Ryan Gosling and Ken Kao (The Nice Guys) have formed a new film and TV production company called Arcana and are collaborating on their first project: The Favourite from The Lobster director Yorgos Lanthimos which stars Gosling’s La La Land‘s co-star Emma Stone along with Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman. The project just wrapped principal photography in the UK.

Emma Stone Chris Chapman

The Favourite is based on a Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara script that follows the clandestine personal and political machinations of the reign of Queen Anne, the last monarch of the House of Stuarts. Lanthimos just won best screenplay in Cannes for The Killing of a Sacred Deer and received a Best Screenplay Oscar nomination for The Lobster. Arcana has partnered with producers Ceci Dempsey for Scarlet Films and Ed Guiney and Lee Magiday for Element Pictures, together with Film4 and Fox Searchlight.

Gosling and Kao’s partnership follows their recent collaborations on Shane Black’s detective thriller, The Nice Guys and Terrence Malick’s Song to Song. The pair also previously announced the acquisition of Jeff Lemire’s acclaimed graphic novel The Underwater Welder, which they are developing for screen alongside Anonymous Content.

In addition to Arcana, Kao will continue to run his Waypoint Entertainment production banner and BLOOM with partner Alex Walton. Kao’s production slate includes: Scott Cooper’s Hostiles starring Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike; Martin Zandvliet’s The Outsider starring Jared Leto; Destin Daniel Cretton’s The Glass Castle starring Woody Harrelson, Brie Larson, and Naomi Watts; and Woody Harrelson’s Lost in London, the first feature film ever broadcast live, starring Harrelson and Owen Wilson. Waypoint Entertainment recently acquired the rights to bestselling and award-winning author Jeff Lemire and illustrator Emi Lenox’s comic series Plutona as well as Mark Millar properties, American Jesus and Supercrooks.

Gosling is represented by LBI Entertainment, CAA, and Anonymous Content. Kao is represented by WME.