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A few years ago, producer James Harris stumbled upon this idea The chaira 25-minute YouTube horror short directed by a little-known comedian named Cary Parker.
Harris spends a lot of time browsing through shorts. Finding undiscovered directors is the source of income for Tea Shop Productions, the woodworking company he runs with partner Mark Lane. but The chair I felt different. It sounded cinematic, and Harris believed that if he could get Parker a bigger budget, the budding director could create something special for theaters.
This became something special maniawhich has turned Hollywood upside down since its arrival on May 15. It has already become Tea Shop’s highest-grossing film with $95.8 million worldwide, and in its second weekend, it was up 39 percent from the first.
It’s all part of the film’s eight-month saga that began when Focus yanked it from the Toronto Film Festival for $15 million in September.
Since its opening weekend, Harris has been fielding scripts from independent producers, who see the film as validation that they can make an impact outside the studio system. People within the system are also sending their well wishes, saying they think they can learn lessons from it maniawhich took an engaging concept — a young man hoping to be loved by the person he admired — combined it with an up-and-coming filmmaker, and cast a group of unknowns to make it a huge hit.
“Taking a chance on a first film is something we feel there’s a market for,” Harris says of working with new filmmakers like Parker. “We can work with financial partners to take that risk.”
For Harris and his tea shop partner, Lin, mania It represents a moment in the sun for the Brits who were university flatmates at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design in the 2000s.
“I don’t really know how the industry views us,” Lin says. “For a long time, there was a feeling that we were working without anyone knowing. Maybe that has changed now.”
Harris and Lane produced 40 films, including hits such as Mandy Moore’s shark thriller 47 meters down A high-concept cult hit like He fallsAnd they both launched franchises. There’s also Nicolas Cage’s blockbuster 2024 movie Surferamong many other things. In addition to newcomers, they are also working with more experienced hands, e.g 47 meters downJohannes Roberts. More importantly, they operate primarily outside the system to maintain control over themselves and the filmmakers.
“Your budget starts to go up, and then maybe you lose the freedom to choose who you choose, or maybe financial partners want more involvement,” says Harris.
Harris lives in Los Angeles, while Lin lives in London. The two act as two halves of each other when it comes to work. But the pair did not start their relationship on an auspicious note. Specifically, in their first week at university, Harris punched Lane in the nose.
“Let’s just say it was freshers’ week at university, and I probably deserved it,” Lin says, without going into detail about what happened. “He definitely deserved it,” Harris adds, as the two men laugh.
After university, they lived together in London while pursuing different career paths. Harris worked on low-budget independent islands, and Lane began his career in film sales. Around 2009, Harris was developing some features that he asked Harris to help him produce and sell, a heist film Block Towerfeaturing a young Jack O’Connell and a zombie feature Cockney vs zombies. Lane soon decided he couldn’t do his day job and produce, so he left to work with Harris full-time.
The company’s lean and average employees are five people. Sometimes with mania And they’ll be bringing in a producing partner, like Haley Nicole Johnson, who was a major force on the film. Above all, they take pride in doing it all – from developing scripts to securing financing to seeing the film through production, post-production and sales.
2017 47 meters down It was a turning point for the duo. This was their first time putting themselves in the game, as they financed an underwater film test themselves for about $8,000, a large sum for them at the time.
“No one could imagine how you could shoot an underwater movie for less than $100 million,” Harris recalls. The test showed you could actually do it, and the film grossed $62.1 million worldwide. The second part arrived in 2019, and the third part has already been filmed.
It was the other major film He fallsabout two women stranded on top of a decommissioned 2,000-foot tower. Their friend Scott Mann was trying to make a much larger film, but it kept falling apart.
“We said like, ‘Try to take back some control.’ Come up with something that can feel like a theatrical idea that won’t rely too heavily on the actors and [other] Cut.” The director came up with He fallswhich was a huge hit when it arrived on Netflix, and has a sequel scheduled for release in August panorama Directors, the Spierig brothers.
Historically, Harris and Lane have had a “one for them, one for us” mentality. In their case, “one of their own” might mean some films they come in to produce for a studio partner, rather than developing them from the ground up.
“We’re proud of the quality limits of our films, and even if some of them have different budgets, we try to make them all feel much bigger than they ever were,” says Harris.
success mania It doesn’t make them rethink their business plans. A few years ago, there was a terrifying arms race, with studios poaching producers with exclusivity deals, e.g barbaric BoulderLight producers are turning to Paramount. Harris doesn’t expect to follow suit in that regard, nor does he want to dive into big-budget filmmaking.
but mania It gives them more breathing room and freedom to pursue the things they love.
“As an independent producer, you end up making some films for financial reasons rather than creative reasons,” Harris says. “Success like this allows you to be more selective about some of these projects.” “You still want to do great things — and that doesn’t really change.”
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mania Now playing in theaters. Check all Hollywood ReporterCoverage here.
