All we're trying to do is make dreams come true.” He was being slightly cheeky at the close of a panel titled “Disruption in Film,” but added quite seriously, “Apathy and cynicism are the death of…

EXCLUSIVE: Preferred Content founder and CEO Kevin Iwashina has joined Endeavor Content, the division formerly known as WME Global led by co-presidents Graham Taylor and Chris Rice. Iwashina will wind down his company and join Endeavor Content as an agent focusing on non-fiction content. He will work alongside the…

WME and IMG’s film and scripted television finance and sales groups have been brought together under Endeavor Content, a label that will be steered by co-presidents and WME partners Graham Taylor and Chris Rice. The move comes a week after WME | IMG revived the Endeavor label as a holding company, bringing back the…

EXCLUSIVE: WME/IMG has closed a deal to acquire a majority interest in Ken Kao and Alex Walton's film financing/sales company Bloom. The deal is being announced internally as you read this, but the agency has confirmed it to Deadline. The agency said while it will use its resources to help grow Bloom, that company…

When the major talent agencies—CAA, WMA & Endeavor (now WME) and UTA—started indie film departments, the idea was to help big clients get their passion—some called them vanity—projects made. That seems like a million years ago. These departments have become such prolific generators that they have become the life blood…

Peter Bart and Mike Fleming Jr. worked together for two decades at Daily Variety. In this weekly column, two old friends get together and grind their axes on the movie business. FLEMING: I could start with Oscar diversity, and how that Janice Min THR interview with AMPAS’ Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Dawn Hudson about…

BREAKING: WME has minted 20 new partners into the agency fold, and those include the tireless Sundance dealmakers working under WME Global Finance & Distribution chief Graham Taylor. Mark Ankner, Liesl Copland and Alexis Garcia all have made partner. On the talent side, Esther Chang, Brandon Liebman, Doug Lucterhand…

EXCLUSIVE: Image Entertainment has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Lovely Molly, the thriller directed by Blair Witch Project co-director Eduardo Sanchez. The deal is high six figures and the plan is to release theatrically next spring. Lovely Molly made its debut in the Midnight Madness section of the 2011…

Content has acquired foreign rights on Lovely Molly, the genre film written and directed by Blair Witch Project‘s Eduardo Sanchez. A domestic distribution deal is coming. Lovely Molly made its debut in the Midnight Madness section of the Toronto Film Festival last month. The title character (Gretchen Lodge) is a…

EXCLUSIVE: A deal is near for Millennium Entertainment to acquire U.S. distribution rights to the Los Angeles Film Festival opening-night pic Bernie. I’m told that it will be the first significant grab for former Film Department co-head Mark Gill since he took the reins of Avi Lerner’s company (UPDATE: reps for the…

UPDATE: Graham Taylor, one of the top dealmakers in packaging and brokering distribution deals for independent films, gave a lively keynote speech at the Los Angeles Film Festival.  Taylor gave Martin Scorsese a run for his money in terms of the music cues he employed in his speech to make his points about the…