Lionel Wigram Guy Ritchie Soho Apple Store - H 2011
Henry S. Dziekan III/Getty ImagesDirector Guy Ritchie and producer Lionel Wigram are teaming up to form a production company and are finalizing a first-look deal with Warner Bros.
The new company, which does not have a name at this time, is not intended as a vanity deal for Ritchie. While the director and Wigram are looking to develop and produce projects with Ritchie attached to direct, the duo will also look to work with other directors.
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The deal also encompasses developing properties in the television arena. The company will have offices in London and Los Angeles.
Ritchie bonded with Wigram, a former Warners exec, when the two first worked on 2009’s Sherlock Holmes and then again on Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which opens December 16.
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Ritchie, who broke into features with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, impressed Warners with his 2008 feature RocknRolla. While the movie only grossed $5 million domestically, it was instrumental in leading him to direct Holmes, which proved to be a worldwide hit, making $524 million.
Wigram came up with the concept for the fresh take on Holmes, hiring an artist and creating a comic book-like volume to help sell the idea. He was a producer on the movie along with Joel Silver, Dan Lin and Susan Downey.
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Wigram, who also acted as an exec producer on four Harry Potter movies, already had a first-look deal with Warners, with that pact running out at the end of December 2011. The deal with the new company acts will then take its place, beginning on January 1, 2012.
