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Working Title Films and Transatlantic British Cinema Nathaniel

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Working Title Films and Transatlantic British Cinema Nathaniel Working Title Films and Transatlantic British Cinema Nathaniel Townsend PhD University of York Theatre, Film and Television September 2014 2 Abstract This thesis presents a business history of the London-based film production company, Working Title Films. The focus is on the creative and business structures and processes through which Working Title has operated and, in turn, the individual and collective agency of the key players responsible for developing and maintaining these institutional determinants. The same set of research questions are applied to the principal filmmaking institutions with which Working Title has collaborated, and, more particularly, examines how Working Title has negotiated creative and business relationships with various larger film businesses. By taking a chronological approach to Working Title’s evolution, a detailed account of the company’s years as an independent production company (1984-1990), a subsidiary of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (1990-1998) and a subsidiary of Universal Pictures (1998-present) is provided. The thesis also offers a historical and conceptual framework through which the business history of Working Title is analysed. In the first instance, this involves a reconsideration of the relationship between the film industries and cultures of Britain and Hollywood which combines the discourses of national cinema with more recent scholarship about transnational cinema. This conceptual reinterpretation is subsequently applied to three indicative business histories from the 1930s and 1940s: London Films, MGM-British and the Rank Organisation — and then to Working Title itself. The central concept of the thesis — ‘Transatlantic British Cinema’ — describes a type of cultural production that challenges orthodox accounts of British cinema as national cinema and indicates the ways in which representations of Britain and ‘Britishness’ function within transnational film culture. 3 4 List of Contents Abstract 3 List of Tables 7 Acknowledgements 9 Author’s Declaration 11 Introduction 13 Chapter 1: The Trans/national Divide: 23 Towards a Typology of Transatlantic British Cinema Chapter 2: The Independent Years 1984-1990 59 Chapter 3: The PolyGram Years 1990-1998 99 Chapter 4: The Universal Years 1998-Present 163 Conclusion 233 Appendix 1 – List of Interviewees (in alphabetical order) 237 Appendix 2 – Working Title Filmography 239 List of References 241 6 List of Tables 1: Working Title’s ‘social art cinema’ output 1985-1988 89 2: Working Title’s independent output 1988-1989 93 3: Working Title slate by genre, 1990-1992 116 4: Working Title slate by genre, 1993-1998 145 5: Transatlantic British Cinema in the Working Title slate by genre, 1990-1998 160 6: Working Title main slate by genre, 1999-2006 182 7: WT2 slate by genre 1999-2006 190 8: Working Title’s Focus Features slate by genre 1999-2006 196 9: Working Title Main Slate 2007-2011 208 10: Working Title’s Focus Features Slate 2007-2011 211 11: Working Title’s Main Slate (Universal) 2012-2014 214 12: Working Title’s Focus Features Slate 2012-2014 215 13: Working Title’s StudioCanal Slate 2012-2014 216 14: Working Title’s Transatlantic British Cinema by genre 1999-2014 218 15: Working Title’s Transatlantic British Cinema by genre: Romantic Comedy 223 16: Working Title’s Transatlantic British Cinema by genre: Comedy 225 17: Working Title’s Transatlantic British Cinema by genre: Drama 227 18: Working Title’s Transatlantic British Cinema by genre: Family 228 19: Working Title’s Transatlantic British Cinema by genre: Action/Thriller 228 20: WT2 by genre: Action/Thriller 230 7 8 Acknowledgements I would like to thank Professor Andrew Higson and Professor Duncan Petrie for their support and encouragement during the last four years. In particular, to Andrew for his excellent guidance, judgement and patience, and to Duncan for the use of his office and many enjoyable evenings spent escaping the pressures of sobriety. I would also like to thank, more generally, all the staff at the Department of Theatre, Film and Television and my particular PhD cohort including James Ballands, Jonathan Carr, Verena von Eicken, Hannah Davies, Mark France, Mark Smith and Romana Turina for their camaraderie and friendship. Thanks also to my family – Mum, Dad, Dan and Saff – who are very dear to me. Last but not least, I would like to thank my wonderful partner, Leah, for everything. I would also like to thank the Arts & Humanities Research Council for funding this work. It would simply not have been possible without such support. Thanks also go to all of those who participated in this thesis by agreeing to be interviewed. It would have been a much less rewarding endeavour without people to talk to! Finally, a special mention goes to Michael Kuhn for his assistance with providing and agreeing to let me use a range of invaluable archival material. 9 10 Author’s Declaration I declare that all of the work in this this is my own, unless otherwise cited. I can also confirm that this work has been submitted only to the University of York, for the award of PhD. 11 12 Introduction Working Title Films is the most important contemporary film production company based in Britain. In the last 30 years it has produced over 100 feature films, which have collectively generated over $5 billion at the worldwide box-office, along with numerous awards and critical plaudits. The company’s longevity, diverse and prolific output and commercial success make it unique in the context of the British film industry. During the 1980s Working Title was best known for its ‘social art cinema’ including films such as My Beautiful Laundrette (1985), Caravaggio (1986) and Wish You Were Here (1987). In contrast, during the 1990s the company was most closely associated with its romantic comedies written by Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1994; Notting Hill, 1999) and its family films (Bean, 1997; The Borrowers, 1997). In the 2000s this repertoire was expanded with period dramas directed by Joe Wright (Pride & Prejudice, 2005; and Atonement, 2007), more family films starring Rowan Atkinson (Johnny English, 2003; Mr. Bean’s Holiday, 2007), genre comedies from the writer-director team of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, 2004; Hot Fuzz, 2007) and, of course, more romantic comedies from Richard Curtis (Bridget Jones’s Diary, 2001; Love Actually, 2003). More recently, Working Title has also produced political thrillers such as Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011) and Closed Circuit (2013), and more contemporary period dramas like Frost/Nixon (2008) and The Theory of Everything (2014). Working Title’s continuing success has prompted frequent celebrations of the company, especially in terms of national achievement in the broadsheet and trade press and at award ceremonies, including the 2004 BAFTAs at which Working Title received the Michael Balcon Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. Despite its prominent and acclaimed position within the British film industry, the limited scholarly work about Working Title has focussed almost exclusively on the company’s transnational and particularly transatlantic production strategy and the key films it has produced in this context. Michael Wayne (2006), for example, positions Working Title’s films within what he calls the ‘Atlanticist paradigm for British cinema’ and argues that the company has been integrated into the Hollywood film industry and operates in a subordinate position 13 whereby the range of films it produces are necessarily made with the American, rather than the British, market in mind. Taking a less overtly political approach, Tobias Hochscherf and James Leggott suggest: Working Title has been at the forefront of establishing ways of working with and according to the models of major Hollywood studios in order to produce profitable films with high production values aimed at largely middle-class, affluent audiences. As a potpourri of British and American characteristics, its films have repeatedly used an array of American and British performers in lead roles, often connected with Hollywood genres such as romantic comedy and horror, whilst also extending and exporting indigenous traditions of comedy and costume drama. Some of its most popular films also deal with Anglo-American culture clashes on both an aesthetic and narrative level, thematising cultural difference whilst adopting a formally populist approach (Hochscherf & Leggot, 2010, 9-10). Even a cursory survey of Working Title’s entire output, however, reveals a much more diverse picture. For many years Working Title has also produced a range of films that are American in settings, themes and characters, and which are every bit as diverse as its British output. During the 1990s such films included the work of American auteurs like the writer and director Tim Robbins (Bob Roberts, 1992; Dead Man Walking, 1996), the director Mario Van Peebles (Posse, 1993; Panther, 1995) and the writer-director-producer partnership of Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo, 1996; The Big Lebowski, 1998). Working Title again produced various American-set films in the 2000s, including romantic comedies (40 Days and 40 Nights, 2002; Definitely, Maybe, 2008), political thrillers and action films directed by Paul Greengrass (United 93, 2006; Green Zone, 2010), as well as maintaining its working relationship with the Coen brothers on films like Burn After Reading (2008) and A Serious Man (2009). Working Title’s sustained success in Hollywood was recognised in 2013 by the Producers Guild of America which honoured Working Title co-chairmen Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner with the David O. Selznick Achievement Award, the organisation’s highest honour. There can be few filmmakers that have received both the Michael Balcon Award in the UK and the David O. Selznick Award in the US, which once again underlines the unique achievements of the Working Title team. Even so, the range of academic writing about Working Title remains surprisingly limited and this is arguably due to some of the inherent biases of film studies as a discipline.
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