Film ON AIR

Hollywood fears the release of Grand Theft Auto IV tomorrow. And they should. The somewhat controversial game is set for $1 billion in sales the first week. Yes, that’s a ‘b,’ no typo. It will instantly make GTA the biggest entertainment franchise ever.

The game does well with young males and that’s the same target audience a movie like ‘Iron Man’ has. Last year, film Executives blamed the ‘Halo 3′ launch for the relatively low opening of ‘The Heartbreak Kid’ with Ben Stiller. And with the amount of blockbusters this summer, Hollywood doesn’t seem to be waiting for another game like that to compete for their money.

In a recent Financial Times article, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello said that there’s “more interest today from Hollywood to make movies out of our games than there is interest in our industry to make games out of their movies. There’s a big reset happening now. The rate of change in this industry is massive.“

So this is why Spielberg is making games nowadays.

The agency shakeup is far from over. After Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller and Chris Rock respectively went to CAA, Endeavor and ICM, two more ‘big guys’ are getting ready to switch over. Nikki Finke was told Paul Thomas Anderson (’There Will be Blood’) “just wanted to move on. It wasn’t any one thing. He wants a change of scenery. It’s all very amicable.”

He is now reportedly going to the William Morris Agency, while John C Reilly is going to CAA.

It’s not like these people usually don’t swap agencies like cars, but the last few weeks has surprised everyone with so many major stars leaving or switching. Other than the ones mentioned above, Ashton Kutcher, Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Connelly and director Ed Solomon have jumped ship.

Looking at three of the biggest agencies in town, Endeavor was probably the biggest winner. CAA is not expected to gain nor lose. And UTA has been said to be the loser of this little spectacle.