WME Fraud Case From ‘La La Land’ Composer Takes 2023 Jury Trial Date – Update

Updated at 10:25: Get tickets now! WME to be prosecuted next year for a fraud case La La Land’Oscar-winning composer.

A Los Angeles Supreme Court judge designated May 8, 2023, this morning as the date of a court battle between Justin Horwitz and the talent agency Endeavor owned and the now-defunct Endeavor Content. The jury in the DTLA trial will almost certainly be Judge Barbara Shaper.

“Despite the experience of the WME Writers Guild, previous allegations of conflicts of interest, and the forced sale of 80 percent of Endeavor’s content in less than a year, WME will have to explain to the jury why it continued its criminal behavior and neglected Fidu. “He owes a debt of gratitude to his client, Justin Horwitz,” the songwriter’s lead attorney, Brian Friedman, told Deadline after a status conference today. “This date cannot be fixed anytime soon.”

WME agreed, but perhaps not in the way the plaintiff’s team expected.

“It’s ironic that Horwitz’s lawyer said that the hearing date ‘can’t be set soon’ when they asked for the date to be changed from May 2023 to September 2023,” a WME spokesperson said on Wednesday. “Frankly, it’s an attempt to use routine conference scheduling to reiterate the unsubstantiated claims we so strongly defend.”

Friedman and her colleague Tamar Yegiayan sued the Ari Emanuel-led units earlier this year alleging financial bait and transition, and now a CAA spokesperson has shown that Hurwitz has drastically altered the touring version of director Damien’s soundtrack from the famous 2016 film. Chazel.

When it comes to litigation, WME and Hurwitz still have other lawsuits to deal with. I understand the composer will appear on La La Land Live in Tokyo this summer.

Earlier, on the morning of January 10: Special: Violent lawsuit filed by the composer on Monday World If you want to leave it in the wrong envelope, you can leave the WME.

However, unlike the 2017 Oscar-winning film, Oscar and Grammy winner Justin Horwitz filed a lawsuit alleging breach of contract, negligence and fraud against the agency and the now-defunct Endeavor Content production team during a live film tour. The concert of a movie directed by Damien Chazelle is so much more than genius.

It’s exemplified by defamatory camera footage (surprise, surprise) by Ari Emmanuel, an IP-based lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court this morning by attorneys Brian Friedman and Tamar Yegiayan. Beginning La La Land in concert It was completely inconsistent with industry standards for talent agencies. A lawsuit resurrecting packaging demons that WME and other Tinseltown studios hoped to pardon the WGA during a court filing last year alleges Horwitz was swindled by his own agents with high fees and more. “Provide a license for the tour La La Land in concert “A deal just for you to win the round through direct competition against Horwitz” (read here).

“It was only after the Writers Guild’s push to expose the conflict of interest between talent agencies that WME rushed to hand over the license. La La Land in concert At one point at the rally, he said, “His newly created subsidiary, Endeavor Content, will seek to conceal a blatant breach of its fiduciary duties.” Hurwitz never agreed to a covert transfer to Endeavor Content, which has always been entirely owned by the same parent company.

“Hurwitz found it absurd that his own talent manager was denied the opportunity to work on a project where he was represented by his supposedly talented manager,” the lawsuit said. “As a result, the relationship between talent and the talent agency has been turned upside down.”

Or to put it more bluntly…

“This action stems from the scandalous behavior that WME sought to gain additional profit from Talent Agency’s client, renowned songwriter Justin Horwitz, by violating his ethical and fiduciary duties.”

“After relying on its agency, WME, to best its interests and maximize its potential payoff, WME cynically and systematically colluded with its client without the client’s knowledge and consent,” they continued. Lawyers at Freedman + Taitelman. . “In return, Hurwitz learned that WME had lied to him, not only stealing his income, but also lying to him.

“These allegations are baseless and WME intends to defend itself vigorously,” the agency said in a statement on Monday.

Now, with the CAA, jury advisor Hurwitz considers a wide spectrum of harm as WME and its then representative (and later Endeavor’s vice president of content) Amos Newman were repeatedly briefly replaced due to international tourism production. It convened mainly at the insistence of its representatives. The lawsuit also claims that the songwriter, whose credits include Chazelle, first man It may not be the only pocket robbery.

“To assist in this process, WME went so far as to set up a series of ‘affiliates’ to hide obvious conflicts of interest with customers and eventually acquired an ‘affiliate’ known as Endeavor Content, LLC,” the lawsuit says. Manufacturing enterprise established by a public trading company in 2017.

“This subsidiary was created to allow WME to regularly pay its customers and misuse millions of dollars from them,” the statement said. “In fact, the cover-up of this bogus Endeavor ‘affiliate’ content by repeatedly violating WME’s trusteeship was so controversial that now, under extreme pressure from the Writers Guild of America and a well-publicized deal, it’s now Extended. For sale. “

South Korean entertainment giant CJ ENM plans to acquire 80% of Endeavor Content, which is at peace with its WGA and script customers in an agreement with the parent company it announced last year. Make a small but non-negligible bet.

In this case the withdrawal doesn’t matter, at least not for the plaintiffs.

“But this cannot be the end of the matter: now is the time for WME to acknowledge the facts that are clear to all and delay returning their ill-gotten gains to their customers,” the statement said.

As for Emmanuel’s look in a suit, consider this:

Despite WME’s numerous requests, Horwitz, shocked to learn how much profit WME would make from its work without disclosing earnings to Horwitz, attempted to renegotiate with WME at a concert by LLL. After ongoing negotiations, WME and Hurwitz were unable to reach an agreement.

Finally, in February 2021, Hurwitz contacted WME director Ariel “Ari” Emmanuel to express her disappointment. Hurwitz informed Emmanuel that he wanted to open his own account and remain a client of the agency, but a conflict of interest made it impossible for both of them to do so. In response to a Horvitz poll, Emmanuel began to justify himself by falsely claiming that WME had done nothing wrong. Emmanuel (sic) later said that Horwitz would never have gotten such favorable terms in concert for LLL, as Horwitz had already taken for other live performances.

A new meeting was then scheduled between Emmanuel (sic) and Horwitz, in which Horwitz trusts and believes that his agency WME will do the right thing for both its client and its ethical and fiduciary duties. It wasn’t. After it became clear that Horwitz would no longer be willing to remain silent to cover up the wrongs of WME, Emmanuel (sic) retaliated by stating that Horwitz could no longer work with “any of my companies” and called off the meeting. With the Hurvites. The actions of Emmanuel (sic) and the fact that Horwitz’s agents were clearly not acting in the best interest of their clients left Horwitz no choice but to seek representation with another talent agency. Even smaller payments from Horwitz have been halted under WME’s remaining contract, although the gig at LLL continues to be booked around the world.

Hurwitz left WME’s rival, CAA, after those talks nearly a year ago. WME signed the franchise agreement with WGA on February 5, 2021, effectively destroying the packaging revenue funnel that all major agencies have enjoyed for years.