Easybeats drama is for ABC
Drama funding from Screen Australia also includes a new Kid's TV project for TEN, The Bureau of Magical Things.
- Published by David Knox
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Friday on My Mind, the drama project about The Easybeats is being produced for the ABC.
The Playmaker Media project about Australia’s first international pop band is one of several drama projects to be funded by Screen Australia.
Previously announced dramas, Foxtel’s Fighting Season, Seven’s Secret Daughter season 2, and SBS dramas Safe Harbour and Sunshine have also been funded.
There’s good news in kid’s TV with a new TEN drama from prolific producer Jonathan M. Shiff, The Bureau of Magical Things written by Mark Shirrefs.
There are also two further untitled projects that have been approved but curiously kept under wraps.
Friday on my Mind
Playmaker
Executive Producers Sally Riley, Kym Goldsworthy
Producers Dianne Haddon, David Maher, David Taylor
Director Shaw Seet
Writer Christopher Lee
Australian Distributor ABC, Sony
International Sales Sony
Synopsis: Before INXS…before ACDC…five migrant boys took Australian music to the world.
The Bureau of Magical Things
Jonathan M Shiff Productions
Executive Producers Julia Adams, Jonathan Shiff
Producers Jonathan Shiff, Stuart Wood
Director Evan Clarry
Writer Mark Shirrefs
Australian Distributor Network Ten
International Sales ZDF Enterprises
Synopsis: A children’s drama told through the eyes of a teenage girl called Kyra who uncovers a magical world.
Fighting Season
Goalpost Pictures
Executive Producers Ben Grant, Rosemary Blight
Producer Kylie du Fresne
Writers Blake Ayshford, Kylie Needham, Tommy Murphy, Belinda Chayko
Australian Distributor Foxtel
International Sales Sky Vision
Synopsis: Fighting Season is a timely and emotionally resonant series that follows the lives of a group of Australian soldiers, and their families, returned home suddenly after their commander is killed in suspicious circumstances in Afghanistan. Part mystery thriller, part relationship drama, it asks us to examine the human costs of war.
Safe Harbour
Matchbox Pictures
Producer Stephen Corvini
Director Daniel Nettheim
Writers Belinda Chayko, Phil Enchelmaier, Matt Cameron
Australian Distributor SBS
International Sales Universal Media Studios International
Synopsis: Four years after six Australians on a yachting holiday came to the aid of an asylum seeker boat, a tragic series of events return to haunt them.
The Secret Daughter Season 2
Screentime
Executive Producer Rory Callaghan
Producers Kerrie Mainwaring, Lauren Edwards
Director Paul Moloney, Geoff Bennett
Writers Stuart Page, Eloise Healey, Jessica Bookman, Niki Aken
Australian Distributor Seven Network, Screentime
International Sales Banjay International
Synopsis After the events of series 1, Billie Carter has committed herself to a new policy of absolute honesty, but this will be put to the test once she discovers she actually is Jack Norton’s secret daughter – and she’s not the only one.
Sunshine
Essential Media
Producers Ian Collie, Sarah Shaw, Anna McLeish
Director Daina Reid
Writers Matt Cameron, Elise McCredie
Australian Distributor SBS, Roadshow
International Sales FremantleMedia
Synopsis: When a privileged suburban teen is critically assaulted, the blame is quickly laid on a group of young men from Melbourne’s South Sudanese community – jeopardising the dreams of 18-year-old star basketballer Jacob Chagai. But the truth is never black and white.
Untitled Project
Announcement to come
Untitled Project
Announcement to come
4 Responses
Easybeats sounds like a very strange choice doesn’t it? I don’t think they really meant that much to baby boomers and am certain they don’t resonate at all with anyone younger.
Have always thought the Stevie Wright story is worth a look but it has a tragic ending alas. This kind of gets around that.
Well it was #1 in Australia, a top-10 (I think) hit in the UK & US, and still consistently appears high on lists of the greatest rock songs ever. And anyone around the age of the ‘average’ ABC viewer – 66, from David’s other story today – would’ve been in their mid-teens when it came out.
Heck, I’m (a fair bit!) younger than that – wasn’t even born when it was released – & it was still an iconic song when I was a kid/teen. I’m looking forward to it…
Also looking forward to “The Bureau of Magical Things” – Schiff productions usually manage to rise above the basic premise & produce good stuff.
Great to see another children’s series has been commissioned by Ten with “The Bureau of Magical Things”.