Fremantle Banner signs first-run deal with Caledonia, ‘August: Osage County’ producer, Patrick Daly

Caledonia Productions, the banner of Patrick Daly, the theater and film director whose credits include August: Osage County, A AND Galvestonhas signed a first-look deal with Passenger, led by its founder Richard Brown (This England, True Detective, Catch-22).

The two-year deal with Passenger, now part of Fremantle’s Global Drama arm, will see Daly and Brown collaborate on select Passenger and Caledonia film and television projects, as well as building a new slate of projects to co-produce. Fremantle will handle global distribution.

Both Passenger and Caledonia are based in New York and London.

“I’ve known and admired Christian Vesper from Richard Brown and Fremantle for many years, so when this opportunity to collaborate presented itself, it was really an easy decision to make,” said Daly, whose 15 years of theater production experience in the United States US and UK included Katori Hall’s Olivier Award-winning productions of Lucy Kirkwood’s Chimerica The top of the mountainby Nina Raine Tribe and that of Lucy Prebble The effect.

“As we continue to bring bold and original work to the stage, we will seek to do the same for the screen. The experience, support and global infrastructure from this deal provide Caledonia with the springboard to do just that and we can’t wait to see what we cook up together.”

Upcoming projects from Caledonia include the feature film Via Marshalcurrently in development with Film4 and directed by Nadia Latif. Meanwhile, the eight-part comedy series NARROWdeveloped and executive produced by Daly, it is currently streaming on Peacock.

“I have wanted to collaborate with Patrick for a long time, he is a very talented producer with excellent taste and invaluable creative instincts,” said Brown. “Now that Fremantle has become Passenger’s permanent home, we have been looking for exciting opportunities to increase and expand our ability to produce a growing number of quality film and television projects. This agreement with Patrick and Caledonia is an important step towards achieving that goal.”

Separate from the first look deal with Passenger, Daly will continue his live theater work as a production consultant overseeing the live division of EON Productions. Recent EON credits include the Broadway production of Macbeth (with Daniel Craig and Ruth Negga) and the stage musical Via Sing adapted from the film by John Carney.

In December 2022, Fremantle announced the acquisition of Passenger, with the independent production company becoming a wholly owned label. As part of the deal, Brown also took on a new creative role at Global Drama to help lead Fremantle’s efforts in the development and production of high-profile film and television projects. A recent example includes a collaboration on Michael Winterbottom’s new drama series Fall of the God of Cars, Which tells the incredible story of Carlos Ghosn, the Brazilian-Lebanese CEO of Nissan and Renault, who was arrested in Japan and a year later orchestrated his escape to Beirut, hidden in a music box on a private jet.