Alex Walton Deborah McIntosh

Source: Alex Walton / Deborah McIntosh

Alex Walton Deborah McIntosh

Alex Walton and Deborah McIntosh will lead the newly formed WME Independent after the sales team completed its split from Endeavor Content.

The agency division will handle US / North American and international film sales – the current sales slate includes recent Toronto world premiere The Survivor starring Ben Foster and all-star noir package Sniff in a co-rep with CAA – and offer film financing consultancy services. Walton and McIntosh lead a team that comprises agents Will Maxfield, Gerren Crochet, Zach Glueck, Katie Irwin, Nelson Mok, Abraham Bengio, and Laurel Charnetsky.

Business and legal affairs will join the group back at the agency. The move had been coming since June and is happening as Endeavor divests its majority stake in Endeavor Content in compliance with the recent Writers Guild of America agreement. Endeavor Content will be sold off as a production and financing company although Endeavor is allowed to own up to 20%. Alexis Garcia, Walton’s partner at the film advisory group and international sales entity that merged last year, will remain at Endeavor Content.

“WME Independent will serve as a critical vehicle to fuel our clients’ projects while providing the global perspective necessary to navigate today’s content marketplace,” said WME COO Dan Limerick. “Deb, Alex and their team have an undeniable track record of bringing many successful artist-driven projects to fruition, and we look forward to bringing their skills and expertise to our clients.”

Walton was EVP, film advisory and co-head of the film group at Endeavor Content and prior to that launched Bloom in 2014, served as president of international sales and distribution at Exclusive Media, and ran the international sales division at Paramount Vantage. McIntosh was SVP, film advisory at Endeavor Content, where she was part of the original group of executives to form Endeavor Content in 2017.

Walton and McIntosh together raised financing for many films at Endeavor Content, including the Russo Brothers’ Cherry starring Tom Holland, Pig with Nicolas Cage, Reed Morano’s Meadowland, Dev Patel’s directorial debut Monkey Man, and Ferdinando Cito Filomarino’s action thriller Beckett starring John David Washington.