Meet Marc Toberoff, Elon Musk’s Hollywood-Loving Lawyer Facing Off Against Sam Altman
“He’s literally The Rockford Files. This guy, sitting out there in Malibu,” says Stuart Manashil, a talent manager and producer who’s worked with Toberoff on projects like an upcoming remake of 1988’s cult classic martial arts film Bloodsport, an adaptation of the book the 1987 psychological thriller Angel Heart was based on, and a TV series, Crystal Lake, based on the Friday the 13th movies. “He’s not in a trailer—but he’s in an office and it’s him and an assistant. And he’ll just keep going.”“When I originally started doing this with IP in Hollywood, it was like, ‘Toberoff, you’re a bottom-feeder.’ And I would say, ‘Yeah, I’ll see you down there,’ ” he says, adding that he has a full team working for him.Things changed as the streaming era took off and companies loaded up on well-known properties. His ability to untangle the rights for content, allowing it to be made, became a valuable currency. Producers and writers increasingly viewed Toberoff as a resource in a complicated legal landscape.When director Lee Daniels was developing a limited series for Hulu on Sammy Davis Jr. and needed rights to an Alex Haley Playboy interview with him, Toberoff represented the late writer's estate. The negotiations with Disney were tough; Toberoff's demands were “egregiousness,” Daniels said with a cackle. “But it was deserving because, guess what, you can't put a price on art.”Still, Daniels believed the lawyer would have worked with him even without studio money. “If I told him, ‘I want to do this independently and all I got is $5 million to make this happen, I need the rights for $50,000, I'll give you a cut on the back end if it makes some money’ — that's what he would do,” Daniels says.The series never got made but Toberoff supported his vision throughout. Daniels, at least, has no doubt whose side the lawyer is on. “He's for the artist ultimately.”“When he started doing it, it was like, total outsider,” says Manashil. “I think that more and more places now see the value in dealing with him, evidenced by the number of deals he has. They need the IP.” Or, as Toberoff, now with projects all over town, puts it: “It went from ‘bottom-feeder’ to ‘Toberoff, player, what do you got? Let’s make a deal.’ ”A few years ago he secured the US rights to 1988’s Beetlejuice for one of the film’s living cowriters and the estate of the other. He then reached out to Mike Simpson, agent for director Tim Burton.Burton, who’d been waffling for years on whether to make a sequel, agreed to do it, followed by original cast members including Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) made more than $400 million at the box office, with Toberoff credited as a producer.“It drives these studios crazy. They just can’t believe that there’s this guy out there that can actually impact them that much,” Simpson says. “From the artist’s point of view, he’s a godsend.”
