Brilliant forms Independent alliance

Company to develop slate with agency's stars

By ALI JAAFAR

Brilliant is working on an adaptation of Agatha Christie's 'Crooked House.'

Brilliant Films has forged an alliance with agent Duncan Heath’s Independent Talent Group that will see the Brit shingle develop a slate of projects from the tenpercentary’s cast of clients.

Independent reps the likes of Joe Wright, Paul Greengrass, Matthew Vaughn, Mike Newell and Daniel Craig.

While Brilliant Films will remain a wholly autonomous stand-alone venture, the close relationship with Heath, who is an adviser to the start-up shingle, gives them access to the cream of Brit filmmaking talent for their development fund.

Already in various stages of development on Brilliant’s slate are “Casino Royale” helmer Martin Campbell’s voodoo thriller “King of Swords”; Agatha Christie adaptation “Crooked House,” which Julian Fellowes is attached to write and direct; and psychological thriller “The Killing Circle,” which Justin Chadwick (“The Other Boleyn Girl”) is slated to direct.

Brilliant is also in early stages of development with projects from Pete Travis (“Vantage Point”) and Rupert Wyatt (“The Escapist”).

The shingle is also co-producing “Mrs. Darwin” with Newell. That project has up-and-coming Brit helmer Jonny Campbell attached to direct and there are hopes for production to begin later this year.

Brilliant is also developing “Sexy Beast” helmer Jonathan Glazer’s project “Sssucker.”

The shingle was set up in spring 2007 by Joe Abrams with private equity. Prior to setting up the shingle, Abrams acquired the rights to a number of classic works by the likes of Noel Coward, Agatha Christie and W. Somerset Maugham.

He is also co-producing “Easy Virtue,” based on the Coward play, with Ealing Studios.

“Talent is obviously the key to successful films,” said Brilliant prexy Abrams. “Working closely with Independent gives us the opportunity to attract and attach filmmakers of the highest caliber to projects we can generate or to projects they bring us at an early stage, creating a persuasive proposition to studios and other sources of production finance.”

Fittingly, Brilliant retains the ability to develop projects independently from Independent and the two companies are keen to stress that they are separate business entities from each other.

Though the exact size of Brilliant’s development fund has yet to be disclosed, it is believed to be sizeable enough to allow the company to expand into a development and production powerhouse over time.

“We have access to as much as we need as long as the business model make sense,” said Brilliant development head Rory Gilmarten.