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Following Kim Masters' Wednesday Slate story on the clever methods Endeavor used to bend Universal over a log and pump away until the studio promised to cough up over $42 million for the rights to Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno before Borat had seen a single box office dollar, shadowy firm Media Rights Capital suddenly finds itself the hottest possibly talent-agency-controlled financing puppet regime in town. While waiting for a photographer to show up to shoot them for an upcoming People spread on Hollywood's most in-demand maverick financiers, MRC partners Asif Satchu and Mordecai Wiczyk (above) took some time to chat with the NY Times about how the $400 million in investment capital available to their (totally independent, thanks for asking!) company is a negotiating cudgel that any agency, not just Endeavor, can use use to bludgeon the studios into favorable deals for their clients:

Despite the new money and the seven Oscar nominations for "Babel," the company has yet to convince a skeptical film business that it is not just a stalking horse for Endeavor and its clients. To expand its reach, Media Rights must overcome a widespread sense that the company is playing loose with restrictions on agencies employing their own clients or that it is somehow beholden to the agency that helped create it. "Everyone who is not in the bus, we're going to keep stopping by the house and opening the door," Mr. Wiczyk said in an interview this month at the company's office in the building that also houses Endeavor.

So there you have it: Even if the terminal is conveniently located in front of Endeavor's building and the driver looks suspiciously like Ari Emanuel in some Groucho Marx glasses, the Media Rights Capital money-bus is open to anyone brave enough to hop on board and take a ride over to whatever studio is in need of a fresh buggering.

[Photo: NY Times]