While focus has shifted to series and production services, Potboiler still keeps a busy film development slate
Need to know: Potboiler was founded in 2000 by former barrister Gail Egan and the late Simon Channing Williams. Andrea Calderwood, then running Slate Films (and making projects including The Last King Of Scotland), joined in 2009, bringing her slate with her.
With a team of 10, Potboiler is split 50:50 between film and TV. Recent projects it has been involved in include Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love, Sky comedy-drama Funny Woman starring Gemma Arterton, and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s second feature as a director, Rob Peace, which premiered at Sundance 2024.
Potboiler maintains an appetite for international projects, having made The Constant Gardener in Kenya two decades ago, and continues to co-produce and shoot beyond UK borders. It also acts as a service producer, working on “a range of often American-financed projects that are being produced in the UK”.
Key personnel: Gail Egan, producer and co-founder; Andrea Calderwood, producer; Bek Leigh, head of finance.
Incoming: Currently in production is espionage series Secret Service for All3Media, directed by James Marsh and starring Gemma Arterton. Potboiler also has a bulging development slate and many projects in the pipeline. Among the most ambitious is a series adaptation of Norman Lewis’s wartime memoir Naples 44, which is being developed with Fremantle and has Iain Softley attached to direct from a script by Tony Grisoni.
The company also has an adaptation of Bernardine Evaristo’s novel Girl, Woman, Other in development with the BBC, and is working with The Wire creator David Simon on Legacy Of Ashes, also with Fremantle.
On the film side, there are projects in the works with Marsh, Ejiofor, Paul Laverty, Simon Beaufoy, Rungano Nyoni, Conor McPherson and Clio Barnard, among others.
Andrea Calderwood says: “We have always been inventive in how we get the films made. It’s about the quality of ideas. If you have a strong idea or an exciting piece of talent, that’s what attracts the finance. That’s something that has always worked for British productions across the world.”
Contact: info@potboiler.co.uk
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