Sam Mendes and Pippa Harris’s 22-year-old company works across film, TV and theatre
Need to know: After running the Donmar Warehouse together, Sam Mendes and Caro Newling founded Neal Street Productions in 2003 with film and TV producer Pippa Harris. Former BBC director of UK drama Nicolas Brown joined in 2012, and in 2025 House Productions’ Harriet Spencer arrived with a brief to develop her own TV slate. All3Media acquired Neal Street – which works across TV, film and theatre, and has a team of 14 – in 2015.
The company is riding high with Focus Features’ awards contender Hamnet, jointly produced with Hera Pictures and Amblin Entertainment, and directed by Chloé Zhao from Maggie O’Farrell’s book. Past Neal Street films include the Mendes-directed 1917, Empire Of Light, Away We Go, Revolutionary Road and Jarhead. TV hits include Call The Midwife, Penny Dreadful and Britannia.
Key personnel: Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris, Nicolas Brown, Caro Newling, company directors; Julie Pastor, Harriet Spencer, executive producers.
Incoming: Awaiting release, The Magic Faraway Tree is adapted by Simon Farnaby (Paddington franchise) from the Enid Blyton children’s book series and directed by Ben Gregor, with a cast including Claire Foy, Andrew Garfield and Rebecca Ferguson.
Starting production in November is Mendes’s Sony-backed four-film series about The Beatles, scripted by Jack Thorne, Jez Butterworth and Peter Straughan, and starring Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan and Harris Dickinson as the Fab Four.
In development is a Call The Midwife feature and Second World War-set prequel TV series Sisters In Arms, both written by the show’s creator Heidi Thomas. Greece-set six-part TV series The Magus – adapted by Tom Edge (Judy) from the 1965 John Fowles novel, with Johan Renck (Chernobyl) directing – has three episodes written and is out to cast. It is a co-production with Fight And Flight.
Pippa Harris says: “What differentiates Neal Street is that we’ve always worked across film, TV and theatre, and we’ve developed relationships with writers and directors across those pillars. So Jack Thorne, who wrote The Motive And The Cue [National Theatre] for us, is now working on The Beatles. We’ve worked with Jez Butterworth – Britannia for TV, and The Ferryman and The Hills Of California for theatre – and again on The Beatles. There’s always been a back and forth between those disciplines, and that’s helped enrich our slate.”
Contact: post@nealstreetproductions.com
No comments yet