HBO Greenlights ‘Call My Agent!’ American Remake with Sports Agency Twist

HBO Developing American Remake of ‘Call My Agent!’ with Sports Focus

The critically acclaimed and globally popular French series, Call My Agent! (Dix pour cent), is officially heading to the United States. HBO has secured the rights and is moving forward with an American adaptation that introduces a significant narrative twist: instead of following the chaotic lives of agents representing film and television stars in Paris, the new series will center on an agency dedicated to professional athletes.

This high-profile project brings together two powerhouse production entities: Plan B Entertainment, the company co-founded by Brad Pitt, and SpringHill, the production and media company led by LeBron James and Maverick Carter. Their collaboration signals a strong commitment to blending Hollywood drama with the high stakes and unique celebrity culture of the sports world. The series is currently in the development stage at the premium cable network.

The Sports Twist: Shifting from Cinema to Athletics

The original French series, which ran for four seasons and concluded with a feature film, earned international praise for its sharp wit, behind-the-scenes look at the entertainment industry, and its ability to secure major French stars (like Isabelle Huppert and Juliette Binoche) to play exaggerated versions of themselves.

The decision to pivot the setting from a Parisian film agency (Agence Samuel Kerr) to a sports agency in the U.S. is a calculated move to localize the format while maintaining the core dramatic tension.

The key elements expected to transfer to the U.S. adaptation include:

• The Ensemble Cast: A group of highly dysfunctional but dedicated agents scrambling to keep their high-maintenance clients happy.
• Client Crises: Weekly episodes featuring celebrity guest stars (in this case, major American athletes) dealing with professional and personal meltdowns.
• Workplace Dynamics: The intense professional rivalries, personal entanglements, and existential crises faced by the agents themselves.

The involvement of SpringHill is particularly crucial, lending authenticity and unparalleled access to the world of professional sports. LeBron James and Maverick Carter’s deep connections across the NBA and other major leagues suggest the potential for securing A-list athletic cameos, mirroring the star power of the original French version.

The Legacy of Dix pour cent (Call My Agent!)

For those unfamiliar with the source material, Call My Agent! is considered one of the most successful international scripted formats of the last decade. Its success on streaming platforms introduced global audiences to the nuanced, often absurd, reality of managing celebrity talent.

The series excelled by using the agency setting as a pressure cooker, forcing the agents to navigate the delicate balance between their clients’ egos, the demands of studios, and their own precarious careers.

“The genius of Call My Agent! lies in its ability to humanize the often-mythologized world of celebrity representation. By focusing on the agents’ vulnerabilities, it created a relatable workplace comedy despite the glamorous setting.”

The format has already proven adaptable, with successful remakes launched in several countries, including the UK, India, and South Korea. However, the American version, particularly with the sports-centric focus, represents the most significant thematic departure from the original premise.

Why the Sports World? Implications for the Narrative

The shift to a sports agency provides fertile ground for new dramatic narratives that resonate strongly with American audiences. While Hollywood agents deal with box office returns and artistic integrity, sports agents manage multi-million dollar contracts, endorsements, public relations crises related to performance, and the intense physical demands placed on their clients.

The sports agency setting allows the show to explore contemporary issues unique to professional athletics:

1. Contract Negotiations: High-stakes salary cap maneuvering, free agency drama, and complex endorsement deals.
2. Public Scrutiny: The intense media coverage and social media pressure faced by star athletes, often leading to rapid-fire PR disasters.
3. Career Longevity: The finite nature of an athlete’s career and the pressure on agents to maximize earnings in a short window.
4. Athlete-as-Brand: The management of personal brands, merchandise, and off-field business ventures—a specialty of SpringHill’s expertise.

The combination of Plan B’s history of critically acclaimed dramatic storytelling (e.g., Moonlight, 12 Years a Slave) and SpringHill’s direct insight into the sports industry promises a series that is both authentic and dramatically compelling.

Key Takeaways: What Readers Need to Know

The development of the American Call My Agent! remake is a major move for HBO, leveraging a proven international format with a fresh, localized angle.

• Project: American adaptation of the French hit Call My Agent! (Dix pour cent).
• Network: HBO is developing the series.
• The Twist: The agency will represent professional athletes, not actors.
• Producers: Plan B Entertainment (Brad Pitt) and SpringHill (LeBron James/Maverick Carter) are collaborating.
• Significance: The sports focus allows the series to tap into the unique drama of American athletic celebrity and high-stakes contract negotiations.

Outlook: Anticipating the Premiere

While the project is still in development, the involvement of such high-caliber producers and the established success of the source material suggest a fast-track to production. Fans of the original will be keen to see how the core comedic and dramatic structure translates to the intense, often cutthroat, world of professional sports management. The series is poised to offer a satirical and insightful look into the business side of American athletics, a subject rarely tackled with this level of insider access on premium television.