EXCLUSIVE: With Anyone But You having just crossed $100M at the global box office and Top Gun 3 chatter lighting up the internet, Hollywood man of the moment Glen Powell has found his next project in the shape of thriller Huntington from Emily The Criminal writer-director John Patton Ford.
As we revealed last year, Euro studio Studiocanal and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri producer Blueprint are behind the project, which has now attracted Green Book and Spotlight outfit Participant as co-financier with Studiocanal.
We understand A24 is close to finalizing a domestic deal, though none of the parties could confirm at time of going to press.
The partners are aiming for an early summer shoot on the movie, which is described to us as “raucous revenge thriller” about Becket Redfellow (Powell), the heir to a multi-billion-dollar fortune who will stop at nothing to get what he deserves…Or what he thinks he deserves.
Patton Ford’s original screenplay is inspired by Studiocanal’s 1949 Ealing Comedy library title Kind Hearts and Coronets, starring Alec Guinness. Huntington skews darker than the original caper classic but leans into witty and zingy banter, we hear.
Studiocanal quietly soft-launched the project at AFM and will continue selling international in earnest at next month’s EFM where it will be among the hot projects. Studiocanal will retain rights in its territories UK, France, Germany, Australia/NZ, Poland and Benelux, and the studio is committing to a theatrical rollout.
In another shiny addition, casting director Lucy Bevan (Barbie, The Batman, Belfast) is aboard to handle casting.
EVP Global Production Ron Halpern and SVP Global Production Joe Naftalin will oversee for Studiocanal, with Pete Czernin and Graham Broadbent at Blueprint Pictures, and Robert Kessel for Participant. Participant’s Jeff Skoll and Robert Kessel are executive producers. Participant and Studiocanal are teaming up for the first time.
John Patton Ford said: “I feel tremendously privileged to make this film with Studiocanal, Blueprint Pictures and Participant. It speaks volumes about these companies that they have chosen to make an original and progressive movie such as this. And Glen Powell is the icing on the cake.”
Studiocanal CEO Anna Marsh, Ron Halpern and Joe Naftalin commented: “All of us at Studiocanal were blown away by John’s film Emily The Criminal at Sundance, and then bowled over by his wildly entertaining screenplay for this project. We have loved working with him on it, and we are so excited to now have cast the extraordinary Glen Powell in the role of Becket. We are thrilled to have partnered on the film with our friends at Participant and delighted to be back in business once again with Pete, Graham and the team at Blueprint Pictures. What a team! It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Kind Hearts And Coronets concerns Louis D’Ascoyne Mazzini, the son of a woman disowned by her aristocratic family for marrying out of her social class. After her death, a vengeful Louis decides to take the family’s dukedom by murdering the eight people ahead of him in the line of succession to the title. The BAFTA-nominated film was included in Time‘s 2005 list of the top 100 films since 1923.
Powell has Universal’s Twisters and Richard Linklater’s Hit Man due for release in 2024. Patton Ford’s 2022 Sundance hit Emily The Criminal, starring Aubrey Plaza, was picked up by Netflix.
Powell is repped by CAA, The Initiative Group, and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. Patton Ford is repped by CAA, Mike Dill and Lowell Shapiro at Black Box Mgmt, and lawyer Morris Yorn.
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