Greg Berlanti is making a move this holiday season, from WME (where he’s been repped for the past 15 years) to CAA. At WME he was repped by Ari Greenburg; his new team at CAA will be led by super agent Bryan Lourd.
Berlanti, whose credits include the Arrowverse suite of series for The CW and “You” for Netflix, plus movies like “Love, Simon” and the upcoming Apple movie “Project Artemis,” makes the move while attempting to extend the $400 million overall deal he signed with Warner Bros. back in 2018.
Of course, 2018 and 2022 are very different for what is now known as Warner Bros. Discovery and also very different for The CW, where Berlanti saw many of his series picked up to success. He currently has eight shows on the air at The CW, but three of them (including titans “Riverdale” and “The Flash”) are ending their runs this season as Nexstar, the new owner of The CW, looks to trim costs and increase profits.
Another question-mark is Berlanti’s relationship to DC Studios, the new unit from James Gunn and Peter Safran that is seeking to unify the DC product across all platforms, including live-action television. Previously, Berlanti’s Arrowverse didn’t have any interaction with the mainline DC Extended Universe or any other DC-based properties, although occasionally there would be the odd cameo during some crossover event (usually based on a preexisting comics property). Gunn and Safran’s plans to have a cohesive vision would run at odds with Berlanti and his fiefdom.
Berlanti has already seen one of his DC projects, “Strange Adventures,” get canceled, while another (“Green Lantern”) is seeing a complete creative reworking. Both series were meant for Warner Bros. Discovery streaming platform HBO Max.
With Berlanti seemingly moving more towards movies, it’s interesting that he is making the switch in representation.
Other A-listers who have left WME this year include Charlize Theron and Michael Bay.
Berlanti continues to be repped by Patti Felker at Felker Toczek Suddleson and Slate PR.
