Influencer Editorial Team
You wouldn’t think it from his immaculately tailored social media trail but Jonathan Sothcott is a movie producer best known for a cluster of crowd-pleasing British indie movies featuring gangsters and vampires, assassins and werewolves and as the head of rapidly expanding studio Shogun Films is poised to become the kingpin of genre films in the UK and Western Europe. His quietly spoken baritone, gleaming shoes and fastidiously tailored suits belie a creative mind that is constantly tuned into the cutting edge of the horror, action and crime movies he turns out through his company Shogun Films.
Sothcott got his foot in the film business door as a journalist while still at school, submitting spec articles to the UK’s longest running horror movie magazine The Darkside. Through this he met documentary producer David Gregory (now the head honcho at cult US label Severin) who hired him to interview a galaxy of stars for Special Features during the nascent DVD era, which gave him the opportunity to work with Bryan Forbes, Peter Yates, Ken Russell, Michael Winner, Brian Clemens, Honor Blackman and his favourite Sir Roger Moore. When Sothcott wrote his first book at age 20, a profile of horror movie icon Christopher Lee, Moore wrote the foreword and introduced Sothcott to his London shirtmaker, Frank Foster. The James Bond website bondsuits.com would later label Sothcott “the world’s best dressed film producer” and to this day he is instantly recognisable in the British Film landscape: a glossy figure in his flannel suits, natty sports coats and dramatic long coats.
In his early twenties, Sothcott started making documentaries himself, profiles of cult movies such as The Beast Must Die and Blood On Satan’s Claw, as well as a profile of legendary Wild Geese producer Euan Lloyd, who had become a mentor to Sothcott, The Last of The Gentleman Producers. The title would be used again for the eulogy Sothcott gave at Lloyd’s memorial service. Another mentor was legendary TV producer and director David Wickes, the man behind series such as The Sweeney and The Professionals as well as the Emmy-winning mini-series Jack The Ripper starring Michael Caine. While working for Wickes, Sothcott was head hunted to run The Horror Channel, the world’s first dedicated free to air TV station for genre fans. At 24 he was the youngest television executive in the country.
Another key figure in Sothcott’s journey was actor Martin Kemp. The two became fast friends and made a short film, Karma Magnet, produced by Sothcott, directed by Kemp and starring his brother Gary. Sothcott’s first feature film credit was on Wishbaby, the UK’s first urban horror movie, but the first he produced was Stalker, again directed by Martin Kemp, starring Jane March and Colin Salmon. Sothcott and Kemp would continue to work together over the next 15 years, most recently on the serial killer horror Doctor Plague, in which Kemp plays a detective on the trail of a serial killing cult.
Over the next decade, Sothcott would become a trailblazing indie producer, making dozens of movies for the likes of Universal and eOne as well as securing a landmark output deal with Starz/Anchor Bay. He would work with a galaxy of stars including Ray Winstone, Mark Hamill, Robert Englund, Richard E Grant, Sheridan Smith, Charlie Cox, Steven Berkoff and Jason Statham.
In 2013 Sothcott produced vigilante film Vendetta starring Danny Dyer, at a time when the actor was considered toxic following a series of controversies and despite pressure from the industry to use another star. Undaunted Sothcott ensured the film had a theatrical release, oversaw an aggressive marketing campaign and even co-wrote a book about Dyer’s career with GQ journalist James Mullinger, which received rave reviews from Empire and The Telegraph which called it “strangely delightful.” Vendetta was his most successful film to date, instantly achieving cult status, revitalising Dyer’s flagging career and going on to become the biggest selling DVD of that year. He followed it up with We Still Kill The Old Way starring Ian Ogilvy, who would become another long term collaborator. The film was successful enough to spawn a sequel, We Still Steal The Old Way. Trade magazine The Raygun labelled Sothcott “The DVD King” while a Telegraph profile would opine that his films had “saved the British Film industry.”
Sothcott’s life changed dramatically when he met theatre actress Jeanine Nerissa and they set up home together and were soon married. A glamorous fixture on the London social scene in their early years together, the couple enjoy a quieter life living on the coast today.
In 2020 the Sothcotts set up Shogun Films to conquer the new distribution landscape of AVOD and the many new streaming platforms. Even during the lockdown, Sothcott produced a film, gangland home invasion thriller Nemesis, which was released by Samuel Goldwyn in the USA, and wrote a glossy coffee table book, The Jermyn Street Shirt, which boasted as introduction by his friend Tom Parker Bowles. In 2021 Sothcott was nominated as Cigar Smoker of the Year at the Boisdale Cigar Awards.
In the last year, Shogun Films has gone from strength to strength, with production commencing on 5 movies – Helloween, Peter Rabid, Knightfall, The Secret of Guy Fawkes and Doctor Plague. In 2025 the studio aims to produce 8 further movies, enlarging their library to 15 titles in 5 years. The business has already launched soundtrack and publishing divisions to produce limited edition CDs and ‘making of’ books and in 2025 will release a series of action figures and other licenced merchandise. As Jonathan Sothcott reflects on a packed 2024 he can be confident that he is steering Shogun Films to the pinnacle of its success.
