<\/p>\n
Emmy-nominated actress Lily James has teamed with theater and film producer Gala Gordon to formally launch their own banner, Parodos Productions.<\/p>\n
The British, female-led production company will, according to Gordon, have a clear aim to \u201cchampion stories of female resilience,\u201d with plans to work across film, TV and theater.<\/p>\n
More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n For James, Parodos lands at a moment in her career when she says she was \u201clonging for more agency and really wanting to take charge of the stories I want to tell.\u201d<\/p>\n The first feature out of the block for Parodos is the upcoming big screen \u201cCliffhanger\u201d reboot, fronted by James and due for release next year. Parodos produces in in association with the other production companies, with James and Gordon both executive producing. In the company\u2019s upcoming development slate are film and TV projects with the likes of Working Title Films, Made Up Stories, Fifth Season, Altitude Films and author Lisa Taddeo.<\/p>\n Parodos\u2019 official launch comes just ahead of the Toronto world premiere of writer\/director Rachel Lee Goldenberg\u2019s Hulu feature \u201cSwiped,\u201d telling the story of Whitney Wolfe Herd, the U.S. entrepreneur and senior Tinder exec who would go on to launch the female-focused dating app Bumble. Herd is being played by James, who is credited as producer, while Gordon exec produces.<\/p>\n But James and Gordon\u2019s relationship goes further back, years before James had broken out on TV in \u201cDownton Abbey\u201d or would make a name for herself on films such as \u201cBaby Driver,\u201d \u201cDarkest Hour\u201d and \u201cYesterday\u201d or Gala had becoming a rising name on stage, first as an actress and later producer.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were actually at drama school together and then both went off on our separate paths,\u201d says James. \u201cAnd then two things happened in tandem. Gala had started producing and was doing amazing work in London and then brought a couple of projects to me, one of which we\u2019ve now got in development with Working Title. And I was just struck by how galvanizing and inspiring it was to work alongside her to develop these ideas as two young women, bringing all the experience that we\u2019ve garnered \u2014\u00a0there was this amazing synergy, a shared taste alignment, a shared ambition, a shared feeling of what we want to change and do and say.\u201d<\/p>\n And so, the pieces of Parodos started coming together in 2023 in New York\u2019s Lower East Side while James was shooting David McKenzie\u2019s recently released thriller \u201cRelay\u201d alongside Riz Ahmed.<\/p>\n \u201cLily would go to the set and I\u2019d be reading material in the day, and in the evening we\u2019d come together and really start executing things,\u201d says Gordon. \u201cWhat felt so profound and special about this partnership, for me, was because of the years accrued and the actual foundation of having trained at the same place that we so adore, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. We have such a such a brilliant blueprint and history together and thematically feel so aligned.\u201d<\/p>\n Parodos\u2019 focus on \u201cfemale resilience,\u201d according to its founders, was developed while searching for IP and stories that they wanted to option \u2014\u00a0be it life rights, podcasts, books or plays.<\/p>\n \u201cActually, I think the word \u2018resilience\u2019 is is so important to us,\u201d says Gordon, pointing to Herd\u2019s story as a prime example. \u201cIn life, personal and professional, we collectively experience a lot of adversity and challenges, but it\u2019s what you do with it that matters and it\u2019s about how you make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Initially, the plan for Parodos is for James to star in its projects, using her star power to to find financing and get them off the ground, but this may change as time goes on.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ideas we\u2019re coming up with are also roles I want to play,\u201d she notes. \u201cBut I am really excited by the idea that when it doesn\u2019t have to be me in the films, I can have a cup of tea behind the monitor.\u201d<\/p>\n As for the name, Parodos offers a dual meaning that taps into its history \u2014\u00a0a word used in ancient Greek to mean both the side entrance to a theater and the moment when a chorus comes together to sing their first song in a Greek tragedy.<\/p>\n \u201cFor us, it just felt so apt, because it paid homage to our theater roots, and how we can pivot from stage to screen and use those relationships we\u2019ve built over the years and translate them over to America,\u201d says Gordon, who notes that Michaela Cole and Phoebe Waller Bridge are among the \u201cunapologetic voices\u201d to have successfully made such a transition.<\/p>\n \u201cBut then also there\u2019s this camaraderie of a chorus coming together and very much saying: we\u2019re here to learn,\u201d she adds. \u201cWe\u2019re so excited about the the people that we\u2019re in business with, of which there\u2019s such a variety, and to really grow with established producers and studios in the industry. And to try and champion stories of female resilience that are executed in a bold, brave way.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Emmy-nominated actress Lily James has teamed with theater and film producer Gala Gordon to formally launch their own banner, Parodos Productions. The British, female-led production company will, according to Gordon, have a clear aim to \u201cchampion stories of female resilience,\u201d with plans to work across film, TV and theater. More from Variety For James, Parodos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2006527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[344284,365985,312567,365986,365987,365988],"class_list":["post-2006526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-film-producer","tag-gala-gordon","tag-lily-james","tag-parodos","tag-whitney-wolfe-herd","tag-working-title-films"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lily-James-and-Gala-Gordon-Launch-Production-Company-Parodos-With.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2006526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2006526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2006526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2006527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2006526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2006526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2006526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}