Fox Searchlight announced on Wednesday that it has signed a first-look production deal with Element Pictures for all theatrical films.
Element Pictures, run by Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe, is the production company behind Sebastian Lelio’s recent film “Disobedience,” starring Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams; Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Killing of the Sacred Deer” and “The Lobster,” as well as “Room,” which won Brie Larson the Oscar for best actress.
Matthew Greenfield and David Greenbaum, Fox Searchlight co-presidents of production for film and TV, made the announcement that the Dublin and London-based company, working across production, distribution and exhibition, would bring its unique point of view to Fox Searchlight.
Element Pictures is currently working with Fox Searchlight Pictures, Film4, Waypoint Entertainment and producers Ceci Dempsey (of Scarlet Films) and Lee Magiday on Lanthimos’s quirky period drama “The Favourite,” which is set to open the 56th New York Film Festival on Friday.
“We have loved working with Ed and Andrew on ‘The Favourite.’ They are brilliant producers who have deep relationships with some of the most unique and important directorial voices in the world,” Greenbaum and Greenfield said in a statement. “We enter this partnership with a shared commitment to bringing ground-breaking, ambitious works to the screen.”
Starring Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz, the film is set for a Nov. 23 North American release and Jan. 1, 2019 release in the U.K.
“David and Matthew and the team at Searchlight are wonderful collaborators; they have great taste, are incisive, astute and very supportive,” Guiney and Lowe said in a statement. “Our experience working together on ‘The Favourite’ has demonstrated that we have a shared sensibility and a strong ambition to make truly distinctive and outstanding work together.”
The deal comes as Fox Searchlight and a handful of other TV and film entertainment assets prepare to merge with Disney, following the company’s $71.3 billion acquisition of the Fox assets.
The deal is expected to close around the end of the year, at which point Fox Searchlight will be under Disney’s thumb. It’s not yet clear exactly how Disney plans to fold Fox Searchlight and the other assets into its current businesses.