Argo Films’ Richard Johns and director Elias Merhige to launch Promethean Pictures

British TV and film producer Richard Johns, founder of Argo Films, has established a new production label Promethean Pictures, with American auteur film director E. Elias Merhige. The new UK-based venture launches with a varied slate of TV and film projects in development, the first of which is revealed as survival story "Howl."

Merhige and Johns first worked together as director and producer on "Shadow of the Vampire" (2000), starring Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich. Promethean Pictures is the latest expression of a growth strategy that is focused on creating exciting and varied partnerships to deliver original and authentic content.

Richard Johns, joint founder of Promethean Pictures comments: “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 visualising the unseen – was the only name for us. I am very excited to be formalising 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.”

E. Elias Merhige, joint founder of Promethean Pictures adds: “Richard and I had a brilliant creative partnership more 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.”

"Howl", which is in advanced development and already being reviewed by selected studios and streamers, is a beautiful, heart-breaking drama about love and survival. It tells the moving 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. Told from Harry’s point of view, he goes through a rollercoaster survival ride, until he meets his greatest challenge, an orphaned wolf-cub. Eventually, they overcome their mutual fear and suspicion and learn to cooperate and collaborate, becoming the closet of friends. "Howl" will use innovative, naturalistic and cutting-edge motion picture technology to tell a story about man, animals and nature, told not from a human viewpoint looking in, but from the animals’ point of view, looking out, at us.

“Howl” is written by Christopher Monger (“Temple Grandin”), with Doug Allan (“Frozen Planet”) on board as cinematographer, and Andrew Simpson (“The Revenant”) as the wolf whisperer.