Argo Films Founder Establishes New Film & TV Label

Richard Johns, founder of Argo Films, has established a new production label with auteur film director E. Elias Merhige.

The new U.K.-based venture, Promethean Pictures, launches with a varied slate of TV and film projects in development. The first of which has been revealed as the survival story Howl. It tells the story of Harry, a friendly family dog that inadvertently gets left at home during an extreme winter after his owners die in a car crash.

Merhige and Johns first worked together as director and producer on Shadow of the Vampire (2000), which was nominated for two Oscars and a Golden Globe award.

Johns said: “The words unique and original are thrown around a lot in this industry, but they certainly apply to Elias Merhige. He is, without a doubt, a true visionary, seeing things that nobody else sees and always pushing boundaries. As a result, Promethean—meaning rebelliously creative, innovative and visualizing the unseen—was the only name for us. I am very excited to be formalizing our long-term friendship in this way and re-igniting our working relationship. Promethean Pictures will be targeting mainstream commercial audiences with its projects but with Elias in the mix; these projects will be anything but ordinary.”

Merhige added: “Richard and I had a brilliant creative partnership more than 20 years ago, and that spark never went away, binding us over the decades. Despite being forced off-radar for a while, I’ve never stopped generating concepts and working out new ways to bring them to life. Partnering with Richard again in Promethean Pictures is the perfect vehicle for so many of these ideas, and I am so pleased that we are now in a position to talk about the business and our plans.”