Charles Finch: The “Old-Fashioned” Movie Impresario Returns To Producing – And Insists Roasting On Oscars And BAFTAs Must Stop
25.05.2022 - 13:01
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Charles Finch (Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love) is as English as they come, but Hollywood runs through his veins. Having written movies, produced a few, directed three; managed movie stars and built brands, and published high-end cultural magazines, he decided “smack in the middle of Covid, in my late fifties,” that he wanted to go back to making movies.
He has set up a small film company that he calls STANDALONE. Finch has a relationship with Columbia Pictures and he’ll formally announce a development deal with that studio next month. The entrepreneur also has a project with Netflix.
Finch told us that he has a slate of some 15 to 20 projects. Included in his group of filmmaking collaborators are directors Josie Rourke (Mary Queen of Scots), Tom Hooper (Les Miserables), Marina Zenovich (Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind), Simon Curtis (Downton Abbey: A New Era), and Florian Zeller (The Father).
Finch described himself as a “really old-fashioned impresario, quite good at spotting talent,” and he wants to use that insight to get films made. His view is that studios made a mistake in cutting back on producer deals. “I think it’s a mistake because you under-power the studio, then the director is the producer, the actor is the producer… well how do you get anybody to actually do the work?
“The actor can only do a limited number of movies they’re developing, the director can only do one movie every two years, so you don’t really have a pipeline to fill your studio,” he argued.
Finch’s father, the Academy Award-winning actor Peter Finch (Network) was at Columbia, that’s why it’s an important relationship for him. “I have a real passion for that studio,” he told Deadline, just as passionately, over a breakfast of