UTA's Jason Burns: It's a 'Fantastic Time' for
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- United Talent Agency is the only major talent agency with a dedicated animation division, representing Brad Bird, Maggie Kang, Andrew Stanton and others, with films directed by UTA animation clients grossing more than $25 billion worldwide.
- Jason Burns, partner and co-head of MP Lit, leads UTA's animation department and personally represents Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and writer Matthew Fogel ('The Super Mario Galaxy Movie').
- Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, creators of the billion-dollar hit 'KPop Demon Hunters,' secured an exclusive multi-year writing-directing deal with Netflix across animation — a structure UTA helped negotiate with Netflix and Sony.
- The animation industry has shifted from a Disney/Pixar/DreamWorks-dominated landscape into a competitive marketplace where filmmakers operate as free agents with overall deals, first-look deals and multi-movie contracts modeled on live-action practices, Burns said.
- Burns argued animated features on average outperform live-action, drive consumer products and theme parks, and remain one of the few mediums where studios still greenlight original stories at massive budgets.
- Burns cited Phil Lord and Christopher Miller's 'Project Hail Mary' as a career milestone and pointed to Brad Bird's upcoming 'Ray Gunn' and Pixar's 'Hoppers' by Daniel Chong as auteur-driven originals thriving inside the studio system.
Why it matters: With UTA's animation clients responsible for over $25 billion in worldwide box office and securing multi-year Netflix deals once exclusive to live-action stars, animation deal-making has structurally caught up to the medium's commercial dominance — studios now compete for filmmakers rather than locking them into traditional employment contracts, shifting leverage toward creators like Kang and Appelhans who can choose where to work.
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