EXCLUSIVE: Shadow of the Vampire duo Richard Johns and E. Elias Merhige have launched a TV and film shingle.
Promethean Pictures will be based in the UK and forge projects for the global market. Its first project, dog survival story Howl, is already in development.
Merhige is an arthouse director who helmed 2000’s Shadow of the Vampire with Johns, which starred John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe and was twice Oscar nominated. Merhige was also behind 2004’s Suspect Zero starring Ben Kingsley and Aaron Eckhart, while other credits include Begotten, Polia & Blastema: A Cosmic Opera and Din of Celestial Birds, which were showcased last weekend in the Screen of the Sky immersive experience at the Brussels Planetarium.
Merhige is joining with his long-time collaborator Johns, the Chivalry producer who only last year launched Argo Films. Argo is making Disney+’s The Shepherd starring John Travolta and a BBC-developed drama series about Biafra with David Oyelowo and others.
Promethean’s first project, Howl, follows Harry the dog, who gets left at home during an extreme winter after his owners die in a car crash. Told from Harry’s point of view, he goes through a rollercoaster survival ride, until he meets his greatest challenge, an orphaned wolf-cub. The project is in advanced development and is being reviewed by studios and streamers, according to Promethean.
Merhige said: “Richard and I had a brilliant creative partnership more 20 years ago and that spark never went away, binding us over the decades. Despite being forced off-radar for a while, I’ve never stopped generating concepts and working out new ways to bring them to life.”
Johns added: “The words unique and original are thrown around a lot in this industry – but they certainly apply to Elias Merhige. He is, without a doubt, a true visionary, seeing things that nobody else sees and always pushing boundaries.”
