Chris Ferguson and Oddfellows Sign First-Look Film Deal With Warner Bros.

Backrooms producer Chris Ferguson and his production company, Oddfellows, have entered into a first-look agreement with Warner Bros. Picture Group.

The new partnership follows Ferguson’s successful collaborations with Osgood Perkins on box office hits including Longlegs and The Monkey. Based in Vancouver, Ferguson and the Oddfellows team focus on working with emerging filmmakers from their production hub.

Under the agreement, Warner Bros. and Ferguson will collaborate on producing feature films, including projects developed by Ferguson for the studio as well as Warner Bros. productions that are assigned to Oddfellows through labels such as Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema.

“The future of theatrical depends on a slate with real range — films of every size, style and ambition, from world-class established filmmakers to the bold new voices who will define what comes next. Chris Ferguson and the team at Oddfellows have built a filmmaker-first creative engine with a proven ability to discover, support and elevate original talent, and this partnership gives us an exciting new way to bring distinctive, smartly produced films to audiences across the theatrical landscape,” Warner Bros. Pictures Group co-chairs Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy said in a statement.

Warner Bros. moved to secure the first-look agreement with Ferguson after he produced Backrooms, a $10 million adaptation filmed in Vancouver and directed by Kane Parsons, based on Parsons’ viral YouTube short film series. The movie has since generated approximately $364 million at the worldwide box office.

“I cannot stress enough how integral Chris and the Oddfellows team were to the creation and success of Backrooms. The level of intense care, focus and trust I found from every individual we worked with was incredibly heartening. Chris is a fantastically meticulous creative partner and has done a stand-out job of curating a well-oiled, human-centric production system over the last decade. I am very excited to continue collaborating with this lot. They’re great,” director Parsons said in his own statement.

Ferguson has also maintained a long-standing creative partnership with Longlegs director Osgood Perkins.

“Chris Ferguson and his merry band of brilliant collaborators at Oddfellows did nothing less than teach me what it actually means to be a filmmaker; we discovered Longlegs as a collective and without their inspiration and impact I’d still be just some guy,” Perkins added in his own statement.

Ferguson established Oddfellows in Vancouver in 2013, and the company has since grown alongside the city’s emergence as a major destination for horror productions achieving theatrical success.

“Pam and Mike have fostered Warner Bros. into the kind of studio environment that invites filmmakers to create their best work. It was obvious right away that we’re driven by the same passion for talent. Together we are going to be able to be ambitious and take the risks we need to elevate the next generation of filmmakers while continuing to forge new ground with the greatest artists of today,” Ferguson said in a statement.

Members of the WB Clockwork team had previously collaborated with Ferguson during their time at Neon on Longlegs and The Monkey, and later helped finalize the agreement with Warner Bros. In addition, Oddfellows was represented in the negotiations by Dean Bahat, Ben Rubinfeld and Mike Hartmann of Ziffren Brittenham.