Central Casting Parent Company Buys Britain’s We Got POP

Entertainment Partners has acquired a British company that provides, manages and pays background actors for film and television shoots. Financial terms of the deal between the Burbank production and workforce management solutions firm and We Got POP Ltd., in London, were not disclosed. The transaction will bring together Central Casting, a division of Entertainment Partners that has long been Hollywood’s go-to source of background actors, with a similar company and allow the U.S. company to expand into Europe and Canada. Chief Executive Mark Goldstein said that combining Central Casting with POP naturally complements Entertainment Partner’s strategy to modernize and integrate the production process. “The POP team’s solutions, with their seamless workflow for selection, hiring, management and payment of talent and crew, will enable us to better serve our existing casting clients,” Goldstein said in a statement. POP was formed in 2014 and expanded to the U.S. three years later with the opening of a New York office. The company created a digital casting portal that provides an integrated and secure system which has become the go-to source for producers of movies, television shows and commercials. POP Chief Executive Kate McLaughlin will stay with the new division and join the Entertainment Partner executive team. “There is significant alignment between POP and (Entertainment Partners), both in our vision for a smarter industry and in our belief that technology can play a key role in driving to a better future,” McLaughlin said in a statement.