That any of these movies caused more than a blip on the cultural radar screen is impressive. That all three came out of one independent studio, Fox Searchlight, is something Hollywood hasn’t seen since Miramax made a name for itself a decade ago. “Searchlight is really at the top of the heap now,” says the head of a competing studio. “Every part of that company works so well.”
In 2000 Peter Rice, a Brit who’d worked his way up from intern to executive VP, took over Twentieth Century Fox’s art-house division. With marketing whiz Nancy Utley and distribution head Stephen Gilula, Rice refocused the company on provocative niche films by innovative directors, keeping budgets below $15 million and limiting the number of films to about a dozen a year. The result? Last year box-office receipts shot up 200 percent. More important, the movies–“One Hour Photo,” “The Good Girl”–were terrific.
“Peter is an impresario,” says director Danny Boyle. Searchlight promoted his film, “28 Days Later,” with an aggressive Internet campaign, and opened it opposite the “Charlie’s Angels” sequel. “My knee-jerk reaction was that the man had lost his mind,” Boyle says, laughing. The $9 million movie has earned $72.2 million worldwide. Such results have made Searchlight the new top choice for indie filmmakers. “They’re the premier buyer if you want an independent film to be well distributed,” says William Morris agent Cassian Elwes. “They’re ultra-aggressive. If they set their sights on something, they get it.” When “thirteen” director Catherine Hardwicke was shopping her film at this year’s Sundance, she showed up for an 8 a.m. meeting and found a dozen Searchlight people there. (Other studios sent one or two.) She agreed to sell them the film for about $2 million rather than wait for a higher offer. “They really did care about it,” she says. If Searchlight needs a company motto, that’ll do nicely.
