Fremantle Inks First-Look with Kristen Stewart’s Nevermind Pictures 5

Global production powerhouse Fremantle has secured a multi-year first-look deal with Nevermind Pictures, the production company founded by Kristen Stewart, partner Dylan Meyer and producer Maggie McLean.

The deal, announced Tuesday, gives Fremantle the first opportunity at all of Nevermind’s film and television projects. Fremantle’s global drama division, under CEO Christian Vesper and COO Seb Shorr, will work closely with Nevermind, while its international distribution arm, FMI, will handle TV titles.

Oscar-nominee Stewart was last seen in Ross Glass’ pulpy lesbian noir Love Lies Bleeding, which has done solid business for A24, grossing more than $8 million domestically; and alongside Michael Cera in the Michael Angarano-directed road comedy Sacramento, which premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Festival. Meyer, who got engaged to Stewart in 2021, is a screenwriter with a co-writing credit on the Amy Poehler-directed Netflix feature Moxie. McLean is best-known for her production work on music videos for such artists as Boygenius and LCD Soundsystem.

Nevermind is set to announce its initial slate of projects under the deal shortly, which Fremantle said will include a “diverse range of films, dramas and documentaries.” The involvement of Stewart, Meyer and McLean will vary across projects, with Stewart potentially directing, writing and/or acting; Meyer directing and writing; and all three partners producing.

“We are emphatically thrilled to be partnering with such esteemed and like-minded creative partners,” said the Nevermind Pictures team in a joint statement. “We’re blown away by the talent Fremantle has amassed under their umbrella and can’t wait to cut our teeth on our initial forays alongside them.”

Nevermind Pictures joins Fremantle’s impressive roster of creative partnerships, which includes first-look deals with the likes of Luca Guadagnino, Angelina Jolie, Paolo Sorrentino, Rachel Weisz’s outfit Astral Projection, Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín’s Fabula and Edward Berger’s Nine Hours, among others.

A TV entertainment juggernaut — with the rights to the Got Talent, Idol and X Factor formats — Fremantle has in recent years become an indie film leader with such productions as Yorgos Lanthimos’ Oscar-winner Poor Things, produced by Fremantle-owned Element Pictures, and Sofia Coppola’s Elvis-era biopic Priscilla, made with the company’s Italian outfit The Apartment.

Parent company RTL Group, the European broadcasting giant controlled by German conglomorate Bertelsmann, has set a goal for Fremantle of hitting $3.3 billion in revenue by 2025, with much of that expansion coming from drama and film production.