Alison Owen, Debra Hayward Launch Monumental Pictures To Produce Films & TV

Prolific UK-based producers Alison Owen and Debra Hayward have joined forces to launch Monumental Pictures. The new production outfit will focus on both film and TV content with the aim to “keep the costs small, but the vision big,” says Saving Mr Banks producer Owen. Long-time friends and colleagues, the pair last shared a credit on 1998’s Oscar-winning Elizabeth, but Owen says they’ve been chasing the same material for so long, “we’re both exhausted from competing with each other. Ultimately, I could see the only way to beat Debra was to join her.”

Owen’s most recent credits include last year’s Mary Poppins origin story Saving Mr Banks, produced through her Ruby Films shingle which will now transition to become Monumental. She also exec produced current release The Giver. Previous titles she’s produced include Jane Eyre, The Other Boleyn Girl and multiple Emmy-winner Temple Grandin. She is currently in post-production on Tulip Fever for The Weinstein Co and Suffragette for Pathé.

Former Working Title exec Hayward produced Oscar-winner Les Misérables and exec produced myriad WT films including Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Senna, Frost Nixon, Nanny McPhee, Atonement, Bridget Jones’s Diary and Pride And Prejudice.

“We want to tell the sort of stories that we ourselves would like to see — character-driven, entertaining and commercial, but without the huge expense of VFX driven tentpoles,” said Hayward. “And as a female producing team, we hope to bring a different perspective to the UK and international production landscapes.”