An elite group of large talent agencies have earned reputations as gatekeepers to success in the film and television industries. Non-client writers and producers attempt to share in that success by becoming agency clients or by having their ideas, presentations and screenplays accepted by the agencies for their existing clients. For example, an agency might receive an idea or draft screenplay from a non-client writer, bring it to a client’s attention, and then negotiate the deal for that client to acquire rights. The agencies’ practice of “packaging” a combination of services by writers, directors, actors, and producers for a single film or television project, when offering that project to a studio or network, is prevalent and has enhanced their gatekeeping role.
When major talent agencies appear in the fact patterns of idea theft and copyright infringement claims, it’s usually to establish how the plaintiff’s property got into the hands of an agency client, such as the producer or writer of the infringing production. But in Jordan-Benel v. Universal City Studios,1 United Talent Agency (UTA), which is one of the elite, was named not only as a conduit but also as a defendant, accused of breaching an implied-in-fact contract with the plaintiff writer, as well as contributory copyright infringement of the plaintiff’s screenplay, which UTA had rejected.
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