John Gore Studios Joins Leo Woodall's Paris Waiter Film
John Gore Studios has come on board A Waiter in Paris, a film starring Leo Woodall as a young British man trying to build a career as a waiter in Paris, Deadline reported on Thursday 5 November 2026.
Coming on board means the studio is putting money and its name behind a project. Here, John Gore Studios is one of the two key financiers, alongside BBC Film. The film was shot entirely on location in Paris, so the city is more than a backdrop.
The story is based on the memoir A Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City by Edward Chisholm. Ben Hopkins wrote the screenplay. Peter Hoar directs, and it is his first feature film. He previously directed episodes of the television series It's a Sin and The Last of Us, according to Variety.
Woodall's casting, and that of Clémence Poésy as a co-star, was announced on 30 April 2026, Variety reported at the time. The latest announcement adds a French ensemble. Julien de Saint Jean, Manon Bresch, Théo Costa-Marini, Victor Poirier, Andrea Dolente, Kinsley Camachee and Thibault de Montalembert have joined the cast.
John Gore is producing alongside Jason Solomons of Movie Love Productions and Phin Glynn. The film is presented by John Gore Studios and BBC Film. It is a Movie Love Productions, John Gore Productions and Equation Entertainment production, made in association with Full Dawa Films. Francis Hopkinson and Helen Flint executive produce for John Gore Studios, and Eva Yates does so for BBC Film.
Selling the film is handled separately. Cornerstone Films is running worldwide sales, which means it finds distributors in each territory and negotiates the deals. It will co-represent the United States with WME Independent. A deal of this kind is often struck before a film is finished, and this one has already happened in three places. Curzon will release the film in the United Kingdom, Cineart has the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), and Madman has Australia.
John Gore Studios describes itself as a film and television studio that focuses on heritage properties, meaning older titles and stories with an established name, while also backing new kinds of storytelling. The company says it acquires and restores film libraries and brings a group of companies and labels under one roof. A Waiter in Paris is a new original project rather than a library title, so it sits alongside that work rather than inside it.
No release date has been reported for the film. Cornerstone Films and the studio have not announced a cinema or streaming plan.
