Ex-UTA agent Dante DeSario launches Collage as AI studio broker

Collage, a Beverly Hills management and investment company built to route AI-native production studios into Hollywood, was reported launched on October 19 with an undisclosed seed round and a client roster the two trades carrying the news describe differently.

The firm was founded in July by Dante DeSario, until March an agent in the independent film group at United Talent Agency, and media investor Michael Lambert. Variety broke the launch on October 19 at 10:04 a.m. Pacific with an interview; Deadline followed that afternoon at 2:23 p.m. with the company statement, and TheWrap reported it on October 22.

The seed round closed, and DeSario would not disclose the amount, according to Variety. He also would not name the companies Collage has invested in. Both trades carry the same backers from the company statement: Black Bear and Fundamental Films, followed by Dennis Miller, Blue Deer Media, GOAL Ventures, AGC Studios, Roy Lee, Marty Bowen, Todd Lieberman, Todd Garner, Barry Porter, George Huber, Max Michael and Ric Roman Waugh, among others. Neither outlet separates investors from senior advisers. Variety puts the company at five full-time employees and roughly a dozen part-time staffers.

The database Dealroom reads the round differently, describing the seed as led by Black Bear Pictures and China's Jimei Pictures, which it calls a co-founder. Fundamental Films, the Shanghai production and distribution company chaired by Mark Gao, trades under the Chinese name Shanghai Jimei Film Co., which may account for the difference. The trades do not name Jimei.

The roster is where the accounts diverge most. Variety names four studios DeSario is aiding: Asteria, Native Foreign, Obsidian and Secret Level, the studio run by Jason Zada. Deadline prints eight from the company statement: Asteria, the real-time 3D studio Defect, Berlin's Lipstick, Matriarch from former Luma Dream Lab Los Angeles chief Verena Puhm, Native Foreign, Obsidian, Secret Level, and Lux Meridian, which it calls the generative production arm of Territory Group. The Generated, an independent film-industry site, reported on October 20 that none of the eight studios had announced Collage on its own site or social accounts.

Guild rules are part of what Collage says it will navigate for clients. SAG-AFTRA members ratified the 2026 TV/Theatrical Agreement on June 4 with 91.42 percent approval, a term running from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2030, and producers are not permitted to use synthetic performers without bargaining with the union first. The Writers Guild of America 2026 Minimum Basic Agreement runs from May 2, 2026 through May 1, 2030. Secret Level says its feature Terrarium is being shot inside a workflow compliant with both the DGA and SAG-AFTRA.

Buyers have been moving in parallel. Lionsgate took an equity stake in the generative video company Runway on June 11 and said it would draw on its own catalog for an AI short-form series, having hired Kathleen Grace as its first chief AI officer in February. On the demand side, SLOP TV reported that spending on US political ads made at least partly with AI reached more than $137 million through October 11, up from just under $80 million six weeks earlier; that is a different market, but the Wesleyan Media Project figures show commercial buyers already paying for AI-made video.

DeSario frames the company as plumbing rather than a studio, and its own site agrees. In the statement carried by Deadline he said, "Hollywood needed a trusted way to find and work with the best of these companies, while the companies themselves needed help with business development and operations, technology relationships, and capital." Collage's website describes the firm as the front door to AI-native production and lists business development, back office support, technology partnerships and investment among its functions.

What it could mean for creators: Collage signs companies with staff and Hollywood partners rather than solo makers, and its pitch to buyers is that it can say which suppliers to trust and which to avoid. The fees are not public, and Variety reports the company will not say which studios it has invested in, so whether the arrangement widens access for independent AI filmmakers or adds a paid layer between them and the studios is not yet clear.

The next signal is the roster itself: none of the eight studios named by Deadline, and none of the four named by Variety, has confirmed Collage publicly, and the company has not said what being a client costs.