EXCLUSIVE: Holden’s Lightbulb working on Matthew Read action horror and Ritsons’ supernatural thriller.

UK producer Ben Holden will leave his post as Exclusive Media’s Director of European Film and TV Group to become an independent producer at his own Lightbulb Pictures, with a non-exclusive deal with Exclusive.

Under the deal, Lightbulb will receive development funding from Exclusive for a slate of projects across all genres, and Holden will produce new projects for Hammer (a division of Exclusive Media).

Holden is currently producing (with James Gay-Rees) Hammer’s thriller The Quiet Ones, directed by John Pogue and starring Jared Harris and Sam Claflin. That film is about a charismatic professor doing dangerous poltergeist experiments with his students.

Holden will work on upcoming projects for Hammer including an untitled original action-horror feature written by Matthew Read (who wrote the UK remake of Pusher) and supernatural thriller Coven, to be written by Blake and Dylan Ritson.

He is also working with Hammer/Exclusive on The Woman In Black: Angels of Death, the follow-up to Hammer’s hit The Woman In Black, which Holden also worked on.

“I am delighted to continue working with the Exclusive Media family on this exciting slate of new projects,” said Holden.  “I can think of no better collaborators than the dynamic teams at Exclusive Media in Los Angeles and London.  It is a thoroughly energising, exciting new chapter.”

The pact was announced by Tobin Armbrust, President of Worldwide Production and Acquisitions. He added: “Ben is one of the finest executives I’ve worked with over recent years.  His creative and professional instincts are top notch and I’m looking forward to building on the success we created with The Woman In Black.”   

Before working at Exclusive, Holden worked at Intermedia.