EXCLUSIVE: After months of rumors and a three-month exclusive negotiation phase, Anonymous Content is now close to a deal to take over the prolific production company automatic. There’s a twist here: Deadline reported that Anonymous is in talks for Grandview/Automatic. But The Dish hears that Grandview will not be part of the transaction and will remain a separate representative company.
The deal will be finalized early next year, sources said. The separation of Grandview and automatic is amicable, it is said. In fact, they just had a pretty enjoyable Christmas party.
Anonymous, led by CEO Dawn Olmstead, had been in talks with the partner companies since last spring. Details will come to light after the holidays, and Anonymous Content, Automatic and Grandview all declined to comment.
Grandview will continue as a separate entity. The firm has 20 managers working with more than 500 clients including Joe Kosinski, Ryan Condal, Justin Simien, Dan Trachtenberg, Hiro Murai, Molly Smith Metzler, Olivia Cooke and Adam Wingard.
Anonymous Content will strengthen its production to go hand in hand with a strong management business.
Automatic has had more than 80 films and television shows over the past eight years – including Oscar- and Emmy-winning projects la la country and Bad Education to commercial franchises such as insidious and Creepy.
The anonymous content client list includes Samuel L. Jackson, Emma Stone, Stanley Tucci, Julia Garner, Richard Madden, Joel Edgerton, John Hoffman, Bill Condon, Autumn de Wilde, Sally El Hosaini, John Hillcoat, Dave Kajganich, Nicholas Sparks and Marlon James, RJ Palacio, Elizabeth Gilbert, Emma Donoghue, and The New York Times. productions included The revenant and headlight as well as the coming Enemy, starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal. TV shows include True detective, Mr. Robot and the coming bandits of time.