EXCLUSIVE: Rising producers Katherine Romans and Charlie Traisman have formally launched Madhouse Films, a new indie production company with a mission to center underrepresented voices and push creative boundaries across film and television.
“At Madhouse, we champion stories that offer fresh perspectives on cultural conversations, illuminating the nuanced gray areas of our social and cultural landscape,” explained the co-founders in a statement to Deadline. “We believe exceptional creativity comes from wild imagination and we strive to promote female, queer, and BIPOC-led voices and stories.”
Madhouse opens with a multi-genre slate that includes narrative features, as well as docs and shorts developed in collaboration with emerging and established talent. The company is an exec producer on Forbidden Fruits, the debut feature of writer-director Meredith Alloway, on which we were first to report. Currently in post, the film produced by Academy Award winner Diablo Cody centers on the members of a witchy femme cult. It’s already been picked up for distribution by IFC Films and Shudder and stars Lili Reinhart, Victoria Pedretti, Alexandra Shipp, Lola Tung, and Emma Chamberlain.
The company is also executive producing You’ll Be Happier, a documentary we recently reported on that follows a gay Texas businessman on a mission to make penis enlargement as accessible as Botox. Daniel Lombroso is directing, with Kerry Mack producing for her and Lombroso’s recently launched Outerboro Films.
Also in development is Huckleberry Babe, a contemporary Western thriller marking a second feature outing with Alloway, who tells us, “I absolutely love the way Charlie and Katherine’s brains work. They have incredible creative intuition, ideas, and a stunning knack for supporting other artists. With Madhouse, they’re building a home for risk-taking and thought-provoking stories — I’m beyond thrilled to be working with them.”
Romans and Traisman met in 2013 while studying at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford and later received MFAs from the American Conservatory Theater. Drawing from backgrounds in performance and development, they formed Madhouse as a space for directors to create uncompromising work with long-term support behind them.
Already, Madhouse has completed several short-form projects that signal the company’s creative direction. These include Long Pork, written and directed by Iris Dukatt and starring Lena Headey, which premiered at the Final Girls Festival in Berlin; Blood Boys, directed by Jordan M. Hahn and starring Booboo Stewart and Jamie Clayton, which premiered at the Lower East Side Film Festival; FAWN, directed by Emily Everhard; Uncle Johnny, directed by Margaux Susi; and Copy, Save, a speculative short from Alyssa Loh, which was selected for the 2024 Tribeca x Chanel Through Her Lens program. The company’s work in narrative television includes the upcoming indie pilot Too Romantic, written and directed by Talia Light Rake.
