John Gore Studios Launches With Hilary Strong as CEO and Joan Collins, Luke Hemsworth Projects
John Gore Studios, a new film and TV production studio headquartered in London, has on Wednesday officially launched and appointed industry veteran Hilary Strong as CEO.
British-born Gore, a two-time Emmy and Olivier award winner, will serve as executive chairman of John Gore Studios. He has tapped Strong as CEO, an exec in the literary and entertainment sectors whose previous endeavors include chief at Agatha Christie Ltd and commercial director at Hat Trick productions.
John Gore Studios will adopt a “strategic approach to film and TV that mirrors the highly successful methods used for theater” by the John Gore Organization, a comprehensive family of media companies, which includes Broadway Across America, Broadway.com, The Broadway Channel, BroadwayBox.com, and Group Sales Box Office. Gore is a 22-time Tony award winner.
John Gore Studios is already set for production on two new features: The Bitter End (working title) will be directed by multi-award-winning director Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and penned by screenwriter and novelist Louise Fennell. The film stars Joan Collins as Wallis Simpson, the American divorcee who became the Duchess of Windsor after marrying King Edward VIII, the British King who chose love over duty, in the shocking untold story of her final years.
The film will be produced by Gore, Richard Holmes and Francis Hopkinson and executive produced by Strong and Michael Foster. Filming is set to begin May 2025.
Collins added: “I am thrilled about the challenge of playing this iconic woman in a previously untold story and to be in John Gore Studios’ initial roster of what I’m sure will be a very successful endeavour.”
The second project, Ithaqua, is a new production under the Hammer banner. The film introduces the first new Hammer monster in sixty years, Ithaqua, created by the film’s director and producer Casey Walker. Set in 1800s Canada, it sees the British survivors of a remote trade outpost plagued by an ancient evil that leaves its victims with an insatiable hunger for flesh.
The film stars Luke Hemsworth, Kevin Durand, Michael Pitt, Craig Lauzon and Leenah Robinson with the screenplay written by Walker in collaboration with Peter Vicaire and Pascal Trottier. Distribution will be handled by Kaleidoscope.
