Welcome to Deadline’s International Disruptors, a feature where we shine a spotlight on key executives and companies outside of the U.S. shaking up the offshore marketplace. Today we’re talking to Protagonist Pictures execs Dave Bishop, George Hamilton and James Pugh about how the company has grown from a sales agent to an agile and innovative greenlighting operation. With a proven track record of repping worldwide and international sales on titles such as The Brutalist, The Outrun, Jimpa and Berlinale title Islands, the three discuss production ambitions and next steps.
Protagonist Pictures has been a regular fixture on the international sales circuit for nearly two decades bringing to market titles such as Oscar-nominated film The Brutalist, BAFTA-nominated pic The Outrun and, more recently, Olivia Colman and John Lithgow starrer Jimpa, which premiered in Sundance last month.
This week at the European Film Market in Berlin, the company is launching sales on a range of titles such as Ben Hardy and Scott McNairy dystopian thriller Die by Night, George MacKay and Callum Turner mystery-drama Rose of Nevada, Jo Nesbo horror Night House and SXSW romantic comedy One More Shot with Emily Browning. It’s also screening Jimpa to international buyers as well as Jan-Ole Gerster’s Sam Riley starrer Islands.
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Historically, the company has been synonymous with repping international and worldwide sales on British movies and festival-driven fare. But across the last few years, Protagonist has been ramping up its efforts in the financing and production spaces, taking a bigger role in helping structure finance for projects while also producing projects in-house. Last year, the company wrapped its first production, The Man in My Basement with Corey Hawkins and Willem Dafoe from first-time director Nadia Latif.
“We’ve been working on trying to evolve, adapt and build business in a very specific way,” Protagonist Pictures CEO Dave Bishop tells Deadline. “We’ve been working hard across the last five to seven years to have a more invested role across production and we’ve been developing movies that we’re now seeing realized.”
It’s a move that he and Chief Commercial Officer George Hamilton and Chief Operating Officer James Pugh say will make the company a “one stop shop” as it looks to position itself as a major “greenlight partner” for the industry.
Bishop says the company’s evolution is “a response to market conditions” but also a natural next step for the company. “We’re still very much a filmmaker-driven business and we are still very much about prestige, festival titles but we’re looking to expand our remit into more commercially driven movies with broader audience appeal.”
Hamilton adds: “The thing about market conditions is that you’ve always got to be agile and responsive and reflective and the great thing about having a sales capacity is that you’re at the coalface and you get to see the world from a global perspective. We made a very conscious decision six or seven years ago to step up and build on that.”
In the financing space, Protagonist has played a pivotal role in helping structure finance for a raft of titles that it sells, either through equity, presales, co-productions or a combination of all three.
Hamilton points to Glenn Close and Jeremy Irons production Encore, which sold out in Cannes last year. “We worked hand-in-hand with Temple Hill to try and find the best financing for the collateral and helped them find an opportunity to shoot in the UK instead of Canada,” he says. Next month, high-concept horror Monitor, its third collaboration with Temple Hill, will go into production in Spain.
Last year in Berlin, it launched sales on Plan B production H is for Hawk with Claire Foy and Brendan Gleeson and ended up bringing Welsh co-producer Good Gate Media aboard the project, meaning it could access the UK tax credit. Meanwhile, the company is helping structure Die by Night into a German-Austria-Hungarian co-production.
Protagonist is also ramping up its efforts in helping find third-party finance or equity, which it did with Saoirse Ronan starrer The Outrun and recently wrapped Flavia with Martin Freeman, Toby Jones and Jonathan Pryce. For the latter, Protagonist structured the project as a Canadian-UK co-production and worked with CAA to secure “multiple different investment partners”. In addition to selling the project, it also brought Sky in as a financing and UK distribution partner.
“The important thing is to be able to take a holistic approach to every project, bring the skillset from within the company and then bring in the external partners to help get it greenlit,” says Pugh. “In many cases, we end up working with the same partners repeatedly because once you establish a shorthand of trust and an understanding of how they work, it makes it much smoother next time.”
First steps
Former Sony Pictures Entertainment and Revolver Entertainment exec Dave Bishop joined Protagonist Pictures in 2012 as Director of Sales before rising up the ranks to CEO in 2017 after former CEO Mike Goodridge stepped down. Hamilton, who has a background producing and directing digital content, joined in 2013 and now oversees the Sales, Marketing and Publicity departments and plays an integral part in structuring and securing finance for both in house and third-party projects. Pugh, a qualified lawyer, joined the company in 2017 after stints at Studiocanal UK, Curzon Artificial Eye and Revolver Entertainment.
The company has a staff of 21, which includes a full sales team, marketing, publicity, legal and business affairs as well as library sales and finance. “We are a one stop shop in that regard and we’re well-integrated,” says Bishop.
Throughout the years, the company has established a large network of partners from the BBC, the BFI and Film4 to Temple Hill Entertainment to Good Gate Media, all of which they have built and grown with over the years. “We’ve found that the structure of relationships and our experience across the team places us very well as a partner to come in at a far earlier stage to build finance and co-production structures and get movies greenlit,” says Bishop. “We truly see ourselves as a greenlight partner.”
Production ambitions
The company’s first in-house production The Man in My Basement, which wrapped last year was not without its challenges. Based on the seminal novel by Walter Mosley, Jonathan Majors was originally attached to star in the project but was dropped after the actor was accused of assaulting and harassing his former girlfriend, Grace Jabbari. (Majors was later sentenced to probation but no prison time).
The Piano Lesson actor Hawkins replaced Major in that project, which will be released on Hulu through Andscape, the Black-led content studio from Disney and ESPN that also co-financed the film.
“On any production there are inevitable unexpected challenges,” says Bishop. “The ability to navigate these nimbly and in sync with our partners allowed the whole team to go forward successfully. That’s certainly what we learned – work hand in hand with your partners and the show must go on.”
The company is currently in development on a number of projects and says it will look to do a production every 12 to 18 months with budgets north of $10M. Its second production, a romantic comedy, is expected to be announced before Cannes.
“We take quite a broad approach to the type of content we want to produce,” says Pugh. “It’s always going to be very driven by the storytelling and the quality of partners and the filmmakers but not necessarily just following one tram line.”
Hamilton adds: “We have an understanding of what’s working, what buyers are looking for, what distributors are looking for and what audiences are looking for.”
The company also prides itself in its relationships with filmmakers, pointing to Oscar-nominated director Brady Corbet as an example. Protagonist sold Corbet’s first film The Childhood of a Leader before boarding The Brutalist, which it sold internationally to Focus Features last year.
“We had a great relationship with him on that film,” says Bishop. “So, when The Brutalist hit our desks, we were just very excited at the prospect of working with him again. We always thought he was an incredible filmmaker, and The Brutalist was a beautiful and brilliant script, so we threw everything into it. We’re just so privileged and proud to have been a part of that journey and we wish it huge and continued success.”
This week in Berlin, Protagonist is screening Sophie Hyde’s Jimpa to international buyers and Bishop says there have been “a number of very good buyers who are engaging with it at the moment.”
When pressed about the lack of deals that came out of Sundance and whether he expects a similarly slow EFM, Bishop says, “deals are just taking longer to close.”
“We’ve seen that as the market has shifted, it doesn’t move at the speed it once did. Teams need to think about distribution and the audience and it’s not necessarily easy to always reach a theatrical audience. They’re taking time and taking stock and figuring out moves that work best for them. Obviously if there had been twenty super high-profile deals within a few days, everybody would have loved that. But I don’t think that necessarily the nature of the market and the festivals.”
He continues: “The cost of production is high at the moment and the disparity between potential value is always a challenge. But hopefully businesses like ours can be additive and we can help bridge that gap and help find creative ways of filling the gap between value and cost.”
The post International Disruptors: Protagonist Pictures Execs Discuss Ramping Up Production & Financing Capabilities & Being “A Greenlight Partner” For The Industry appeared first on Deadline.
