Basil Iwanyk’s Thunder Road Names Erica Lee Partner

Anthony D'Alessandro
·3 min read
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EXCLUSIVE: Thunder Road president of production Erica Lee has been promoted to partner at the company.

During her 16-year tenure at Thunder Road, Lee has produced some of the company’s most successful films including all three installments of the $584.7 million worldwide-grossing John Wick franchise; Taylor Sheridan’s acclaimed Wind River; the three-time Oscar-nominated Sicario, directed by Denis Villeneuve; and the Stefano Sollima-directed sequel Sicario: Day of the Soldado.

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On June 28, principal photography started on the fourth installment of John Wick in Berlin. Lee also serves as EP on The Continental, the John Wick prequel series for Lionsgate Television.

Said Thunder Road chairman Iwanyk, “It’s been a true joy to watch Erica evolve from being an assistant that was telling me what I was doing wrong, to now my partner who tells me what I’m doing wrong. Thunder Road wouldn’t be half the company it is today without her taste, toughness and leadership.”

Added John Wick filmmaker Chad Stahelski, “Erica was on the ground floor with me as a director and has been there in the trenches with us through the craziness of making four John Wick films. She’s an amazing producer and loyal friend. The entire Wick family is proud of her.”

During the Covid pandemic, Lee and Iwanyk produced three upcoming movies: Text For You, a Screen Gems project starring Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Sam Heughan; Netflix’s Monkey Man, starring Dev Patel who also makes his motion picture directing debut; and Black Site, starring Jason Clarke and Michelle Monaghan, with Sophia Banks directing, the first film from their Asbury Park Pictures action division started earlier this year.

Said Patel “I am so excited for Erica in this new chapter of her career. She’s so smart and driven and funny – a truly fantastic producer who has been a guiding light through this whole process. I can’t wait to collaborate with her and Thunder Road again.”

Thunder Road is currently in post-production on Halle Berry’s action drama Bruised, in which she stars and makes her feature-film directing debut. The film sold at last year’s Toronto Film Festival to Netflix in an eight-figure worldwide deal, as Deadline first reported. Additionally, STX will release the Chris Pine action thriller Violence of Action this December.

This fall, Lee starts production on the thriller Kandahar, to be directed by Ric Roman Waugh and starring Gerard Butler, as well as the actioner Trigger Warning for Netflix which stars Jessica Alba with Mouly Surya directing.

Throughout her time at Thunder Road, Lee has been instrumental in supporting and empowering female creatives, both emerging and established, to venture into the action/thriller space, putting them behind the camera as well as championing their material on the page. Along with the aforementioned Berry, Banks and Surya, she is also working on projects with Sarah Dagger-Nickson, Zoë Bell, Halley Gross and Catherine Hardwicke to name a few.

Lee additionally produced Oscar nominee Matthew Heineman’s A Private War which received two Golden Globe noms, and Andrea di Stefano’s The Informer. She also shepherded development on such titles as A Star is Born, We Are Marshall, Brooklyn’s Finest, The Town, Clash of the Titans and its sequel Wrath of the Titans, and served as co-producer on Universal’s Seventh Son directed by Oscar-nominated Sergei Bodrov and starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore.

Born in New York City, Lee graduated from Florida State University and immediately entered the entertainment industry with an internship at NBC Studios in Burbank. Following her internship, she began working at CAA as an assistant in the talent department. She then began at Thunder Road as Iwanyk’s assistant.

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