Michael Romersa, president of Stoney Road Productions—the parent to several commercial production houses (i.e. bicoastal Bedford Falls, Reactor Films and M-80 Films; Santa Monica-headquartered MPH and Message)—has formed a partnership with personal manager Beth Cannon to create a talent management company, Envision Entertainment. The new Santa Monica-based venture, which has access to Stoney Road’s production resources, represents a mix of directors, writers and actors for feature, TV, new media and other projects.
Among the Stoney Road spot shop directors represented by Envision for longform are Bedford Falls’ Kevin Donovan and Boris Damast, and Message’s Robert Black. Donovan is in final negotiations for a movie, according to Romersa. Black recently helmed two episodes of Once and Again for Bedford Falls’ founders Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz. Damast just finished a comedy feature—Pros and Cons, written by and starring actor/comedian Larry Miller—and is in the process of helming a TV series pilot.
From her former management company, Cannon brings to the Envision fold such actors as Gillian Anderson, Scott Wolf, Tim Matheson, Alan Ruck, Ally Walker, Kylie Bax, Jennifer Aspen and Stephen Collins.
Ironically, the Envision moniker is what brought Romersa and Cannon together in the first place. In early ’98, Stoney Road launched a talent management company called Envision (SHOOT, 2/27/98, p. 1). Unbeknownst to Romersa at the time, Cannon was also operating a talent management firm under the Envision banner. The shared name led to the inevitable legal jockeying—until lawyers and financial representatives from both sides saw the potential synergies that could be realized by combining the entities.
"Beth’s legal and financial people were friendly with mine, and out of that, talks began and a partnership was born," related Romersa. "She was looking for a production arm but didn’t have the facilities for that. And she wanted a literary department. We had both those elements in place, while she had what we needed—a depth of talent management expertise and a roster of actors she was continuing to build on."
Cannon also brings to the new Envision a couple of talent managers, Connie Freiberg and Reid Strathearn. Coming over from Romersa’s previous talent management arm is Doug Hylton, whose primary focus is literary representation. Additions to the literary team will be made shortly.
"We now have in place a company that can package projects—meaning we’re in a position to create and find opportunities in features, TV and other media for those [Stoney Road] commercial directors who care to tap into our resources," said Romersa. "We’re able to serve our Envision talent in terms of their personal career management and production needs."
Cannon began her talent management career at the William Morris Agency in both New York and Los Angeles. While there, she helped guide the careers of Denzel Washington, Drew Barrymore, Jaclyn Smith and Candice Bergen, among others. Cannon later became the president of Jonathan Krane’s now defunct MCEG management company, with a roster that included John Travolta, Ellen DeGeneres, Teri Garr, Ricki Lake and Sandra Bernhard. Cannon then opened her own management company, which eventually adopted the Envision name.
