Robert Harris’ novel “Conclave,” a political papal thriller set in the Vatican as cardinals jostle and conspire to elect a new Pope, was released in September 2016, coincidentally just weeks after House Productions, which would produce the film adaptation, had been officially launched by Tessa Ross and Juliette Howell.
Some eight years later, and “Conclave” — directed by Edward Berger and with Ralph Fiennes in the lead role — is now one of the titles to beat in awards season, going into the Oscars with eight nominations (including best film) and the BAFTAs with leading haul of 12, and with a box office already approaching $90 million.
For House, which worked on several noted film and TV projects in the meantime, producing the Zac Efron-fronted wrestling drama “The Iron Claw,” exec producing last year’s Oscar winner “The Zone of Interest” (considered by many to be one of the top films of 2023) and being behind the hit BBC drama “Sherwood,” “Conclave” has already become its biggest hit to date (and, for Ross and Howell, their first Oscar nomination as producers).
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According to the pair, who serve as co-CEOs at House, even before they had formally announced their outfit in August 2016 they had already started receiving early chapters of the book via friends of Harris’ editor, who they shared an office with at the time.
“We read the chapters, hungrily, and then waited for more,” says Ross. “And then I went to have a meeting with Robert and convince him, with quite a lot of hard work, that we were the right company and that he would have a good time with us, even though we were a new company at the time.”
House may well have been exceptionally new at the time, but Ross and Howell were anything but.
Ross had led Film4 between 2002 and 2014, shepherding and exec producing acclaimed and awards-amassing titles such as “Slumdog Millionaire,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Under the Skin” and many more. Howell, meanwhile, had headed up Working Title TV, overseeing “Birdsong,” “Mary and Martha,” “The Borrowers” and “London Spy.”
So both came aboard not just with hugely impressive credentials, but bulging rolodexes of top tier talent they’d previously worked with. Yet, once they had an “amazing first draft” of a screenplay from Peter Straughan (who Ross had worked with at Film4 on “Frank”) they went with a first-time collaborator in Berger to direct.
Ross admits that it “sounds very clever” in attaching Berger for his next feature — and first English-language film — following his all-conquering “All Quiet on the Western Front.” But she actually first approached the filmmaker in Cannes several years earlier, when Berger was coming off the back of directing Showtime’s Benedict Cumberbatch-led miniseries “Patrick Melrose.”
“We started talking about projects, and he absolutely fell in love with this.”
Berger wound up up developing “All Quiet” and “Conclave” at the same time, with his WWI epic going into production first. “Conclave” was actually shooting when “All Quiet” began its meteoric awards ascent (it would break records for a German-language feature), Howell noting he had to take a break from filming in the replica Vatican that had been built to attend the Oscar nominees luncheon.
“He is the most phenomenal, energetic and hard-working human being,” she says, adding that — as “Conclave” nears the zenith of its awards journey — Berger is, similary, now editing his next film, Netflix’s “The Ballad of a Small Player,” while “also putting 153% into ‘Conclave’”
Having back-to-back awards darlings in both “The Zone of Interest” and “Conclave” is no easy feat, although both Ross and Howell are at pains to note that their involvement in last year’s international feature Oscar-winner wasn’t that of hands-on producers. But their work on the film does help underline one of House’s other key strengths — being an invaluable and extremely well-connected place of support for talent.
At Film4, Ross had worked with Jonathan Glazer on his previous film, 2013’s cult classic “Under the Skin,” and says the filmmaker was “very keen to have the same team around him when it came to financing” when it came to his harrowing Auschwitz drama (like “Conclave,” adapted from a novel, this time by Martin Amis).
When House Productions first launched, it did so both with backing from the BBC Studios to the tune of a 25 percent stake (upped to full control in 2021), alongside development money from Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries. It was this development money — which came in return for a first look at House’s film state (and has backed the bulk of its films, including Sebastian Lelio’s “The Wonder,” “The Iron Claw” and “Conclave”— that was used to help “The Zone of Interest” get moving.
“I was part of the financing in bringing Access to the table and making sure that deal worked — but I’m much more of a protector and cheerleader for that film, rather than a producer like ‘Conclave.”
Given their recent output traversing the Vatican, wrestling and the Holocaust, alongside mafia dramas (the miniseries “The Good Mothers”) and Scottish thrillers (the four-part “Six Four”), there might seem little in the way of a through line connecting House projects.
For Ross, whether it be across film or TV (and there are features that were initially developed for the small screen and vice versa), it’s the talent and House’s ability to finding the right partner and platform.
“Either we’re driving by the writers who we’re chasing up a hill or the directors we’re chasing up a hill… but really, it’s the storytellers,” she says. “And if your ability is to catch which platform those stories go and you can be flexible about that, then you’re in that right relationship of talking to really, really clever people about the stories they want to tell in the right way.”
Some of those really, really clever people have returned for more. The third season of writer James Graham’s “Sherlock” is in the works, while Howells says there’s another series of his being set up with a broadcaster alongside a film (following on from his TV movie “Brexit: The Uncivil War,” which House produced). “The Wonder” director Lelio is also talking to House about his next project.
Given the time he spends on each of his projects, it may be some years before the next Glazer film emerges. “But when he’s ready, I’ll do whatever I can to help,” says Ross.
“What we’d like is to think that everybody will want to come back again, and if you do, it isn’t just about success,” she adds. “Success is a very easy way of saying, ‘Let’s do it again.’ But success may mean that people need to go and work elsewhere. What you want is a home where people can come back if it’s right.”
Newcomers to House’s growing stable include author, comedian and filmmaker Richard Ayoade, who has two projects in development, a feature adaptation of George Saunders’ short story “The Semplica Girl Diaries” — which was first announced in 2023 — and a comedy series based on his own books involving the character Harauld Hughes. Then there’s Charlotte Regan, who is making the darkly comic crime series “Mint” for the BBC, the fast-rising director’s first project since her acclaimed, BAFTA-nominated debut feature “Scrapper.” “Mint” was actually the first House commission for Theo Barrowclough (who also produced “Scrapper) after he joined the company in 2023.
House Productions may be opening its door to more talented writers and directors as it looks to the future, but over the next few weeks — thanks to “Conclave” — Ross and Howell will finally have a chance to celebrate the culmination of more than eight years of work together. It’s a film that, for the first time, gives the pair seats at the top table during awards season, a fact that seems almost ridiculous given their credentials.
“I feel like I’ve participated and sat there with nominated filmmakers,” says Ross. “But I’ve obviously not personally been on a list of nominated people before, so that’s lovely!”