Millenium Films has signed long-time agent and manager Darryl Marshak to a two-year first-look production deal, the company announced on Wednesday.
Marshak is a founder of the Marshak Zachary Co, a management and production shop that is currently working on a film adaptation of “Moving Violations: War Zones, Wheelchairs and Declarations of Independence,” a memoir by Emmy Award-winner John Hockenberry.
Prior to Marshak Zachary, Marshak created the Gold Marshak Liedtke Agency, where he helped launch the careers of actors such as Leonardo DiCaprio and James Franco.
That is also where Marshak met many of Millenium’s top executives, including Boaz Davidson, head of development and creative affairs.
“When we started the company 20 or more years ago, we worked with Darryl all the time using his talent so we developed a friendship and he became part of the family,” Davidson told TheWrap. “Later on he’d bring us material, which was usually very good.”
“It’s just natural that now that he’s producing that we work together.”
Davidson said he was particularly drawn to “Moving Violations,” which Michael Maren is adapting and Alfred Sapse is producing. Davidson, who praised the book, described it as a “humane triumph.”
The drama would stand out at Millenium, an independent studio best known for action films and thrillers, such as "The Expendables 2."
“He knows us,” Davidson said. “This kind of movie is not one of the movies we do every day. Darryl knows that and he’ll start feeding us stuff that is more our kind of movie. We trust him and we trust his taste."
Marshak is at work on a number of projects at the moment, including serving as a producer on “Let It Be,” a cinematic retelling of the 1971 Ping Pong Diplomacy incident that helped spur detente between the United States and China.
