EXCLUSIVE: Ali Abbasi has signed with UTA. The filmmaker coming off The Apprentice will continue his career with the agency repping him in all areas in the US, and continues to be repped by Lark in the U.K.
Abbasi was last repped by CAA. Deadline revealed that the filmmaker got caught up in a bad moment at a Golden Globes afterparty where, as he subsequently stated in an apology, what he considered a “playful slap on the rear” of an unnamed star he considered a friend made the actor very angry. Fallout ensued.
Abbasi’s apology rang sincere – the incident shows it is best to not overindulge at these Hollywood parties, and that you can’t die of embarrassment. This has a good chance to become a teaching moment for Abbasi, and a footnote in what has so far otherwise been a stellar career for the Iranian-born filmmaker. Despite strong reaction and a standing ovation following its Cannes premiere, The Apprentice struggled before finding distribution from Briarcliff Entertainment. This after The Apprentice got hit with threats of a lawsuit by the camp of Donald Trump. Despite this, the ’70s coming of age story of wannabe real estate titan Trump under the tutelage of ruthless attorney Roy Cohn drew Oscar nominations for Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong.
That was the fourth film directed by Abbasi. The one before was Holy Spider, which also premiered at Cannes and won Best Actress for Zar Ami-Ebrahimi. His sophomore film, Border, won the Un Certain Regard Award at 2018 Cannes. He also directed the final two episodes of the first season of the acclaimed HBO series The Last of Us.
