Logical Talent Management’s Allen Eckhouse on the Evolving Landscape of Entertainment

Allen Eckhouse is the General Manager of Logical Talent Management. A graduate of the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, Allen has worked on the live production of four AFI Life Achievement Award ceremonies, two Emmy Awards telecasts, and the 2009 Oscars. During his time at Creative Artists Agency, he helped manage the live comedy tours of Trevor Noah, T.J. Miller, Whitney Cummings, Gabriel Iglesias, James Corden, Dana Carvey, and Mel Brooks. Allen has developed pitch concepts for Dreamworks, Amblin, Blumhouse, and Illumination Entertainment. He shares his views on the current film and television landscape and how screenwriters can benefit from it.

What is Logical Talent Management currently seeking?

We’re open to just about anything in the fictional world. Features and TV pilots. Comedies/ dramedies /dramas. Any genre. Our goal is to be the jack of all trades as the literary management company, having a roster of writers who are the masters of their specific domains.

Explain your motto: We do what makes sense.

I come from a math and science background, and typically what works follows the rules of arithmetic and laws of physics. Transposing that over to showbusiness, there’s usually more than one way to accomplish something, but if all the steps make sense in the situation, do it. Knock out all the necessary stuff so that you can spend the majority of your time on the fun, creative parts.

Is there anything that Logical Talent Management is not looking for right now?

We don’t do much in documentary or foreign language.

How do you typically find new screenwriters?

Recommendations from clients and professionals, perusing the lists of contest winners, cold queries from writers that stand out.

How do you characterize the current state of the types of projects the industry is currently seeking? 

Things haven’t changed much in that studios would love to make a movie for 75 cents and have it gross a billion dollars. That’s a silly example, but when you pull the dollar amounts in from the extremes, the largest, realistic margin is the target. So, stuff that
can inherently be low budget (horror, small cast indie-style stories) or stuff that can blow the roof off the theater in ticket sales from an IP that delivers a built-in audience.

How should screenwriters best navigate their careers in terms of output and keeping on top of the business?

1. Always be writing.

2. ALWAYS be writing.

3. Quality is greater than quantity.

Two new scripts a year feels like the right pace. More is great, but only if they are all equally good.

Where do feel the industry might be in 2026 and beyond?

If I knew that, I’d be writing this from one of a series of private islands. In general, as Woodward and Bernstein said, follow the money. Vertical-screen programming looks to be generating some dollars; if quality improves without breaking the business model, that could be a viable sector.

Is a naked script still the standard for writers breaking in or should they be looking at making podcasts, proof of concept videos etc. to stand out?

Finished feature and pilot scripts are still the coin of the realm. Limited series are not; they are essentially commissioned by studios once they get their stars signed up. Quick stress test: if you don’t think your idea for a pilot can sustain a hundred episodes, go back to the drawing board.

What are your thoughts on online platforms like YouTube and Spotify entering the scripted space?

The biggest asset that YouTube has is its subscriber base, which a quick search says is over 2.5 billion. They’ve definitely got the audience, and I think they already have the programming: all the stuff that’s already put up by users and the major media players. If they shoot for episodic or feature-length programming with ads, how do they squeeze more dollars out of the equation? I don’t know, but that’s what I’d keep my eye on.

With Spotify, a quick search says they are nearing 700 million users, 275 million of which are paid. I’m thinking they want to get some of those non-paying users to upgrade to a paid subscription. One way to do it is with top tier programming, similar to how HBO did it from 1997 – 2006. They cranked out Oz, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Carnivale, and Deadwood; 27 total seasons across all of those shows in 10 years, which we still talk about today and get repeat viewing. To me, that’s the task at hand, and it starts with excellent writing.

Where do see the less conventional opportunities for screenwriters to beak in?

Right now, production of new TV series feels like it’s at a standstill, so studios and producers are definitely mining for features. It’s still pretty conventional, but if you’ve got an idea right now that could either be a series or a feature, write it as a feature. The odds of it getting traction are better at the moment. The pendulum can and probably will swing back the other way, but that feels like the right move right now.

What’s the worst advice you’ve seen and heard offered to writers?

From producer/executive types: “Just go make IP. Take your script, turn it into a comic book or short story or one-man show, then bring it back to the TV producers.”

1. If you’re a screenwriter, theoretically your A-game is writing for the screen, not any other medium. So an adaptation to another medium by you is probably going to be of lesser quality than the screenplay.

2. I don’t know what stacks of cash these people think writers have, but I can assure them they don’t have it. So that’s unnecessary financial strain to make such a project.

3. The key with IP is not the actual material, it’s the built-in audience it brings with it. So if you take your unheard-of story and turn it into an unheard-of comic book, you’re still right where you started. To me, that’s a gigantic wild goose chase.

Describe the ideal writer you want to work with.

1. Do you write good stuff?

2. Do you understand that it’s half show and half business?

3. Are you not an a**hole? For better or worse, those three criteria filter out a pretty big chunk of the prospects.

What recent films and TV shows have defined cinema lately?

In no particular order for film: Sinners, Weapons, Superman, Thunderbolts*, One Battle After Another, Eddington, The Naked Gun and its phenomenal marketing campaign.

For TV: Peacemaker, Hacks, The White Lotus, The Pitt, The Studio, Severance, Abbott Elementary, anything that Taylor Sheridan puts out.

And one atypical mention: Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl. Basically a music video, a behind-the-scenes video of that music video, director’s commentary, and sing-along. Purists can thumb their nose at it, but it won the weekend with $34 million. That model may only work with megastars, but it also shows that there is room at the top of the pile for high quality stuff that operates outside the box.

by Staff Writer

From our in-house editorial team.