Working Title Heads on Going From Rom-Coms to Body Horror With ‘The Substance’: We ‘Didn’t Totally Understand Just How Full-On It Was Going to Be’

variety.com:

Alex Ritman “The Brutalist” was one of the buzziest titles to come out of the Venice Film Festival, pushing filmmaker Brady Corbet immediately into many Oscar predictions lists for best director.

Many might not be aware that, 20 years earlier, Corbet was the teenage lead star of the film “Thunderbirds.” This cinema fact was revealed on stage at the BFI London Film Festival in something of a rare public talk by the heads of Working Title, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner.

Despite being arguably the U.K.’s best known and most successful production company — whose more than 150 films have landed more than 300 Oscars, BAFTAs and Golden Globes combined — the two were asked to discuss their failures and the lessons learned along the way. “Thunderbirds” — based on the cult sci-fi TV series — was among the flops mentioned, making just $28 million from a budget of $57 million.

The fault with that film — according to Fellner — was that instead of focusing on one of the company’s main target market, the U.K.