Jason Allen Ashlock is gone too, I've heard. Adam Chromy is the only contact left on their website, which has removed the "Team" link entirely.
Here's Ashlock's current bio:
http://jasonashlock.tumblr.com/BIo
RE: Adam Chromy
This is just an informational post about film rights to novels, from someone who has worked in the film industry a number of years:
Adam Chromy boasts that he represents film rights to his clients’ novels “as a producer”. The advantage, he claims, is that you pay him no commission for film rights money because the studio pays him as producer.
This does not seem to me a good deal for the writer:
(1) If he represented your film rights as an agent, he would have every incentive to secure the highest possible price for you since he would collect a commission.
(2) Basically he is telling the studio that to acquire film rights to your novel, the studio has to accept Chromy as a producer. Obviously, film rights are worth only so much to a studio (depending on how hot the property, etc).
Suppose rights to your novel are worth $100,000 to them. Since they have to accept Chromy as a producer, the $100,000 would have to pay both his producer’s fee and the cost of your film rights. There is nothing to prevent him from telling you (say), the studio is offering you $10,000 for film rights. If you balk, he says I’ll ask for more, and calls back a few days later saying, “I really worked hard for you, pal, and jacked them up to $25,000.” Basically, he’s got $100k to play with, and is seeing how little you’ll take. The rest goes to him as “producer”.
(3) Another problem is that studios probably don’t want Chromy as a producer. Rather than representing you, he is piggybacking on your book’s heat to force himself on them. The normal arrangement is for a producer to purchase an option to buy the screenrights from the writer; the option can be for one or more years, during which time the producer can shop the material to studios. Basically you are giving Chromy a “free” option on your book to shop to studios with himself attached as producer.
(4) Chromy claims to be both a producer and screenwriter, but if you google his name plus IMDB (International Movie Data Base), you will find he has no produced screenwriting credits and no produced movie or TV credits. He does have a series “House of Card” in development, but whether he will be a named producer, or the nature of his participation, is not stated.
OVERALL:
Now, I can’t tell you what to do. Obviously if you’re just getting started, having a film made from your book would boost sales and your recognition. So much so that possibly you are willing to accept that your “producer” will get most of the film rights money.
All I am saying is to be aware of the above situation.
You are almost surely better off finding an agent to negotiate a film sale on commission if you can possibly do so. If you can’t and Chromer is willing to give it a shot as your “producer,” I can’t advise you not to let him try. There is a saying in Hollywood that sometimes you have to take a screwing on your first deal. The important thing is to realize you are taking a screwing, and extricate yourself from such an arrangement on your next deal.
