Good Films unveils ambitious six-film slate

The former BBC Films exec has raised £2.2m ($3.5m) from private capital via an EIS scheme through development company George Films.

Shooting will begin on the first project, Invisible, through her UK-based production company Good Films in mid-June.

Mexican director Everado Gout (Days of Grace) will direct the $13m feature, which will be shot on location in London and is based on a play by Tena Stivicic

Speaking to Screen at the AFM in Santa Monica, Segal described Invisible as “a beautiful love story with a violent ending”.

“The films on our slate are all stories that have a resonance with the modern world and are the opposite of an atypical British film,” she said.

“Thematically, they comment on economic migration or bank corruption and are more akin to an American independent slate than a British one. We won’t be making period films. No one in any of my movies wears a bonnet.”

Segal has teamed with consultant producer Jill Morris (In Bruges), financial consultant Diane Stidham, line producer Andrew Warren (We Need to Talk About Kevin) and principal investor Martin Rushton-Turner to bring the projects to fruition.

The Infiltrator

The second project is titled The Infiltrator and is a passion project of director Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer). It was brought to Good Films by CAA.

Based on a true story, it follows federal agent Robert Mazur who went undercover to infiltrate Colombia’s mafia and helped collapse one of the world’s biggest privately held banks.  

It will shoot in spring 2014, with a budget of $55m, in Miami, New York, Los Angeles, London and Paris.

Segal will meet with Furman in the coming days to begin casting discussions.

“It is an amazing story with an ambitious budget,” said Segal. “We want to get that into pre-production next autumn.”

Other projects

The third title on Good Films slate, What I Loved, will also begin shooting in spring 2014.

Based on the New York Times award-winning novel by Siri Hustvedt, it centres on two families who are thrown into turmoil when one of the sons dies in an accident.

It has a budget of $18m and will shoot in New York.

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun is based on the memoir of Peter Godwin and will shoot in South Africa, London and New York in autumn 2014.

It centres on Godwin, who moved to New York from Zimbabwe when it was still in the grip of dictatorship (the crocodile of the title is Robert Mugabe). But 9/11 sees his freedoms threatened once more as he becomes a suspected terrorist overnight.

Postcard Killers is based on the crime novel jointly written by bestselling authors James Patterson and Liza Marklund.

The story begins when the daughter of a New York detective is murdered while they are on holiday in Rome. It is part of a pattern of murders across Europe, in which the killer sends a postcard to the local newspaper, embroiling a local Swedish reporter in the drama.

It will shoot in early 2015, with a budget of $25m, across Stockholm, Berlin and New York.

The final title, The F**k It Button, is a wry look at the life of a woman who refuses to stick to the conventional path of life.

Based on a screenplay by Polly Steele, it will shoot in London, France and Africa in summer 2015 with a budget of $10m.

Cottage industry

Speaking about her international ambitions for Good Films, Segal said: “The British film industry needs to be more like an industry.

“I don’t want to criticise it, but there should be a greater sense of market and should not simply rely on believing there may be a niche audience.

“The films I have made have always been financed by America. There’s no indulgence of romanticism about it. There is passion there but there also has to be good business sense. There’s no point making a film about a chair if people don’t want to see films about chairs.”

She added: “Our investors are already talking about the next slate and we are just about to go into development on our seventh project. I can’t say anymore except that I couldn’t turn it down.”