Exclusive: Veteran TV lit agent Amy Retzinger is departing Verve where she has been a partner for more than 11 years. She just confirmed her exit in a company email with the subject “New Adventures…”
In it, Retzinger revealed that she is leaving agenting and plans to focus her efforts on a plastics reclamation startup, acting on her passion about eliminating single-use plastics. She also may pursue career opportunities in hospitality, I hear. This coming summer, Retzinger and her family will be moving to Portugal where their children have been enrolled in school for next fall.
Retzinger was the first agent outside Verve’s founding trio of Bryan Besser, Adam Levine, and Bill Weinstein to join the partnership two years after the agency was launched. She added TV lit experience to Verve, whose founding partners all hailed from the feature side of lit representation, and spearheaded the agency’s television strategy.
In it, Retzinger revealed that she is leaving agenting and plans to focus her efforts on a plastics reclamation startup, acting on her passion about eliminating single-use plastics. She also may pursue career opportunities in hospitality, I hear. This coming summer, Retzinger and her family will be moving to Portugal where their children have been enrolled in school for next fall.
Retzinger was the first agent outside Verve’s founding trio of Bryan Besser, Adam Levine, and Bill Weinstein to join the partnership two years after the agency was launched. She added TV lit experience to Verve, whose founding partners all hailed from the feature side of lit representation, and spearheaded the agency’s television strategy.
- 3/11/2023
- by Nellie Andreeva
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Clock, a timely horror feature from 20th Digital Studio and Hulu Originals has dropped new images.
The film will have its World Premiere at the Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana before debuting exclusively on Hulu on April 28. The film will be available on Disney+ internationally at a later date.
Directed and written by Alexis Jacknow, Clock is the story of a woman who enlists in a clinical trial to try and fix her seemingly broken biological clock after friends, family, and society pressures her to have children. Dianna Agron leads as Ella, with Jay Ali as her husband. Melora Hardin features as the pioneering doctor managing Ella’s treatment.
Jacknow was tapped to write and direct two short films (Costume Change and the short Clock) under heavy Covid-19 restrictions in 2020 for the...
The film will have its World Premiere at the Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana before debuting exclusively on Hulu on April 28. The film will be available on Disney+ internationally at a later date.
Directed and written by Alexis Jacknow, Clock is the story of a woman who enlists in a clinical trial to try and fix her seemingly broken biological clock after friends, family, and society pressures her to have children. Dianna Agron leads as Ella, with Jay Ali as her husband. Melora Hardin features as the pioneering doctor managing Ella’s treatment.
Jacknow was tapped to write and direct two short films (Costume Change and the short Clock) under heavy Covid-19 restrictions in 2020 for the...
- 2/28/2023
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Verve has promoted Melissa Darman to partner.
Darman, who joined Verve in 2014, started her career at ICM before pivoting to the studio system to work in comedy development at ABC Network. She then moved onto Lionsgate before joining Verve, where she has continued to focus on comedy during her time as an agent on the TV literary team.
“Working at Verve continues to be rewarding on a daily basis,” Darman said in a statement. “I could not be more proud to be a part of such a forward-thinking company that cares equally about the well-being and success of both its employees and clients. I’m thrilled to be a part of the leadership that grows and strengthens the company, and our industry, every day.”
With the elevation of Darman, that brings the total number of partners at Verve to 11. Darman joins founders Bryan Besser, Adam Levine and Bill Weinstein, and...
Darman, who joined Verve in 2014, started her career at ICM before pivoting to the studio system to work in comedy development at ABC Network. She then moved onto Lionsgate before joining Verve, where she has continued to focus on comedy during her time as an agent on the TV literary team.
“Working at Verve continues to be rewarding on a daily basis,” Darman said in a statement. “I could not be more proud to be a part of such a forward-thinking company that cares equally about the well-being and success of both its employees and clients. I’m thrilled to be a part of the leadership that grows and strengthens the company, and our industry, every day.”
With the elevation of Darman, that brings the total number of partners at Verve to 11. Darman joins founders Bryan Besser, Adam Levine and Bill Weinstein, and...
- 8/12/2022
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Editor’s Note: Deadline closely covered the seismic impact that disruption, and the pandemic had on every segment of film, TV and stage, and the companies that make and distribute them. This will start a series of occasional features on how they’ve emerged from the darkness of the past two plus years.
Verve is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Two years after the agency hit the decade mark.
When the agency started by former Endeavor lit agents Bill Weinstein, Adam Levine and Bryan Besser hit the 10-year milestone, grand celebrations of any kind would have been unseemly. While Verve mustered through without any layoffs and furloughs that beset most other agencies, while it also created the first crack in the resolve of agencies when WGA successfully forced the percenteries to end packaging and affiliated production companies, the Covid pandemic made the uncorking of champagne impossible, with most of Hollywood shuttered in their homes.
Verve is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Two years after the agency hit the decade mark.
When the agency started by former Endeavor lit agents Bill Weinstein, Adam Levine and Bryan Besser hit the 10-year milestone, grand celebrations of any kind would have been unseemly. While Verve mustered through without any layoffs and furloughs that beset most other agencies, while it also created the first crack in the resolve of agencies when WGA successfully forced the percenteries to end packaging and affiliated production companies, the Covid pandemic made the uncorking of champagne impossible, with most of Hollywood shuttered in their homes.
- 6/16/2022
- by Justin Kroll
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Anne Sawyier has been promoted to an agent in Verve’s TV Literary team.
It comes after Sawyier joined the agency in 2020 from Annapurna, where she was a manager of television. She started working for both TV Lit Agent Rich Rogers and Partner Amy Retzinger before taking on her role as TV Coordinator in 2021.
It is the latest move for the agency, which recently hired former ICM agent Jr Ringer as a talent agent and last year acquired Paul Alan Smith’s New Deal Mfg. Co.
Alongside Feature Lit agent Viviane Telio, Sawyier leads the agency’s International Group meeting and initiatives with the goal to further build out the agency’s roster of clients in the United Kingdom and Europe.
Chicago-born Sawyier is a graduate of Harvard, Oxford and AFI, and got her start in the industry as an assistant at Anonymous Content before moving to Skydance TV.
It comes after Sawyier joined the agency in 2020 from Annapurna, where she was a manager of television. She started working for both TV Lit Agent Rich Rogers and Partner Amy Retzinger before taking on her role as TV Coordinator in 2021.
It is the latest move for the agency, which recently hired former ICM agent Jr Ringer as a talent agent and last year acquired Paul Alan Smith’s New Deal Mfg. Co.
Alongside Feature Lit agent Viviane Telio, Sawyier leads the agency’s International Group meeting and initiatives with the goal to further build out the agency’s roster of clients in the United Kingdom and Europe.
Chicago-born Sawyier is a graduate of Harvard, Oxford and AFI, and got her start in the industry as an assistant at Anonymous Content before moving to Skydance TV.
- 2/23/2022
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
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