CEO on Future of Talent, Film, AI in Hollywood

Range headquarters, hidden in the back alley of a Santa Monica arts district, are defined by a literal freak flag. Draped over the top-floor railing of the cavernous open layout, the banner reads, “Let your freak flag fly.” Employees clacking away on laptops are scattered around unclaimed offices, desks and kitchen tables, humming to a rhythm familiar to any Palo Alto startup circa 2012. Except here, the folks typing away in tees and jeans represent several of the most famous people in the world. This vibe, cultivated by Range CEO Peter Micelli and the management company’s dozen other founding partners, remains paramount to Range’s success, five years into its launch. “We work very hard on the culture,” Micelli tells THR from an upstairs conference room space. “It’s the most defined I’ve ever seen.” Range client Luca Guadagnino, who designed the headquarters’ layout, puts it this way: “The physical space for Range is not just an ‘office’ space but a playground that invites everyone who comes in to spend more than just business time in it.”

Range stunned Hollywood during the height of the pandemic when a group of the town’s top managers and agents, coming over from the likes of CAA and WME, formed a new representation company inspired by rapid changes in entertainment. Clients along for the ride include Johnny Depp, Shane Gillis and Halle Berry. “I was obsessed about how social media platforms and AI were going to change our business,” Micelli says. “You could see it was going to have a big, profound effect.” Backend payment structures were collapsing. Social media was transforming the promotional and revenue equations of the business. Consolidation was ongoing, with ICM a few years out from being absorbed by CAA. “Talent deserves more options, and you need different places looking after different folks that are getting the right level of attention,” Micelli says. “New businesses are really important.”

Renowned ballet dancer Misty Copeland has appreciated the new option. She started working with Range in January as she reached a turning point, stepping down from American Ballet Theatre, where she’d built a 25-year career. “They got me thinking about how all the pieces of my world fit together — dance, storytelling, philanthropy, business — in a way that feels true to me,” she tells THR. She’s learned how to position herself for the next phase of her public life: “They’re like, ‘The way that Mariah Carey has branded and owns Christmas, you need to own ballet.’ “

Disruption inevitably meets controversy. In an active lawsuit, CAA claims that Range blurs the line between an agency and management firm, and that the partners exiting for Range forfeited their earned equity by violating noncompete clauses. Range will happily acknowledge it does things its own way: It has launched a digital influencer-creator business to meet the moment and has scaled across industries, from the formation of a film production studio to the establishment of Range Sports and a music publishing division. But as to the actual lawsuit, “It’s not something I give a lot of energy to,” Micelli says.

“I understand CAA’s point of view — they don’t like talented people to leave,” he continues. “And we have every right to start a business and create more choice.” The CEO adds that Range managers and CAA agents overlap with about 150 clients. “Human beings get to decide who represents them …and we are highly supportive and actually want clients to also have agents with us,” Micelli says. “None of it makes any sense to me. When they say, ‘You’re a secret talent agency,’ what does that mean?”

When asked if Range would ever represent a creation like controversial AI actress Tilly Norwood, Micelli doesn’t rule it out: “If it was going to help us learn about where things might be going and apply that to the rest of the people we represent, it would be worth a conversation.” He later clarifies, “Today, the answer would be no, because we don’t know the impact of it yet.”

Micelli appears ready, even eager, to talk through the most pressing issues of the day: It’s why Range exists in the first place. AI looms largest. Range is in business with Google on a few ventures, including the production initiative 100 Zeros and the commissioning program “AI on Film,” which backs shorts that explore the technology. “The genie is out of the bottle,” Micelli says. “If you think it’s not going to impact our lives, that’s slightly crazy or naive. So you pick on the spectrum where you want to sit. … I don’t believe for a second that AI will replace creators. It’ll be an efficiency tool. It’ll create greater margins and content.” Put another way: “The idea of us just sitting back and saying, ‘Oh, this is a terrible thing’ — it’s irresponsible.”

Range is now profitable, finding its focus on live events, boosted by sports and music investments that lead the growth curve. Micelli talks a lot about our current “dead scrolling” phenomenon, aiming to get younger generations to put down their phones and get out of the house. Film’s future is less clear. For starters, “It’s terrible how we’ve let the film business leave Los Angeles,” Micelli says. Then there’s Warner Bros. putting itself up for sale. “Are any of the creators we’re working with excited that there’s one less studio like Warner Bros.? No,” Micelli says. “But it’s going to be a reality. They had so much debt and [David] Zaslav did a great job of reducing it.” Micelli expects a deal to be announced in the next four to six weeks, with David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance still the frontrunner. “You love the energy Ellison is bringing to the entertainment business,” Micelli says. “He’s a cinephile. He loves movies. He wants to make these things healthy.”

Which is not so easy these days. Micelli recently heard from a former studio head who said that, 20 years ago, “We could make the worst movie ever and we were going to make some money on it. … For three years in a row, we made money on everything we made.” The margins are jarringly reduced now. Says Micelli: “The theaters need to look at the Sphere: How do you create a more immersive experience in the theaters?”

Range’s fledgling studio has delivered such hits as Longlegs and A Complete Unknown, bolstered by innovative digital marketing strategies. Range was brought in late to the Immaculate release campaign, last year’s Sydney Sweeney horror vehicle set at an Italian convent, with distributor Neon worried about its opening weekend. Range got right on it: The team bought nun costumes, sent them to sororities around the U.S. and cut together fan footage that Sweeney reposted on socials. “It helped the second weekend enormously,” Micelli says.

Or take Conclave. Before its release, director Edward Berger called up his reps to ask about their social media experience. “Every election is won that way, and we don’t use it enough in movies,” Berger says. Range said: “You’ve come to the right place.” They tapped into Conclave‘s “mean girls” potential, as Micelli calls it. “We turned Conclave into a bitchy soap opera, and it drove a Gen Z audience.” That, in turn, turned the Oscar-winning Conclave into one of the year’s few true box office success stories for adult originals.

It’s evidence of the nimbleness of a company energized by media’s challenges. “Let’s build a company that is ready to deal with all that and protect artists, creators, athletes, musicians, influencer creators,” Micelli says. “Five years later, you’re like, ‘How did we have that delusional confidence to do that in 2020 — in the middle of a pandemic?’ ” I ask if that “delusional” phrasing applies today, and an assured Micelli replies: “Not anymore.”

This story appeared in the Nov. 19 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.