Olivia Colman & Ed Sinclair Launch Sister-Backed South Of The River

Olivia Colman and Ed Sinclair — Andrew H. Walker/BEI/Shutterstock

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-winner Olivia Colman has set up a scripted production with her husband Ed Sinclair backed by Chernobyl producer Sister.

Colman, who won best actress for The Favourite and is currently starring in Netflix’s The Crown, has established South of the River Pictures. Sister has taken a minority stake in the business, which will operate as an independent company.

Tom Carver, who has worked as an advisor for both start-up and global organisations including WarnerMedia, joins South of the River Pictures as Managing Director.

This comes two months after Broadchurch producer Jane Featherstone, Elisabeth Murdoch and Stacey Snider joined forces to form Sister. Featherstone founded Sister Pictures, which also produces shows including BBC drama The Split and Amazon’s forthcoming series The Power, in November 2015 and this year joined with former Twentieth Century Fox Chairman and CEO Snider and Murdoch to create the enlarged group.

South of the River Pictures’ first project is HBO and Sky co-production Landscapers, which is produced in association with Sister. The four-part series, revealed by Deadline, is a true-crime drama starring Colman and written by Sinclair. The company is looking to produce authored stories to audiences around the world and will work closely with Featherstone, who worked with Colman on ITV drama Broadchurch, and Sister’s creative and production team.

South of the River Pictures will be based in London, with Sinclair and Colman serving as Creative Directors. Sinclair studied Law at Cambridge University and Acting at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and Landscapers is his first screenplay. Colman is currently starring as Queen Elizabeth II in seasons three and four of Netflix’s royal drama The Crown. In addition to winning the Academy Award for her role as Queen Anne in The Favourite, she is also playing a leading role opposite Anthony Hopkins in Florian Zeller’s feature film The Father. She has also starred in The Night Manager, Fleabag and The Iron Lady.

“This is a real step into the unknown for us, but we’re so thrilled to have the opportunity. It’s an exhilarating time for drama generally, and South of the River adds a hugely exciting autonomy and reach to our existing creative relationship,” said Sinclair and Colman. “We’re determined to take risks and wander off the well-trodden path, so we’ll no doubt make some mistakes. But we’ve been reading scripts together for 25 years and trust each other’s instincts implicitly. We hope that by being true to those, and by protecting the vision of the writers and creators we collaborate with, we’ll tell some amazing, enthralling and thought-provoking new stories, and create some really wonderful comedy and drama for telly and film.”