THE BRIT 50 Hollywood connections


A relationship with a studio can be a major boost to a company and its capabilities — especially in a harsh economic climate. Screen profi les some leading UK producers with Hollywood heft


Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan WORKING TITLE FILMS


Need to know The biggest show in town, Tim Bevan and Eric Fell- ner’s Universal-backed produc- tion outfi t continues to deliver a potent mixture of UK, US and


European fi lms to its studio par- ent (and French distribution partner StudioCanal). But 2010 was a mixed bag — big-budget Iraq movie Green Zone disap- pointed though the company scored another best picture Os- car nomination for A Serious Man while Nanny McPhee And The Big Bang took more than $100m worldwide. Working Title also took a small step away from Uni- versal, sealing a deal with Stu- dioCanal to fully fi nance its fi lm of John Le Carré’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy directed by Tomas Alfredson and starring Gary Old- man and Colin Firth. It is the fi rst


David Sproxton and Peter Lord AARDMAN ANIMATIONS


Need to know The Bristol-based Aardman has scored global hits with features including Chicken Run and Wallace And Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit and is the creator of popular TV output such as Creature Comforts. It is busier than ever going into 2011. In addition to its in-demand commercial and TV work, the company is in production on two major 3D features. Both are being made under Aardman’s exclusive fi rst-look deal with Sony. Aardman co-founders David Sproxton and Peter Lord began animating together at school and registered the Aardman name in 1972. Key personnel Co-founders David


■ 34 Screen International December 15, 2010


Sproxton and Peter Lord, Nick Park. Incoming CG project Arthur Christmas is in production at Sony Pictures Imageworks in Los Angeles and will be released in late 2011. Directed by Sarah Smith from a screenplay she co-wrote with Peter Baynham (whose credits include Borat), the fi lm features the voices of Bill Nighy, James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie and Jim Broadbent and reveals Santa’s ultra high-tech operation hidden beneath the North Pole. Meanwhile, the stop- motion project The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists is being made in Bristol. Set for release in spring 2012, the fi lm is directed by Peter Lord, with Jeff Newitt co-directing. Aardman also has “four or fi ve” other features in development including projects with Nick Park and Steve Box. David Sproxton says “We’re fi ring on all cylinders… We’re a much more integrated company now, we get ideas fl owing interdepartmentally.” mail@aardman.com


Working Title fi lm to be fi nanced outside the studio in more than a decade. The company is ramp- ing up its TV joint venture with NBC Universal after the success of Showtime hit The Tudors. Key personnel Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Liza Chasin (US). Incoming In addition to Tinker, Tai- lor, 2011 looks golden with wide global releases planned for Greg Mottola’s sci-fi comedy Paul (with Big Talk) starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, Johnny English Reborn with Rowan Atkinson and true-life Arctic adventure story Everybody Loves Whales with


Drew Barrymore and John Kra- sinski. Asif Kapadia’s Ayrton Sen- na doc Senna is starting a slow roll-out around the world while Baltasar Kormakur’s thriller Con- traband starring Mark Wahlberg will start shooting in January. Tim Bevan says “We’ve got a strong slate for 2011. The business is evolving so rapidly at the moment that it’s quite diffi cult to tell where you’ll be in a year’s time. But in addition to the more commercial movies, it’s good to make a fi lm like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy because we couldn’t have got that made a year ago.” info@workingtitlefi lms.com


David Heyman HEYDAY FILMS


Need to know Heyday is famously the company which saw the potential in Harry Potter and producer David Heyman is now coming to the end of a franchise which has grossed more than $6bn around the world: the fi nal instalment, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2, is released around the world next summer. The global success of the Warner Bros-backed Potter fi lms underlines an ability to do justice to literary material, and a focus on talent both in front of and behind the camera. Heyman, who also has an offi ce in Los Angeles, considers material from all sources —


books, articles, original ideas, newspapers, magazines and already-made fi lms, and says directors “are an integral part of the decision to pursue a piece of material, writers too”. Heyman’s credits also include Mark Herman’s The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas. Key personnel David Heyman, Rosie Alison and Andrew Gow work on Heyday’s development. Incoming Gravity, to be directed by Alfonso Cuaron who co-wrote with his son Jonas; The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night- Time which Steve Kloves will write and direct; Methuselah which James Watkins has written and will direct, among others. David Heyman says “I don’t believe anyone really knows what an audience wants to see, but I do know what I want to see. That really is my governing principle in choosing material — it has to be a story I want to tell, a fi lm I want to see. It can be intimate, it can be epic, it can be a joyous tale or a melancholic one. It does not matter as long as I love it.” offi ce@heydayfi lms.com


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