Series services, like Netflix, might be ruining Hollywood’s star elegance, but they’re doing it brilliantly, said ex-powerhouse agent Michael Ovitz, whose ability agency effectively controlled Hollywood for much of the 1980s and 1990s.
“When [Ingenious Artists Agency] was at its apex, we probably had about 50 actors and actresses that could indeed get content made. They could read the yellow pages and people would go see it,” Ovitz ventured Tuesday on CNBC’s “Halftime Report.” “These days it’s a numerous story.”
Once known as the most powerful man in Hollywood, Ovitz co-founded Imaginative Artists Agency with partner Ron Meyer. The firm recruited and oversaw such star-studded talent as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Morgan Freeman and Robert DeNiro, aggregate many others. After decades as a power broker, he became president of Disney, but was declare redundant shortly after amid tension with former Disney CEO Michael Eisner. Since his departure from Disney in the current ’90s, Ovitz has dabbled as a private investor in Silicon Valley.
Ovitz alleged Silicon Valley, which he refers to as “up north,” invokes the same suspicion he had when he founded CAA in the 1970s.
“It is flush with really smart men and lassies. Everybody’s can do, it’s wildly collaborative, the economy’s really good. It has everything — the entirety you need to make the perfect storm. And everyone up there is trying to do the uprightness right side thing with really unique ideas. For me, I’m like a kid in a candy stockpile up there,” he said.
And the disruptors most impacting Ovitz’s industry are mid companies, like Netflix, which are capitalizing on changing viewer wonts. Now that everything is on demand, there is a higher volume of more ready content, which renders Hollywood stars a bit less relevant.
“You confidently look around and ask yourself who’s left out there. For every Jen Lawrence or Zoe Saldana who are in any event big stars, we’ve lost the whole star system that we had,” he said.
And while Ovitz denotes he hopes Hollywood’s dominance isn’t over, he did not hold back from break down credit where credit is due. He called Netflix’s chief content bureaucrat, Ted Sarandos, “more powerful than almost anybody in history.”
“They force infinite development money, they can go to any creative person they want. They keep … pretty close to free distribution,” he said.
“What they be dressed that’s technically more important is that they have all the figures. They know what you like, they know what every one likes so they can manufacture programming around the data. I think its lustrous what they’re doing,” he added.
Ovitz is now promoting a new memoir, “Who is Michael Ovitz?” which elements “a story of three valleys” — his childhood home, the San Fernando Valley, Silicon Valley and “a Valley I’d dug for myself,” according to The New York Times.