Cameras are rolling in Paris on A Waiter in Paris, Peter Hoar’s first feature, and John Gore Studios has joined as producer and co-financier alongside BBC Film, Deadline reported on 5 November 2026, with matching terms in Screen Daily the same day. Leo Woodall and Clémence Poésy lead; a slate of French actors joins them. Cornerstone Films handles worldwide sales and co-represents the US with WME Independent. Budget and shoot length were not disclosed.
Key facts
- Finance and producers: John Gore Studios boards with Jason Solomons (Movie Love Productions) and Phin Glynn; Gore co-finances with BBC Film
- Status: principal photography underway in Paris; Hoar’s feature debut
- Cast: Woodall as L’Anglais; Poésy; Julien de Saint Jean, Manon Bresch, Théo Costa-Marini, Victor Poirier, Andrea Dolente, Kinsley Camachee, Thibault de Montalembert
- Script and source: Ben Hopkins adapts Edward Chisholm’s memoir A Waiter in Paris
- Pre-sales and development: Curzon (UK/Ireland), Cineart (Benelux), Madman (Australia); developed with BBC Film and the Curzon CM Development Fund; Full Dawa Films provides French services
How the package is built
Deadline lists the production as presented by John Gore Studios and BBC Film, and as a Movie Love Productions, John Gore Productions and Equation Entertainment production in association with Full Dawa. Executive producers named for Gore Studios are Francis Hopkinson and Helen Flint; Eva Yates for BBC Film; Mark Gooder and Alison Thompson for Cornerstone; plus Woodall. Screen quotes Solomons on aiming high with Paris as a cinematic city, and Gore on backing “ambitious storytelling” with Hoar’s team.
Cornerstone’s sales page places the restaurant as Au Comptoir Bleu and summarises the arc: an English graduate nicknamed Anglais joins the brasserie brotherhood and learns the cost of that belonging. Cornerstone’s earlier cast announcement names Poésy as brasserie manager Pauline. No delivery date or festival target is published.
Screen’s account matches Deadline on the Gore boarding, the French cast additions and the Curzon–Cineart–Madman pre-sales, and adds Ben Hopkins as the adapter of Chisholm’s memoir. That dual confirmation is enough for a straight production-start note; the open items remain cash size and schedule.
Comparables and gaps
UK–France mid-budget packages that already clear Curzon CM pre-sales and a BBC Film stamp still need a US buyer and a festival path once photography wraps. What Deadline and Screen do not give is the cash contribution from Gore Studios, the French incentive share, or how many weeks the Paris shoot runs. Those blanks matter for producers modelling the next Hoar-scale TV-to-feature jump.
Why it matters
For European sales agents, a named UK financier boarding on the first day of a Paris shoot, with three distributor territories already closed, is the difference between a Cannes Market teaser and a deliverable specialty title. Related FilmBunch coverage includes Kino Lorber’s North American plan for I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, Marvelous and Kapa’s France–Greece pact on Nana and Antonio Banderas boarding Mare Nostrum as HanWay launches AFM sales. More under Deals.
Our reading
Gore Studios is buying a shoot-ready UK–France package with pre-sales already in place, not an open development bet. The next evidence is a wrap date and whether Cornerstone closes a US specialty buyer before AFM ends.
Sources
- Deadline, John Gore Studios Boards Peter Hoar’s ‘A Waiter in Paris’ With Leo Woodall As Feature Begins Filming & Adds Raft Of French Talent (5 November 2026; producers; cast; financiers; pre-sales; Cornerstone/WME)
- Screen Daily, John Gore Studios boards ‘A Waiter In Paris’ as Paris filming starts (5 November 2026; Ben Hopkins adaptation; Gore/Solomons quotes)
- Cornerstone Films, A Waiter In Paris (sales page; synopsis; cast)