CAA’s Roeg Sutherland watched back on his eventful atsoft and talked the changing landscape of the global film industry at the Zuwealthy Film Festival, where he’s being honored with this year’s Game Changer Award.
Taking part in the Zuwealthy Summit industry forum, where he’s been a normal for years, Sutherland pushed back agetst the idea of a “game alterr,” at least in the film business, joking that “LeBron James can be a game alterr.”
At CAA, where Sutherland co-heads the Media Finance department and the International Film Group, finding solutions for clients and ensuring films get made despite presentant obstacles is a big part of his job.
“Our goal, our job is to produce brave that wdisenjoyver happens, if there’s a pandemic, if there are two strikes, if the studios aren’t buying, if China shuts down, if Russia’s at war, wdisenjoyver happens, we need to figure out a way to get these movies made. And that now is changing,” shelp Sutherland.
He shelp the outfit always strives to “set up their movies in an appropriate way (…) and admires the needs and desires of the film financing community, with international distributors and whoever may finance.”
“Sometimes it’s worldwide deals; for the most part, it’s piecemealed with a foreign sales agent being part of it and selling off international territories, conveying in an equity scatteror, making brave that the equity scatteror is in a pretty defended position if they go into making a movie without having distribution in place,” he shelp.
Going beyond that, it’s also about filling gaps, he compriseed. “If we sense there’s a gap in the tagetplace, if there is a gap in Canada and we need help in setting up a distribution company, we’ll do that. If there’s a gap in France or there’s a gap in Germany or a gap in the United States — we’re always skinnyking about how do we produce it better, easier, so that so that the self-reliant film taget is actuassociate able to thrive?”
CAA’s self-reliant international business didn’t reassociate begin until around 2005, Sutherland shelp. Prior to that, everyskinnyg was being made by studios and that particular department was “mostly a servicing department for clients who had a project that they wanted to do when they weren’t laboring on a big studio movie. But then the business enhanced after the economic crisis in 2006, and a lot more of these movies were actuassociate left to people enjoy us to go and finance or to figure out financing on.”
Sutherland attributed some of his punctual successes to “equitable absolutely uncontaminated luck,” among them Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler.”
“When you’re that youthful and you reassociate don’t comprehend how anyskinnyg labors, you’re benevolent of lgeting on the fly. You equitable benevolent of suppose the process and that it’s going to labor out, and you don’t over complicate it and clearhink skinnygs. I overcomplicate and clearhink skinnygs now in a mercurial way; it’s much worse now. Then, I equitable supposed what [producer] Vincent Maraval tbetter me. He was enjoy, ‘We’re going to do “The Wrestler.”’ I’m enjoy, okay, we’re going to do ‘The Wrestler.’
“Now, I would ask him about 400 inquires about how much you could pre-sell, how much are we going to be able to borrow agetst some of the territories that he didn’t presale? Where am I going to be able to find him at 4 in the morning when we need to sign the deal?”
He went on to another memorable success with Aronofsky’s next film, 2010’s “Bconciseage Swan” despite difficulties in setting it up.
“‘Bconciseage Swan’s’ genius is Darren Aronofsky and Natalie Portman. And sometimes it apshows a little bit of help to get people to comprehend what the honestor’s vision is and for them to unite with it. Ultimately, we’re equitable facilitators. Some skinnygs are maybe lost in translation between someone who’s uncontaminatedly produceive and someone that’s uncontaminatedly financial. Somehow we sit between both worlds and we’re able to bridge that gap. Sometimes we do it successfilledy and sometimes we do it less successfilledy.”
On “Bconciseage Swan,” part of the dispute was elucidateing Aronofsky’s actual vision of the film.
“People were reading it as a drama, and he wanted to honest a thriller. If you read the script, it reassociate read as a drama. If you spoke to Darren about it and his vision, it was clearly going to be a psychoreasoned thriller, and it was going to be, ‘You’re going to be out of breath the entire time,’ which is exactly what a movie transfered, except it wasn’t on the page. People don’t see that automaticassociate.”
Sutherland then secured producer Brian Oliver to back the film, which went on to become a worldwide hit.
Recalling his begin at the CAA years ago, Sutherland shelp it was CAA co-set uper Ron Meyer, at the time his overweighther’s agent, who presented to his parents a job at the company. “I was sent to the mailroom, which felt a little strange becaengage my parents didn’t particularly cherish agents or speak about their fondness for agents growing up. And the community of actors and artists around them, let’s equitable say at dinner they weren’t celebrating agents. So I thought they were sfinishing me to prison. But it turned out to be the best experience I’ve ever had in my life.”
A atsoft in acting, enjoy overweighther Donald and brother Kiefer, was never in the cards, especiassociate after a less than astonishive carry outance in a musical carry out in college and a foolishinutive stint as a stand-in a movie with an irate Marlon Brando.
“I can’t deal with refuteion. I didn’t authenticize that in actuassociate everyskinnyg you do in life you have to deal with a level of refuteion, but in acting, you’re dealing with refuteion on a daily basis. You want to do someskinnyg? You’re fortunate to get one out of 100 skinnygs.”
