Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner Biography

Share |

Co-chaired by TIM BEVAN (Producer) and ERIC FELLNER (Producer) since 1992, Working Title (established in 1983) has become Europe's leading film production company. It has produced more than 70 films, with a combined worldwide gross of three billion dollars, won 4 Academy Awards®, 20 British Academy Awards and numerous prizes at the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals. Recently, the company has been honored with two prestigious awards for its outstanding contribution to the British film industry: the Michael Balcon Award at last year's BAFTA Awards (2004); and the Alexander Walker Film Award at this year's Evening Standard British Film Awards.

Working Title Films' credits include the hugely successful romantic comedies Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Love Actually, all starring Hugh Grant and written or co-written by Richard Curtis. Curtis also made his directorial debut with Love Actually.

The company also have a long association with the Coen brothers, having made five films together, including the Academy® Award-winning Fargo; The Hudsucker Proxy; The Big Lebowski; O Brother, Where Art Thou?; and The Man Who Wasn't There.

Noted for its discerning eye and for intelligent and entertaining narratives, Working Title is also known for searching out and adapting successful and original books. Stephen Frears brought Nick Hornby's High Fidelity to the screen and Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz did the same with Hornby's About a Boy. Other notable adaptations include the aforementioned Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason from Helen Fielding's bestsellers, starring Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth; John Madden's adaptation of Louis de Bernieres' Captain Corelli's Mandolin, starring Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz; Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking, from the book by Helen Prejean which starred Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn; and the children's classic The Borrowers, directed by Peter Hewitt and based on the books of Mary Norton.

The company's credits also include Elizabeth, Bean, 40 Days & 40 Nights, The Guru, Johnny English, Ned Kelly, The Shape of Things, Thunderbirds and Wimbledon.

Forthcoming releases are Nanny McPhee, directed by Kirk Jones and written by and starring Emma Thompson, Colin Firth and Angela Lansbury; and Pride and Prejudice, directed by Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland and Judi Dench.

In 1999, WT² was formed to produce Working Title's lower budget films. Its first film, Billy Elliot, directed by Stephen Daldry, became an international commercial and critical hit. The division, headed by Natascha Wharton, has since made Ali G Indahouse, directed by Mark Mylod and starring Sacha Baron Cohen, as well as Marcus Adams' Long Time Dead, Marc Evans' My Little Eye and Alex de Rakoff's The Calcium Kid, starring Orlando Bloom.

Recent releases include Edgar Wright's Shaun of the Dead, a romantic zombie comedy starring Simon Pegg, and Inside I'm Dancing (Rory O'Shea Was Here), directed by Damien O'Donnell starring Romola Garai, James McAvoy and Steven Robertson. It will shortly release Mikybo & Me, directed by Terry Loane and starring Julie Walters, Ciaran Hinds, Adrian Dunbar, Gina McKee and Susan Lynch.