Debbie Gray and Julian Gleek’s company has a busy slate as it looks to follow up on its Good Luck To You, Leo Grande success
Need to know: London, Norfolk and Sydney-based Genesius Pictures was set up in 2013 by producer Debbie Gray and financier/producer Julian Gleek. The duo had first collaborated on 2014 crowdpleaser Northern Soul, on which Gleek had been an investor. From the outset, Genesius set itself a mission, says Gray, to make “brilliant, authentic British stories”.
In 2020, Genesius partnered with UK sales outfit Cornerstone Films to set up Australia-based distribution and production outfit The Reset Collective, and is actively developing projects in both the US and Australia. Genesius and Cornerstone also co-own development company GenStone.
2022 sex worker comedy Good Luck To You, Leo Grande, starring Emma Thompson, marked a key breakthrough for Genesius, premiering at Sundance and released by Lionsgate in the UK and Searchlight Pictures in the US.
Key personnel: Debbie Gray, managing director, producer; Julian Gleek, chairman; Kieran Clayton, development executive; Sam Cornish, Caitlin Beavan, associate producers; Pamela Holt, head of finance; Diana Howie, consultant.
Incoming: Genesius is hoping to put three films into production next year: Blackpool-set romantic comedy The Light Fantastic, scripted by Lee Warburton and inspired by his experiences as a gay man in the world of ballroom dancing, which Cornerstone is selling and Peter Cattaneo is attached to direct; romantic comedy A Place For Us, written by Sarfraz Manzoor and directed by Richard Loncraine, telling the story of how a young British Pakistani man met his wife (the BFI funded script development and casting is underway); and Australia-UK co-production Honour, with Susanna White directing a script by Joanna Murray-Smith, based on her play about a wife left to cope when her husband leaves her for a young TV journalist.
In development is comedy road movie Libby And Joan Hit The Road, written by Katy Brand (Good Luck To You, Leo Grande) about two women in their 40s out for revenge against the teacher who wronged them at school; and a live-action adaptation of actor Jim Broadbent’s graphic novel Dull Margaret. The latter is a co-production with Lupus Films.
Other projects in the pipeline include Plough Lane, an uplifting drama about fan-owned football club AFC Wimbledon to be directed by Coky Giedroyc; Nicobobinus, an adaptation of Terry Jones’s children’s book; Peach, based on Emmett de Monteray’s novel Go The Way Your Blood Beats; a biopic of Big Issue founder John Bird; and comedy heist movie Family Inheritance.
Debbie Gray says: “We have our own development money, not huge amounts, but we can develop projects to a certain stage. We co-produce, which mitigates some of the risk. In what is a very difficult climate, you just have to keep looking for different ways of finding finance. It’s not easy but we’re lucky we have got to this stage and we have some great projects. It’s quite a journey to get a film off the ground – but it always has been! Our chairman Julian Gleek’s financial expertise is a huge advantage for us.”
Contact: enquire@genesiuspictures.com
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