Madison Wells is an award-winning, independent entertainment company founded by producer Gigi Pritzker, with a strong bias towards stories for, by, and about badass women and people who push boundaries.
OUR APPROACH
Our projects span acclaimed films such as the Oscar-winning The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Netflix’s #1 global hit Nonnas, and Sundance Audience Award winner Prime Minister; theater productions including Hadestown, Swept Away, and Jaja’s African Hair Braiding; and National Geographic’s anthology series Genius.
Madison Wells also partners with like-minded entertainment companies — including two-time Academy Award-winning Breakwater Studios, chart-topping audio company Lemonada Media, and global streaming platform Mubi — who share our belief that great storytelling can provoke, inspire, and move audiences around the world.
Recent Projects
During one sweltering summer day, love will blossom, dreams will flourish and secrets will be revealed in Jaja’s bustling hair braiding salon in Harlem.
Inspired by the young Egyptians who took to the streets amidst the throes of the Arab Spring, We Live in Cairo follows six student activists using their street art, photography and song to overthrow a regime older than they are.
During one sweltering summer day, love will blossom, dreams will flourish and secrets will be revealed in Jaja’s bustling hair braiding salon in Harlem.
STUDIOS
Madison Wells Studios creates entertaining, character-driven film & television across genres. We shine a light on badass women, as well as people who love pushing boundaries, navigating uncharted waters to spotlight unique voices and pressing stories that need to be told.
Lionel Essrog (Edward Norton), a lonely private detective living with Tourette Syndrome, ventures to solve the murder of his mentor and only friend, Frank Minna.
The third season of the Emmy Award-winning anthology series, Genius, will explore Aretha Franklin’s musical genius and incomparable career, as well as the immeasurable impact and lasting influence she has had on music and culture around the world.
After uncovering a massive conspiracy, an embattled NYPD detective joins a citywide manhunt for two young cop killers.
Nine-year-old Sophie catches JJ, a hardened CIA operative, spying on her family during a routine surveillance operation.
Justice isn’t a crime. A divorced father and his ex-con older brother resort to a desperate scheme in order to save their family's ranch in West Texas.
Shy 14-year-old Duncan goes on summer vacation with his mother, her overbearing boyfriend, and her boyfriend's daughter. Having a rough time fitting in, Duncan finds an unexpected friend in Owen, manager of the water park.
The only way out is through. Life for a happy couple is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident.
Based on a true story. Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari is detained by Iranian forces who brutally interrogate him under suspicion that he is a spy.
Young Ender Wiggin is recruited by the International Military to lead the fight against the Formics, a genocidal alien race which nearly annihilated the human race in a previous invasion.
In 1995, a teenager living with her sister and parents in Manhattan discovers that her father is having an affair.
Starring Antonio Banderas. Pablo Picasso confronts the threat of fascism in Spain, and Young Pablo rejects traditional painting to search for his own voice.
From Ron Howard. The story of Albert Einstein, seen through glimpses of his twilight years and flashbacks to his time as a student in Munich and Zürich in the 1890s.
LIVE
Madison Wells Live has a robust-but-curated slate of stage productions and entertainment ventures focused on essential, artist-driven storytelling. We develop our own IP, as well as partner with producers and productions that share our core values. Our shows are being developed for Broadway, the West End, Off-Broadway, International, Regional, and Touring Theaters.
During one sweltering summer day, love will blossom, dreams will flourish and secrets will be revealed in Jaja’s bustling hair braiding salon in Harlem.
Inspired by the young Egyptians who took to the streets amidst the throes of the Arab Spring, We Live in Cairo follows six student activists using their street art, photography and song to overthrow a regime older than they are.
During one sweltering summer day, love will blossom, dreams will flourish and secrets will be revealed in Jaja’s bustling hair braiding salon in Harlem.
When a violent storm sinks their whaling ship off the coast of New Bedford, Mass., the four survivors face a reckoning: how far will they go to stay alive? And can they live with the consequences?
Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Elvis Presley come together again to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year. Sun Records, now donned with a Christmas tree, garland, and mistletoe, rings with the sounds of the season and chart-toppers that made these four famous. Follow along with the gang’s usual antics as we journey through a story of Christmas past, present, and future.
Returning to his childhood home, a man finds himself transported to his 12th birthday where he and his friend Lettie are plunged into a magical world where their survival depends on their ability to reckon with ancient forces that threaten to destroy everything around them. From the imagination of best-selling author Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane takes audiences on an epic journey to a childhood once forgotten.
Hadestown intertwines two mythic tales — that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone — as it invites you on a hell-raising journey to the underworld and back.
Awards
In the Press
Prime Minister, the HBO/CNN original documentary about popular New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern, was named best documentary at Thursday’s Documentary Emmy Awards. The doc, directed by Michelle Walshe and Lindsay Utz, had its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary.
The 47th News & Documentary Emmy Awards has concluded, with Madison Wells’ Prime Minister winning Best Documentary.
Andrew Rannells says getting to work with Allison Janney "felt like I had won the gay acting lottery" in their new movie, which debuts on HBO May 29.
The world premiere of “Heartbreakers,” the “Romeo and Juliet” adaptation using the rock catalog of Grammy winners Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, is slated for May 4 to June 6, 2027, in CST’s small Upstairs Studio.
Film and TV veteran Dan Steinman has joined Gigi Pritzker’s Madison Wells production venture as president and chief content officer.
After a secret screening at Sundance, Miss You, Love You, a film that stars Allison Janney and Andrew Rannells has found a home. HBO has snapped up the rights to the film, which was written and directed by Jim Rash.
In the best documentary category, the nominees are Black Snow, Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time, Life After, Love + War, 2000 Meters to Andriivka, Prime Minister, Turning Point: The Vietnam War and Union.
Jaja’s African Hair Braiding peeks into the lives of an older generation, in 2019, having emigrated from the same part of the continent. Both plays probe Black female identity using a single setting yet this one takes it a step further by confining the story to one working day.