Hot Milk is the directing debut of Rebecca Lenkiewicz and the first film out of Christine Langan’s Bonnie Productions. They tell Screen about the Berlin Competition title’s path to the big screen.
Christine Langan is used to juggling sizeable teams and hectic slates, having been CEO of Steve Coogan’s UK outfit Baby Cow for four years and, prior to that, creative director at BBC Film for seven. At Bonnie Productions, which she set up in 2020, Langan is the sole employee. The first feature on her slate, Hot Milk, world premieres in Competition today (February 14) and is also the debut feature of She Said screenwriter-turned-director Rebecca Lenkiewicz.
A stripped-back approach to producing, however, has not meant a simpler life. “It’s been quite the journey, lots of ups and downs,” says Langan of Hot Milk. “It was sometimes darkly comic because it was so difficult.”
“it’s been miraculous to get [here],” agress Lenkiewicz.
Hot Milk is an adaptation of Deborah Levy’s novel of the same name, in which a mother and daughter — played by Fiona Shaw and Emma Mackey — travel to the Spanish seaside resort of Almeria and meet a free-spirited traveller, played by Vicky Krieps. Langan was still at Baby Cow when she optioned the book, sending it to Lenkiewicz in 2018, someone she had wanted to collaborate with for some time. Lenkiewicz agreed on the basis she would also get to direct.
Film4 and sales agent HanWay Films came on board as partners. But the pandemic hit and momentum slowed. This gave time for recce missions to Spain, alongside producer Kate Glover, who led on the physical production side of the project.
Gathering finance to fund a debut feature with a Spanish shoot proved difficult. Jessie Buckley, initially in Mackey’s role, dropped out owing to a scheduling clash and the project stalled.
Greece saved the day as an affordable alternative, with some of the novel already set in Athens. A budget of $5m (£4m) was pulled together through the UK and Greek tax credits, pre-sales, Film4 support, private equity and an anonymous donor (a fan of Lenkiewicz’s work).
Heretic was recommended as a Greek co-producer. “It wasn’t immediately straightforward, if I’m honest,” says Langan of their partnership. “There was some cultural adaptation. We are three driven women, who were very sure-footed and attached to each other, the project and the female gaze. It’s very much about women. [Heretic founder] Giorgos Karnavas is the most wonderful man but he is quite male.”
Zoom meetings helped to iron things out. “We all became extremely firm friends — it was the most wonderful collaboration,” adds Langan.
Production began in August 2023 despite pleas from Karnavas not to shoot in the scorching Greek summer. While the heat was challenging, the local hospitality was spectacular. “When you stop for lunch with a Greek crew, it’s a bit like going to a Greek wedding,” smiles Langan.
Turning the page
Books are where it all begins for the producer. Bonnie Productions’ first TV series, BBC’s Miss Austen, is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Gill Hornby. Langan has optioned “a lot” of novels, including a project to be helmed by Philippa Lowthorpe that she is hoping will start up soon. A focus on book adaptations, she insists, has not been a conscious strategy: “It just turned out that way. There’s a decided advantage where you can present people with a world via a novel. There’s an understanding of what it might offer.”
Langan oversaw box-office hits including Brooklyn ($7.5m/£6m in the UK and Ireland for Lionsgate UK) and Philomena ($14.2m/£11.5m for Pathé/Fox) while at BBC Film, and would like to see the UK’s public funds service broader audiences. “We need funding from the public sector for mainstream films,” she says. “We’ve got to bring audiences into the cinemas to help make the argument that film is for everyone and has to be supported.”
Comedy has been crucial to her career, from 2015’s The Lady In The Van to the Alan Partridge output. Humour runs through her slate, but bringing a fresh, straight-up comedy to today’s market, she senses, would be tricky. “Bridget Jones [Mad About The Boy] will be massive — it tells you about the kind of big British comedies we grew up on,” she says.
“I’m not sure that sensibility is happening now. Comedy drama is a good place to aim for a movie. For [just] comedy, you need a brand. Comedy is a risk, but the wins are big if you can pull it off.”
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