The production companies of actress Margot Robbie and Birds of Prey writer Christina Hodson have both partnered to launch Lucky Exports Pitch Program (LEPP).
The companies, LuckyChap Entertainment, and Hodson Exports launched the program and has selected six female writers to participate in the initiative. The female writers will then focus on developing and writing scripts for an original action film.
The Lucky Exports Pitch Program (LEPP) will be run by representatives from both production companies. Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, and Josey McNamara would represent LuckyChap Entertainment while Hodson Exports’ Morgan Howell and Christiana Hodson will co-run the program.
Both production companies would produce and fund the original action feature movies developed by the writers under the program. Both companies have attached a $30 million budget for the production of each original action movie written by the selected writers. The program is set to take place from Nov. 4 to Dec. 6 which is about four weeks. In other words, the selected female writers have to develop and pitch their ideas with the four weeks.
The ambition and goal of setting up the program are to help new writers gain experience and the exposure that would make them the go-to scriptwriters for popular studios.
The selection of the participants in the program was carried out through a multi-step process. Writers interested in the initiative were asked to send samples and the samples were then read blindly. A few of those writers were then invited to apply to the program via a written questionnaire. The writers were then interviewed in-person by representatives of Hodson Exports and LuckyChap Entertainment.
During the program, about a dozen speakers consisting of actors, writers, producers, and directors are expected to join informal Q&As sessions and workshops with the selected female writers. Some of the speakers expected in the program include Lindsey Beer, Courtenay Valenti, Chad Stahelski, Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Bek Smith, Zak Penn, Sue Kroll, Chantal Nong, Oren Uziel, Chris Morgan, and Max Borenstein among others.
The six female writers selected to the LEPP are Eileen Jones, Sue Chung, Dagny Looper, Charmaine DeGrate, Maria Sten, and Faith Liu.
In a statement, LuckyChap Entertainment said, “We feel it is both a responsibility and a great honor to help create opportunities for the voices in our industry who are not yet being heard in the big-budget action space. We couldn’t be more excited to join these six incredible writers on this journey!”
“It is no secret that there are more men than women getting hired to write big-budget studio movies, and yet there are a huge number of talented female voices looking to break into this space. I have been extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to work on a number of franchise movies, alongside great male and female writers. Feature writing has traditionally been a solitary exercise but it doesn’t need to be. I wanted to create a program that was as much about peer to peer collaboration and community as it is about changing the statistics. Margot and I share a passion for championing female voices and feel that one way to do that is to connect these writers with a wide-array of experts in big-budget filmmaking –men and women alike.” Christiana Hodson said in a statement addressing the reason for launching the initiative.
