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Expectations for theCompanionscript were low.
He instead hoped to use it as a calling card to land other work.
Companioncame out of that frustration.
It was this writing sample to be like,If this gets made, great.
In 2023, BoulderLight signed a multiyear first-look deal with the Warner Bros. subsidiary New Line Cinema.
Finding that movie wasnt an accident, says Richard Brener, New Lines president and chief creative officer.
We like to say we dont chase heat; we create it, Margules says.
Its us believing in the process and believing in our gut.
Lifshitz adds, We want to make cool stuff that everyone else is trying to rip off.
Not chasing trends but making trends for us, thats very instinctual.
I feel like we are at war continually with homogenization and mediocrity.
Thats whats killing the movie business.
Who is a good example of someone on the path to success in Hollywood today?
The answer to both are the 2 guys pictures [sic] below.
We dont view ourselves as independent producers, Margules explains.
We want to be a 21st-century entertainment studio, something between a Blumhouse and a Castle Rock.
That unflagging drive, however, can be both an asset and a liability.
Theyre super-aggressive guys, says this source.
But theyre pissing off a lot of people.
(Kendrick and AGC did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
Their publicist, Heidi Lopata, said the producers parted ways due to creative differences.)
Look, they are definitely aggressive and bold and they trust their gut above everything else, Brener says.
Theyll push that giant boulder up the hill no pun intended.
You just cant stress enough theyre like a whirlwind, says Brener.
Companionprovides a convenient primer for the way BoulderLight works.
Around 2014, BoulderLight had explored developing another project with Hancock that ultimately went nowhere.
This was just a year shy of Lifshitzs and Marguless first producorial credit, the $50,000-budgeted body-horror thrillerContracted.
And then 24 hours after that, Roy Lee at Vertigo Entertainment had attached himself to it.
And then a week after that, they sent it to Zach, and Zach loved it.
I had a whole producing team behind me within a week of finishing.
And that never happens!
That summer, Cregger and Hancock kicked off the development process together in earnest.
The BoulderLight execs resolved to have him plow his energy into the ambitious follow-up script that would turn intoWeapons.
And Cregger proposed installing Hancock at the helm ofCompaniondespite the writers total absence of feature-directing bona fides.
All of which came as news to Hancock.
I remember getting the phone call and being so shocked by it, he says.
There was no version of this movie where I was going to direct it.
Without me knowing, Zach went to BoulderLight and Vertigo and got them to sign off on me.
Youd think itd be logical at this point for it to be a little bit easier, Margules says.
But if it was logical, it wouldnt be the movie business.
