LONDON – U.K. based international sales and financing label Protagonist Pictures has appointed Mike Goodridge as CEO.
The company, whose shareholders include Channel 4’s filmmaking unit Film4, production banner Vertigo Films and financing company Ingenious Media, brings Goodridge in to replace Ben Roberts.
Roberts, a former Universal Pictures International executive, announced his impending departure from Protagonist in March this year to be the director of the British Film Institute’s £21 million ($33 million) movie fund, a role he will take up in June.
PHOTOS: Sundance London – Highlights from the Film and Music Festival
Goodridge is expected to take up his post in early August and joins from London based trade title Screen International where he was editor.
Goodridge spent 12 years as US editor in Los Angeles with Screen and returned to his native U.K. to edit the trade in 2009.
Protagonist Pictures was set up in 2008 by three of the existing four shareholder companies – Vertigo Films, Film4 and Ingenious Media – and in 2010 Nigel Williams came on board as company chairman and majority shareholder.
Over the course of its four-year existence, Protagonist has handled a diverse slate of films from both its shareholders and third-party producers, spanning titles such as Bronson, StreetDance, Monsters, Tyrannosaur, Kill List, The Deep Blue Sea and Submarine.
Its current slate includes Nick Love’s cop thriller The Sweeney, Sightseers from Ben Wheatley which unspooled in the Directors’ Fortnight during this year’s Festival de Cannes and Sundance documentary entries Searching for Sugar Man and The Imposter.
Cannes 2012: THR’s Video Diary
Goodridge described Protagonist as company “which has grown into such an identifiable brand so quickly in the marketplace.”
He said: “I can’t wait to take on this new chapter in my career and work with the brilliant team at the company to build on what Ben Roberts has achieved in the first four years.”
Williams added: “We are delighted to have recruited someone with Mike’s experience and standing within the industry. Protagonist is an ambitious business and we believe Mike is the ideal person to lead us to fulfilling our ambitions.”
