In the year 1919, a disgruntled Charlie Chaplin found himself in an all-too-familiar battle with Hollywood studios over financing and creative control of his projects.

This time, it pushed him over the edge, triggering his unprecedented crusade to break free from the iron-fisted gatekeepers of the entertainment industry.

His partners crime?

✔️ Mega actor Douglas Fairbanks, nicknamed "The King of Hollywood"

✔️ Superstar Mary Pickford, aka "The Queen of Hollywood" and "America's Sweetheart"

✔️ The man responsible for turning filmmaking into an art form, DW Griffith, aka "The Father of Film Technique"

Together, they would form a legendary company whose effects can still be felt today.

It was the formation of the first independent, artist-owned and operated film studio" United Artists. Its premise was to allow artists to control their own interests rather than being dependent on commercial studios.

This rebellion sparked the cynical quote above ("The inmates are taking over the asylum") by Richard Rowland of Metro Pictures, five years before it merged with the Goldwyn Picture Corp. to form MGM.
The quote reveals a lot about how studios thought of actors as crazy prisoners of the system, and just how absurd they thought this idea to be. After all, mere artists wouldn't be capable of executing such a business venture.

He was dead wrong.

ATI's mission is to carry on the mission that UA started by equipping AWP's (actor-writer-producers) with the strategies, systems, tools, guidance, and business acumen needed not just to survive, but thrive in the ever-changing film, television and new-media markets.

- Daniel Brea, Founder & CEO