The 28 Years franchise and Alex Garland’s adaptation of fantasy video game Elden Ring are the company’s current priorities
Need to know: Initially set up by Andrew Macdonald and Duncan Kenworthy as one of the three UK National Lottery-backed franchises in 1997, DNA Films & TV has evolved and adapted over its 28 years (an important number for the company). Kenworthy departed in 2003 shortly after Allon Reich joined in 2002 following stints at Miramax and Film4.
Armed with key creative partnerships, most prominently with Alex Garland and Danny Boyle, the producing duo have always nurtured and maintained key relationships with distribution and production executives, often in the US.
DNA does not boast an overhead or first-look deal with anyone, declaring itself entirely independent, but it continues to work with familiar faces from studio partners through to independents. “We are gluttons for repeat collaborations,” says Reich. “They work and help us do the films we do.”
Sony Pictures is the studio partner for DNA’s belated sequel 28 Years Later, with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, directed by Nia DaCosta, to come (scheduled for release in the US and UK on January 16). The third instalment is yet to be greenlit, but the global box-office success of the Boyle-directed 28 Years Later – at $150m-plus – indicates there is interest in the reinvigorated franchise.
Last year also saw the release of Warfare, written and directed by Ray Mendoza and Garland for A24, where Garland and DNA have developed strong ties ever since the then-nascent company picked up his directing debut Ex Machina for North America in 2014.
DNA is headquartered in Clerkenwell, London and has a constant team of six including Macdonald and Reich. Due to the scale of the upcoming projects, Macdonald is focused on all things 28 while Reich concentrates on Garland’s Elden Ring.
Key personnel: Andrew Macdonald, managing director and producer; Allon Reich, partner and producer; Joanne Smith, general manager.
Incoming: Garland has written and will direct a film version of the fantasy role-playing game Elden Ring, based on a story by Game Of Thrones author George RR Martin. The A24 project is a collaboration with Bandai Namco Entertainment; Reich, Macdonald and Peter Rice are producing for DNA, alongside Martin, Vince Gerardis and Matthew Penry-Davey, with an aim to shoot in summer 2026.
DNA also has projects in development at BBC Film, Film4 and Orion Pictures, from a romantic comedy to a horror to a political thriller. It is also working with “younger” emerging British producers to help bring fresh operators into the industry.
Allon Reich says: “Our key collaborators are often in the US. You can’t just make British films for a British audience. It doesn’t work financially. The numbers don’t add up.”
Contact: info@dnafilms.com
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