‘Riviera’ Producer Archery Pictures Hires Working Title’s Georgina Gordon-Smith As Development Chief

Deadline I January 8 2020

Archery Pictures, the UK production outfit behind Sky drama Riviera, has hired Working Title Television’s Georgina Gordon-Smith to the newly-created role of head of development.

Gordon-Smith was a development producer at Working Title and before that, worked at United Agents, where she created and ran the talent agent’s book-to-film department.

She will oversee the development of film and television projects for Archery, reporting to founder Kris Thykier and creative director Judy Counihan, who previously oversaw the company’s development slate.

The development team will also be bolstered by the arrival of senior development executive Darren Guthrie, who was a story producer on the second and third season of Riviera. Prior to that, he worked on BBC drama Silent Witness.

Thykier said: “Georgina is a fantastic executive and we look forward to her building our slate and continuing our mission of creating smart commercial film and television drama for national and international audiences.”

Gordon-Smith added: “I am incredibly excited to be joining such a dynamic and creative group of people at Archery who make stuff happen and get s*** done.”

Archery is currently in production on season three of Riviera, while the company is also making Netflix young adult drama Fate: The Winx Saga and film Operation Mincemeat, starring Colin Firth, Matthew MacFadyen and Kelly Macdonald.

Archery was founded in October 2014 by Thykier, encompassing his film company PeaPie Films. His film credits include last year’s Tolkien and 2016’s Miss Sloane.