Rian Johnson, the director behind Brick, The Last Jedi, and Knives Out, is expanding his production company T-Street with co-founder Ram Bergman to start producing three to four low-budget movies per year from up and coming filmmakers. To do this, the company is teaming with MRC Films, the company behind movies like Knives Out, Baby Driver, Ted, and The Adjustment Bureau.
“We’ve experienced the importance of having partners like MRC who understand and protect a filmmaker’s vision, and that becomes all the more crucial when you’re navigating these waters for the first or second time,” said Johnson and Bergman in a joint statement. “For us, this is about finding and working with great people as much as it is about making great films.”
Considering Johnson’s humble beginnings as a director making low-budget projects like Brick, which was made for only $450,000, it’s not surprising that he has a soft-spot for up-and-comers. Although he’s now established his own major original franchise with Knives Out, which was purchased by Netflix in a whopping $400+ million deal, Johnson seems to still understand the importance of smaller projects.
No films have been announced for the new and unnamed label, but T-Street is still busy on other projects. A spy series is in the works from Bad Education director Cory Finley, and Johnson is working on a Peacock series starring Natasha Lyonne titled Poker Face.