Inside the Wacky World of Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘Poor Things’ With His Irish Producers

In its 23 years of existence, the Dublin-based production company Element Pictures has produced or co-produced dozens of bold movies. Those films include an early breakthrough film for Cillian Murphy (“The Wind That Shakes the Barley”), a dark and twisted flick in which Barry Keoghan infiltrates and destroys a well-to-do family (“The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” not “Saltburn”) and a pair of Oscar Best Picture nominees for which their leading ladies won Best Actress: Lenny Abrahamson’s “Room,” with Brie Larson, and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite,” with Olivia Colman.

But none of those were as big and wild as Element’s third nominated film, Lanthimos’ “Poor Things,” a historical romp about a beautiful but childlike Frankenstein creature named Bella (Emma Stone) that takes place in a mock Victorian landscape and was made on a budget of a reported $35 million.