Backrooms producer Chris Ferguson and his Oddfellows banner have signed a first look deal with Warner Bros. Picture Group.
The partnership also follows Ferguson collaborating with Osgood Perkins on earlier box office hits like Longlegs and The Monkey. Ferguson and his studio work with emerging talent from their filmmaking base in Vancouver.
Warner Bros. and Ferguson will team to produce films, whether with projects Ferguson brings to the studio, or WB projects that go north to Oddfellows from labels like Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema.
“The future of theatrical depends on a slate with real range — films of every size, style and ambition, from world-class established filmmakers to the bold new voices who will define what comes next. Chris Ferguson and the team at Oddfellows have built a filmmaker-first creative engine with a proven ability to discover, support and elevate original talent, and this partnership gives us an exciting new way to bring distinctive, smartly produced films to audiences across the theatrical landscape,” Warner Bros. Pictures Group co-chairs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy said in a statement.
Warner Bros. pursued a first-look deal with Ferguson after he produced Backrooms as a $10 million Vancouver-shot and produced adaptation by Kane Parsons of his viral YouTube short films series, before it went on to net around $364 million at the global box office to date.
“I cannot stress enough how integral Chris and the Oddfellows team were to the creation and success of Backrooms. The level of intense care, focus and trust I found from every individual we worked with was incredibly heartening. Chris is a fantastically meticulous creative partner and has done a stand-out job of curating a well-oiled, human-centric production system over the last decade. I am very excited to continue collaborating with this lot. They’re great,” director Parsons said in his own statement.
Ferguson has also had a long association with Longlegs director and producing partner Osgood Perkins. “Chris Ferguson and his merry band of brilliant collaborators at Oddfellows did nothing less than teach me what it actually means to be a filmmaker; we discovered Longlegs as a collective and without their inspiration and impact I’d still be just some guy,” Perkins added in his own statement.
Ferguson launched Oddfellows in 2013 out of Vancouver, which has become a hotspot of late for horror films performing at the multiplex.
“Pam and Mike have fostered Warner Bros. into the kind of studio environment that invites filmmakers to create their best work. It was obvious right away that we’re driven by the same passion for talent. Together we are going to be able to be ambitious and take the risks we need to elevate the next generation of filmmakers while continuing to forge new ground with the greatest artists of today,” Ferguson said in a statement.
The team at WB Clockwork earlier worked with Ferguson while at Neon on Longlegs and The Monkey and brokered the deal with the studio. Oddfellows was also represented in the deal by Dean Bahat, Ben Rubinfeld and Mike Hartmann at Ziffren Brittenham.
