Leo

Alison Thompson and Mark Gooder of Cornerstone Films discuss the success of Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Mike Leigh's typically secretive next film.

But that in itself gives it a concept and point of difference in the marketplace, and there are lots of people who buy into that concept and love Mike Leigh. The ‘doesn’t’ part is a shocking element that’s been introduced to the marketplace in the last seven or eight years. But we’ve never had the funds to be able to sort of contribute to the process at that point and move it to the place we feel it needs to be to get it to the marketplace. But this was a film that was released very early in the season and has managed to retain that momentum. The model to put a genre film together is a strong script and very sellable idea. Thompson: But the short answer is ‘no.’ It’s a film by Mike Leigh, that’s it. But that’s because we all gravitate towards a space that we feel can work, and the genre space has been comparatively successful over the last two or three years and during the COVID period. We like to use that word a lot at the moment. Thompson: We feel the three all have a very distinct proposition to them as well, and we’re focused more than ever on that. But I think it just demonstrates, more than ever — and Mark and I talk about this constantly — that it’s about concept, its about having that marketing hook and something that audiences can immediately identify with, no matter what its genre. At a rather subdued Berlinale in 2022, Emma Thompson was — as might be expected — one of the highlights. Even in summer as the film was rolling out and there was a huge amount of love for it, you still never really knew how things were going to land.