The Brit 50: Working Title Films

Need to know: Commercial nous has kept Working Title going since it was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1984, the second longest–running company on this year’s Brit 50 list (behind Recorded Picture Company).

But veteran does not mean old-school. While the multi-Oscar and Bafta-winning company that brought the likes of Notting Hill, Four Weddings And A Funeral and Billy Elliot into the world continues to enjoy tremendous box-office success – 2022’s Ticket To Paradise is the company’s highest-grossing post-pandemic film, taking $169m worldwide, while Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy brought in $140m, both for Universal – Working Title is also open to working with streamers, producing the likes of Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical and Lena Dunham’s TV series Too Much for Netflix.

French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat’s Cannes 2024 body horror The Substance flexed the company’s arthouse muscle, bringing in more than $75m worldwide for Mubi. In 1999, Universal acquired the company, which now has a team of 40 across London and Los Angeles, with an 80/20 split. Working Title’s first-look deals with Universal Filmed Entertainment Group for film and Universal International Studios for TV have been rolling since 1998.

At any time, there are around 10 projects on both the film and TV slates that are at a mature point of development, but there is no exact science to the division between film and TV, with film slightly busier at the moment. “We’ve discovered over the last 30, 40 years that the minute you set a strategy, it usually doesn’t happen,” says Fellner.

Keeping a balanced slate between what has obvious commercial potential and the more creatively risky projects is the closest thing to a strategy the company has. “We’re in a hit-driven business, and need to have a cumulative number of movies in order to make sure there’s a hit amongst them,” notes Bevan.

Working Title is also building its theatre slate with three potential shows in development for 2027, including updated returns of Billy Elliot and Nanny McPhee. The company remains closely involved with the London Screen Academy, a state-funded north London sixth form academy for young people to gain behind-the-camera skills in film and TV that has been open since 2019, and co-founded with Heyday Films, Eon Productions and Lisa Bryer.

Key personnel: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, co-chairmen; Amelia Granger, head of film and TV UK; Katy Rozelle, head of TV US; Katherine Pomfret, head of production; Surian Fletcher-Jones, head of TV UK; Sheeraz Shah, head of legal and business affairs. 

Incoming: Scheduled 2026 releases include Alicia MacDonald’s Finding Emily, produced alongside Parkville Pictures for Universal/Focus Features; Pressure, to be released by Studiocanal in Europe and Focus in the US; Kyle Balda’s Three Bags Full: A Sheep Detective Movie, starring Hugh Jackman, Emma Thompson and Nicholas Galitzine, for Amazon MGM Studios; and Bart Layton’s Crime 101, starring Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Barry Keoghan and Halle Berry, for Amazon MGM Studios/Sony. In post is Georgia Oakley’s adaptation of Sense And Sensibility for Focus Features, following a summer UK shoot.

On the TV side, the Jo Nesbø-penned series based on her crime character Harry Hole is slated for release on Netflix in the first half of 2026, and an adaptation of Ian Forster’s A Passage To India is in development with BBC.

For Netflix, Working Title is executive producing Kate Winslet’s feature directorial debut Goodbye June and Lena Dunham’s feature Good Sex.

Eric Fellner says: “Getting people to go to the cinema – that is the difficult thing. In terms of everything else, as an industry we are in quite good shape. We have fantastic support from the government, brilliant crew and more movie stars, or budding movie stars, than ever. Creatively and financially, we’re in good shape.”

Contact: www.workingtitlefilms.com 

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