EXCLUSIVE: Filmmaker David M. Rosenthal has inked with Verve. Rosenthal directed the recent remake of the cult 1990 Jacob’s Ladder. Vertical Entertainment took U.S. rights recently to the LD Entertainment movie and it will hit DISH in an exclusive July window before hitting theaters in August. In Rosenthal's Jacob's La…

EXCLUSIVE: Verve has signed filmmaker Takashi Doscher, the writer and director behind the Freida Pinto and Leslie Odom Jr. starring sci-fi romance film, Only, which had its world premiere at this year’s Tribeca fest. The pic centers on a couple whose future together becomes threatened when an unknown contagion breaks…

EXCLUSIVE: Manal Hammad has joined Verve as a TV literary agent, the first announced agent hire at the company since it signed the WGA’s Code of Conduct last month, making it the biggest lit agency to sign the code since it was implemented in April. Hammad comes from Abrams Artists Agency, a member of the Association…

EXCLUSIVE: Universal Pictures has paid mid- to high-six figures for Don’t Go in the Water, a Peter Gaffney spec script that has 21 Laps’ Shawn Levy and Dan Levine and Lit Entertainment’s Adam Kolbrenner producing with Adam Rodin. Script, being called a suspenseful monster movie, is the first spec deal for Verve since…

EXCLUSIVE: Leah Remini, the host and creative force behind A&E’s Emmy-winning docu series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, has signed with Verve for producing with an emphasis on unscripted programming. Remini recently left APA, which represented her in all areas. Verve signed Remini and her No Seriously…

UPDATED with WGA statement, 1:05 PM: The WGA's new agreement with the Verve talent agency "could substantially and negatively affect both writer income and writer privacy" and "should be of serious concern to agencies of all sizes and, more important, their writer clients," according to a legal analysis by Latham…

The WGA said today that the negotiations it had with Verve leading up to the agency signing the guild’s new Agency Code of Conduct "was the most substantive negotiation with an agency we've had to date." Negotiations with the Association of Talent Agents for a new franchise agreement collapsed on April 12, and the…

In the wake of Verve signing the WGA's new Code of Conduct, which bans packaging fees and agency affiliations with related production entities, the Association of Talent Agents has issued a statement about "How the WGA's Code of Conduct Hurts Agencies and Writers." The statement is similar to those the ATA has made…

UPDATED with WGA and ATA responses: Verve has signed the WGA's new Code of Conduct, the biggest win yet in the guild's campaign to "divide and conquer" the agency business. Verve is not a member of the Association of Talent Agents, but its signing makes it the biggest lit agency to sign the code so far. It also allows…

Verve is in talks with the WGA to sign the guild's new Code of Conduct. As of now, the talent and literary agency has not signed, and sources say it won’t unless certain modifications are made to the code. Numerous open points remain, and a source tells Deadline the agency is now waiting to hear whether the guild is…

EXCLUSIVE: If one wanted to encapsulate the surreal interruption of the way Hollywood dealmaking has functioned for decades, here is a good example. Universal last Friday won in competitive bidding Rubble, a Patrick Pittis-scripted spec whose premise we will keep under wraps other than to call it a contained thriller…

For a second time in three years, the talent agencies find themselves in an awkward situation heading into the May upfronts. And this time, it may result in the cancellation of most agency parties. The same time in 2017, the major agencies were planning their soirees under the threat of a WGA strike as the guild was…