Lord Miller Appoints Lucy Kitada As EVP Film

Matt Grobar
·3 min read
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Lucy Kitada has joined Lord Miller, the production company of Oscar winners Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, as EVP Film. In this new role, she will find, develop and produce film projects, reporting to President of Film Aditya Sood.

Lord Miller also announced today that it has extended the contracts of VP Film Rebecca Karch Tomlinson and VP Film NikkI Baida, promoting Justin Lee to Creative Executive. Tomlinson exec produced the upcoming indie Los Frikis from directors Mike Schwarz and Tyler Nilson, with Baida exec producing the upcoming Universal feature Strays, starring Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx and Will Forte, which is slated for release on June 9, 2023.

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Kitada previously served as EVP Film at Picturestart. She most recently produced Stephanie Allyne & Tig Notaro’s Am I Ok?, starring Dakota Johnson, Soyona Mizuno, Jermaine Fowler, Kiersey Clemons and Molly Gordon, which she brought in as Picturestart’s first fully-financed feature. The film generated buzz when it premiered at Sundance 2022 and sold to HBO Max in one of the festival’s major deals. She also produced Luckiest Girl Alive, alongside Made Up Stories, for Netflix. Mike Barker directed that film based on Jessica Knoll’s bestselling novel, with Mila Kunis, Chiara Aurelia, Finn Wittrock and Connie Britton starring.

“Lucy’s exceptional taste and strong creative relationships make her the perfect fit for Lord Miller,” said Lord, Miller and Sood in a joint statement. “Along with Nikki, Rebecca and Justin, we now have the smartest, most creative film team in town with the lowest cumulative Wordle score which is a timeless reference we guarantee will never age poorly.”

Other recently produced projects from Kitada include the upcoming Lionsgate video game adaptation Borderlands, from director Eli Roth; Rachel Lee Goldenberg’s HBO Max film Unpregnant, starring Haley Lu Richardson and Barbie Ferreira; and David Robert Mitchell’s Under the Silverlake, starring Andrew Garfield, for A24, which premiered in official competition at Cannes competition. On the television side, she originated and exec produced, along with Michael De Luca and Walden Media, the Daytime Emmy-winning Netflix series The Baby-Sitters Club, now in its second season, based on the iconic book series by Ann M. Martin.

Lord Miller has had a busy year, seeing their Netflix film The Mitchells vs. the Machines secure an Oscar nomination for Best Animated feature. They’re currently in post-production on films including Universal’s Strays and Cocaine Bear, with Elizabeth Banks directing; Los Frikis, financed by New Slate; and the animated Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse (Part One) which is set for release by Sony this year. The company has a rich first-look production deal with Universal, which has seen them develop original live-action and animated features across genres.

Feature projects in varying stages of development at Lord Miller include the live-action feature tentpole Project Hail Mary, an adaptation of Andy Weir’s 2021 best-selling novel, starring Ryan Gosling, for MGM; The Last Human for Sony and Fox’s Artemis based on the novel by Weir; a feature adaptation of Michael Lewis’ bestselling novel The Premonition: A Pandemic Story; Everyday Parenting Tips starring Ryan Reynolds, which is based on Simon Rich’s New Yorker short story; The Last Expedition, a sci-fi adventure feature based on an original idea by Weir; and Lionsgate’s 48 Hours in Vegas about Dennis Rodman’s legendary trip to Vegas during the Chicago Bulls 1998 NBA finals. They are also developing an untitled comedy set in Miami written by Natalie Morales and Cyrina Fiallo for Universal.

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