The Brit 50: Hera Pictures

Need to know: Hera Pictures is making serious noise this year with Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, starring Jessie Buckley as Agnes, wife of William Shakespeare, alongside Paul Mescal as the Bard. The adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s book has been catapulted into Oscar contention after winning the coveted People’s Choice Award at Toronto International Film Festival. Focus Features is releasing in the US, and Universal Pictures in the UK.

Hera founder Liza Marshall secured the rights to the novel and is lead producer alongside Pippa Harris and Sam Mendes for Neal Street Productions, Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and Nic Gonda for Book of Shadows.

Marshall launched Hera Pictures in 2017 after heading Scott Free Productions UK, where she oversaw films including Get Santa and Before I Go To Sleep, and working at Channel 4 as head of drama. Hera has since grown into a busy production company spanning both film and TV. Other film credits include Mahalia Belo’s environmental thriller The End We Start From, starring Jodie Comer, which premiered at Toronto and BFI London film festivals in 2023.

On the TV side, Hera has this year delivered ITV ratings hit I Fought The Law, starring Sheridan Smith, with an average audience of 5.4 million, as well as the BBC’s critically acclaimed coming-of-age drama What It Feels Like For A Girl, adapted from Paris Lees’ memoir about growing up in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.

Key personnel: Liza Marshall, founder; Ron O’Berst, executive producer; Emma Fowler, head of production; Bria Thomas, head of development.

Incoming: Hera is set to go into production next year on feature The Return Of Stanley Atwell, a thriller starring Nicholas Galitzine and Marisa Abela. Written and directed by Brian Welsh (Beats, Black Mirror), it is based on a story by Steven Soderbergh, who is executive producing. The film has equity finance from John Gore Studios and is being sold by Protagonist Pictures.

Hera recently won a bidding war for Niamh Hargan’s upcoming third novel Nothing Good Happens After 2am, to be published in January, and has the rights to adapt Joanna Quinn’s historical fiction bestseller The Whalebone Theatre for tele­vision.

Liza Marshall says: “Hera Pictures is a fully independent production company established to produce bold, high-end, authored drama for a global audience.”

Contact: contact@hera-pictures.com

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