EXCLUSIVE: On the heels of an incredibly successful run with his Aubrey Plaza-led feature directorial debut Emily the Criminal, John Patton Ford will team with StudioCanal and Blueprint Pictures for Huntington, Deadline hears.
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The film written and to be directed by Ford reunites the companies following their work together on such starry features as The Last Letter from Your Lover and The Mercy. The StudioCanal development, loosely inspired by the studio’s iconic Ealing Comedy library title Kind Hearts and Coronets, is described as a dark, funny and highly entertaining satirical thriller with an exciting role for a male star. It tells the story of a super-rich upstate New York family and its young outcast, who hatches a murderous plot to work his way back into the family, in order to regain his birth right and inherit their fortune.
Sources say that Ford is currently meeting with actors for the project, to be co-produced by StudioCanal and Blueprint. Production is expected to commence later this year.
One of the buzziest rising directors in town, Ford just this past weekend landed the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay for Emily the Criminal, which also counted Best First Feature amongst its nominations. The crime thriller follows the student debt-plagued Emily (Plaza), who takes a shady gig as a “dummy shopper” and is pulled into L.A.’s criminal underworld after finding herself locked out of the job market due to a minor criminal record.
Roadside Attractions and Vertical Entertainment handled the August theatrical release for the pic, which world premiered to critical acclaim at Sundance 2022, seemingly gaining steam as one of the most discussed Indies of the year upon its Netflix debut in December. Named one of the Top Ten Independent Films of the year by the National Board of Review, Emily the Criminal also landed its writer-director Ford a DGA Award nom for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film, among other accolades.
The decorated French studio StudioCanal has recently backed titles including the darkly comedic dating thriller Cat Person, which world premiered to critical acclaim at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Among other upcoming projects from the company is Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black for Focus Features.
Graham Broadbent and Peter Czernin’s production company Blueprint Pictures most recently reteamed with Martin McDonagh on his Searchlight pic The Banshees of Inisherin, which is nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Picture, having previously produced his films Three Billboards, Seven Psychopaths and In Bruges. The company is otherwise best known for producing the BBC One/Prime Video series A Very English Scandal, Autumn De Wilde’s Focus adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma starring Anya Taylor-Joy, and Netflix’s take on Lady Chatterley’s Lover starring Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell.
Ford is represented by Verve, Black Box Management and Yorn, Levine, Barnes.
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