Mike Goodridge might have one of the most interesting résumés in showbiz.
The executive’s early career was in journalism at none other than THR rival Screen International. He spent 12 years as U.S. editor of Screen in L.A. before leaving the trade publication world behind for Protagonist Pictures, where he was tapped to become CEO. After five years at Protagonist — and four editions in charge of the Macao Film Festival — Goodridge set up his own London-based production company, Good Chaos.
Fast forward another five years, the Briton is gearing up for an almighty festival run: he has Edward Berger‘s Colin Farrell-starring Ballad of a Small Player — adapted from Lawrence Osborne’s novel about an English con man on Macao’s gambling scene — which is all but confirmed to debut in Telluride before its Canadian premiere at TIFF. He also has Laszlo Nemes’ historical drama Orphan screening in competition and Imran Perretta’s coming-of-age debut Ish in Venice Critics’ Week, as well as Helen Walsh’s erotic sophomore feature, On the Sea, which just premiered in Edinburgh.
Fests aside, Goodridge is looking to Jalmari Helander’s sequel Sisu: Road to Revenge, releasing in theaters Nov. 21, and filming on Anna Biller’s hotly anticipated ghost story The Face of Horror is underway in Prague as we speak.
Below, Goodridge takes a moment to catch his breath and catch up with The Hollywood Reporter about the Good Chaos mission. He discusses landing Edward Berger on a storming run of form post-All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave, as well as his TV ambitions and the state of the U.S. film industry: “I take everything that Donald Trump says with a pinch of salt.”
Mike, it’s been five years since Good Chaos launched. How has the ethos developed over the years, creatively and financially?
Everything is a learning curve in production, and each project provides you with a new set of tools to move forward. It’s also about building a company in an infrastructure where you know that it’s going to be able to handle what you need to do. That’s where we are at the moment. We came out fast and aggressive and did loads of projects to get out the gate, as it were, but now it’s about becoming a bit more precise about what we want to achieve. It’s an evolving strategy, I think, but it’s a fascinating one. It’s not the easiest time to be an independent producer in a very, shall we say… hostile world. So it’s heartening that we’re still managing to have an output.
You’re gearing up to unleash Ballad of a Small Player, rumored to screen in Telluride.
I can’t confirm [that]!
Not confirming or denying… How big a win was that considering Edward Berger’s recent run of form, and how did it happen?
Very interestingly, that was the first thing I optioned when I left Protagonist in 2017 and I took the job running the Macao Film Festival. We had been developing something with Lawrence Osborne, the novelist. And when I took the Macao job, he said, ‘Oh, you should read my Macao book, Ballad of a Small Player. And I did, and I optioned it, not really knowing quite [what I was] setting myself in for. It’s been a thrilling experience, because I took it to Edward Berger straight away. He’d just come off of Patrick Melrose and I just loved some of the storytelling and the social nuances of Patrick Melrose. But Edward had been attached to a lot of stuff at that point in the U.K. I think there was a general cynicism that he would remain attached to Ballad, but God bless him, he did, for which I’m forever grateful, because there was All Quiet and then there was Conclave and suddenly he’s this gigantic filmmaker. So the fact he stayed with us on Ballad and his company Nine Hours — they co-produced with us — has been thrilling.
You also have Orphan and Ish in Venice; Helen Walsh’s On the Sea just premiered in Edinburgh and Sisu 2 coming in November. How do these projects capture exactly what Good Chaos is setting out to do?
Well, two of them — Ish and On the Sea — we’re involved in in an EP capacity. We’re not the lead producers on those… I’m constantly fascinated by filmmakers, and I really think the world of Helen Walsh and I really think the world Imran Peretta, who directed Ish. [It was a case of] just anything we can do to get involved, to be honest. And then Orphan, Ballad, Sisu 2, they are full-fledged Good Chaos productions. And in the case of Sisu 2, it’s with [production company] Subzero. It was a huge challenge to shoot three films in one year. But they’re all coming out this year and I think they’re all brilliant.
They’re all very different, too, of course, one is a Hungarian language film, a classic European production. Ballad is bigger, and it’s with Netflix. It’s an A-list film starring Colin Farrell and a wonderful cast. And Sisu is the second film in this action cycle, run by [writer-director] Jalmari Helander and Sony. It’s director-focused because Lazlo, Edward and Jalmari are all incredible signature directors. But of course, Sisu is a balls-to-the-wall action movie and Orphan is the most poetic, subtle filmmaking you can imagine. So they’re all very different.
How do you think your experience — as editor of Screen, CEO of Protagonist and Macao Film Fest director — has set you up to be so good at your current job?
I have had a very strange path. I was in L.A. for 12 years with Screen, you’re getting to know everybody in the business at that point, especially the independent business. And I was a huge cinephile all along. So it’s a combination of getting to know the business, plus keeping a close tabs on this global filmmaking community. Then moving into Protagonist, which is much more at the rock face of getting films made… I think sales companies have one of the toughest jobs right now, because it’s such a tough marketplace.
That five years at Protagonist was an incredible learning curve for me. It was brutal and exciting and extraordinary at the same time, because you’re literally trying to understand how these films can get financed. It was 2012 to 2017 and it was just as the platforms were starting to come into the marketplace really aggressively. It was a fascinating era. And actually, when I left Protagonist, I thought the sales companies are going to go out of business, because I thought the platforms were just going to take over the business. But that hasn’t proved the case.
Which has been the most difficult?
I don’t really know. I think they all have their challenges. I’m very curious, have a keen appetite to learn. Running a film festival has a ton of local and global challenges that you have to meet, but it’s about keeping your integrity, and it’s about using your brain. Protagonist certainly gave me a sense of the value of movies — budget versus value, and it’s something that you think about when you’re at a sales agency all the time. I think a lot of producers don’t think about those corollaries. Because you have to look at a script or a director or a package of a film and say: ‘Yep, this is gonna get made. But only at this budget.’ Or, ‘I think you can make it at a bigger budget than you currently earmarked for it.’ So that has been really valuable for me. That experience of Protagonist was an incredible run for me in terms of getting my head around how films were made and what you needed to close the finance.
Are you an optimist or a cynic when it comes to the state of the film industry right now?
It’s a bit of both, to be honest. I know that’s a bit of a cop out, but I’m optimistic, because I think cinema has never had a greater opportunity than now to affirm itself as a medium. I think film is a perennial and people want to see stories told in 90 minutes or two hours, or dare I say, even longer. But I think it’s really, really tough out there, you know? When the platforms came in and said, ‘We’re disrupting,’ they weren’t kidding. I think we’re really feeling that now, 10 or 15 years later, that the disruption has been total.
Having said that, when you make a film with a platform like I did on Ballad with Netflix, you’re dealing with a different kind of environment and that can be very invigorating and empowering, by the way. So especially after my international sales and independent film experience at Protagonist, I wanted to have the ability to work on the smaller independent films and get those made, but also have ambition to make bigger films that could fit into a studio model. And we’ve done the two Sisu films with Sony, we did a film called Touch with focus. It’s about being able to work with those companies who have their own requirements, and thinking about distribution in a way that independent producers don’t. I wanted the freedom to work across all types of things and series, too, which I’m very ambitious about.
You mean TV?
Absolutely. I’d love to get some [shows] off the ground. We’re developing. We have about 10 projects in various stages, which I’m really excited about.
Is that very much the next phase for Good Chaos?
Definitely. We’re working with all manner of writers and co-producers, and the challenge is to get our first commission. That’s the next step.
Have you heard any rumblings about Trump’s tariffs and how it might impact the U.K. entertainment business, or has it gone eerily quiet?
I haven’t… I haven’t followed it since the original freak-out just before Cannes that everybody seemed to have. I mean, I take everything that Donald Trump says with a pinch of salt, to be honest. There is a clear crisis going on in the U.S. film industry. It’s too expensive to make films there. And I don’t just mean location costs. They don’t have a lot of the incentives that we benefit from across Europe and Asia and the cast and crew rates are just really expensive. I think it’s really hard to be an American producer
right now.
You also had two Oscar contenders with Touch and Santosh last year — is it a case of instinct when it comes to potential awards winners, or just plain luck?
Oh, gosh, I never think about awards. You can’t make things thinking about awards. But it’s nice when they do get recognized. You just hope that you’re making the best thing possible and giving the support to the filmmaker to do that. [Santosh director] Sandhya is a very gifted writer. She delivered an incredible film on a scale, which for our budget, was pretty stunning. Then Baltasar [Kormákur], who is the opposite of Sandhya… He’s an incredibly experienced director and making more of a return to his earlier career, a much more personal film. I was so thrilled to work with him. He’s incredible. He’s a fantastic filmmaker. And what I loved about Touch is it really did touch people. I couldn’t watch it without crying. And, you know, the director of 2 Guns and Contraband to have once again proved he can direct these intimate and emotional stories… It was just a delight to be around him.
You have Anna Biller’s film The Face of Horror.
It’s shooting right now in Prague, which is why I’m here. We’re halfway through the shoot, and it’s going fantastically well. Anna is a real signature filmmaker. She has a vision, and that’s what this film is going to be. The cast is all on board with that. And the crew is. It’s a wonderful cast of young actors: Jonah Hauer-King, Kristine Froseth, Ellie Bamber, Leo Suter, and Bella Heathcote. And Ben Radcliffe.
And among all this, you’ve teamed up with Indochina Productions’ Nicholas Simon and Lawrence Osborne on a new outfit, Java Road, committed to adapting Lawrence’s work.
Yeah, Java Road came out of my relationship with Osborne on Ballad. Next up is a film called Kamo which has been announced, we’re working on that with Kornél Mundruczó. That should go early next year. And then tons in development.
How do you fit it all in? What does Mike Goodridge do to unwind?
[Laughs.] I read novels that aren’t connected to work and I hate to say it, I watch a lot of movies. I watch all of the old movies. I love old Hollywood movies, old British movies from the ’30s onwards. I try and clear my mind off work-related things as much as I can.
