Vancouver film producer Chris Ferguson and his studio Oddfellows have signed a first-look deal with the Warner Bros. Picture Group.
Founded in 2013, Ferguson’s Oddfellows was behind the director Osgood Perkins’ horror hits Longlegs and The Monkey. Ferguson was also part of the producing team behind the hugely successful Vancouver-shot film Backrooms.
Since its May 29 release, Backrooms, which was made for $10 million, has brought in a whopping $375 million in box office receipts making it A24’s highest-grossing film.
As part of the new deal, Ferguson will bring projects to Warner Bros., and Warner Bros. will bring him projects from across its various titles, including Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema.
Warner Bros. Pictures Group’s Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy said in a joint statement that Ferguson and the Oddfellows team “have built a filmmaker-first creative engine with a proven ability to discover, support and elevate original talent.”
In a statement, Ferguson said they share the “same passion for talent” with the studio.
“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,” said Ferguson, who was honoured last year with the Mayor’s Achievement Award for his work in film and the Overdose Prevention Society in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
A key ingredient to Oddfellows’ success has been the Vancouver crew that Ferguson has assembled and uses for each of his projects.
“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,” said Perkins, who wrote and directed the Nicholas Cage-starring film that, to date, has made close to $130 million on a $10-million budget.
Ferguson and Perkins, who formed the production company Phobos last year, also worked together on The Monkey, which had a $10-million budget and brought in close to $70 million at the box office.
The pair have also teamed up for the upcoming feature The Young People starring Nicole Kidman and Lola Tung, as well as working on the sequel to Longlegs.
On the heels of Chris Ferguson’s Vancouver production company Oddfellows signing a first look deal with Warner Bros., Backrooms director Kane Parsons had this to say: “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.”
Backrooms director Kane Parsons echoes Perkins’ belief in Ferguson and the team he works with.
“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,” said Parsons in a statement. “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.”
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