Searchlight Pictures‘ top international exec Katie Goodson-Thomas has acknowledged the constant battle the specialty studio has against the deep-pockets of streamers when it comes to securing projects.
Speaking at an industry talk at the BFI London Film Festival, Goodson-Thomas, head of international production and development, said that Searchlight being “priced out” by streamers was something “that happens on a daily basis, it really does.”
She added: “But we just can’t be competitive with Netflix of Apple or Amazon.”
Goodson-Thomas pointed to Emerald Fennell — someone she said she’d “love to work with” — and her upcoming “Wuthering Heights” adaptation, a film Searchlight simply wouldn’t have the finances to support. “But I think she’s an extraordinary filmmaker and I want her film to be made so I’m happy for her to go to those people who have the money to finance it,” she said.
But at Searchlight — which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and comes to London with both “A Real Pain” and “Nightbitch” — she said their “edge” was the human interaction it offered with filmmakers, plus a distribution and marketing team she claimed was the best in the business.
“Look what they did with ‘Poor Things,’” she said about Yorgos Lanthimos’ raunchy gothic comedy, which made more than $117 million globally. “That film wasn’t easy — but they just loved it and I’m so proud of what they did. And I don’t see that over those places.”
Goodson-Thomas did, however, lift the lid on the “human touch” Searchlight offers when it does come to getting films off the ground.
She noted that “The Roses” — a reimagine of 1989’s “The War of the Roses,” this time starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman — came about following a lunch meeting with Leah Clarke at Cumberbatch’s SunnyMarch banner, who said that “Olivia and Benedict want to make a film together, I’m having a cup of tea with them later and I don’t have any ideas.”
Goodson-Thomas said she walked away and eventually thought to herself, “Well, I’d love to see them as a bickering couple, because they’re so good.” Then she starting thinking about 1989 hit “The War of the Roses,” starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner as a famously argumentative married couple, and discovered that it was owned by Fox, still led at the time by Matthew Greenfield and David Greenbaum. She inquired about the rights, which turned out to be available, and pitched the project to Jay Roach, who had directed “Austin Powers” and “Meet the Parents.”
“And then we reached out to Tony McNamara, who had just written ‘The Favourite,’ and brought him on board to write,” she said. “Because nobody does bickering dialog better than him.”
The creative journey that led to “The Roses” — which is set in the U.S. but shot in the U.K., and is due out in 2025 — may have sounded somewhat smooth going, but for any concerned producers in the audiences Goodson-Thomas was quick to point out that “not everything comes together so tidily.”