Skyfall director Sam Mendes’ production company – maker of Jarhead, Call the Midwife and Penny Dreadful – is up for sale with a price tag in the region of £40m.
A number of prospective buyers have received an information memorandum seeking interest in London-based Neal Street Productions, with the deadline for first-round bids thought to be imminent. It is understood that the process is being run by advisors About Corporate Finance.
The company, set up in 2003 by Mendes, Pippa Harris and Caro Newling, is expected to be the subject of a bidding war given its portfolio of film, TV and theatre productions.
The BBC has just commissioned the fifth series of hit BBC1 show Call the Midwife, starring Miranda Hart. In June, CBS-owned US cable network Showtime recommissioned a second run of horror series Penny Dreadful, which is aired in the UK on Sky Atlantic.
Other productions include a second series of Shakespeare history play adaptations for BBC2, under the banner The Hollow Crown, featuring actors including Benedict Cumberbatch, Judi Dench, Sophie Okonedo and Hugh Bonneville.
Films productions include movies directed by Mendes – Jake Gyllenhaal Gulf War drama Jarhead, Revolutionary Road and Away We Go – along with titles by other directors such as Starter for 10 and Things We Lost in the Fire.
Neal Street’s theatre credits include Enron, Shrek and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
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