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​Production investment approvals TV Drama 2011-2012

Adult Drama

THE BROKEN SHORE
Essential Media & Entertainment
Producer Ian Collie
Writer Andrew Knight
Director Jeffrey Walker
International Sales eOne, Hopscotch
Australian Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis Soon after big-city detective Joe Cashin is posted to a quiet town on the Australian coast the whole community is thrown into unrest by the murder of a local philanthropist, a man with some very disturbing secrets.

HOUSE HUSBANDS
Playmaker Media
Producers Sue Seeary, Drew Proffitt
Executive Producers David Taylor, David Maher
Writers Ellie Beaumont, Michael Miller, Blake Ayshford, Drew Proffitt, Christine Bartlett, Leon Ford, Matt Ford
Directors Geoff Bennett, Shirley Barrett
International Sales Nine Network
Australian Broadcaster Nine Network
Synopsis House Husbands is a comedy drama about four modern families with one thing in common – the men are in charge of raising the kids. A warm, funny and real look at the way we live today, House Husbands proves that just because you have kids doesn’t mean you stop acting like one.

MR & MRS MURDER
FremantleMedia Australia Pty Ltd in association with Bravado Productions
Producers Andy Walker, Jason Stephens
Executive Producer Jason Stephens
Writers John Banas, Jonathan Gavin, John Hugginson, Doug MacLeod, Christine Bartlett, Katherine Thomson, Marieke Hardy, Glen Dolman
Director TBC
International Sales DCD Rights
Australian Broadcaster Ten Network
Synopsis A clean freak with a heightened sense of justice, and a misfit with an encyclopaedic knowledge of just about everything, married couple Nicola and Charlie run an extreme cleaning business which specialises in crime scenes. Armed with wit, smarts and the invisibility that cleaning brings, the duo solve the crimes the cops can’t in a murder mystery with a smile.

DEVIL’S DUST
Fremantle Media Australia Pty Ltd and Bravado Productions
Producers Jason Stephens, Antonia Barnard, Stephen Corvini
Writer Kris Mrksa
Director Jessica Hobbs
International Sales DCD Rights
Australian Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis Devil’s Dust is a thriller of David and Goliath proportions ripping the cloak of secrecy from a huge corporate scandal that exposes how asbestos multi-national company, James Hardie, oversaw a strategy that, by ignoring the dangers of asbestos for decades, was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people.

THE DOCTOR BLAKE MYSTERIES
December Films
Producers Tony Wright, George Adams
Lead Writer John Alsop
Director TBC
International Sales ITV Global
Australian Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis Dr Lucien Blake, a keeper of secrets, a solver of mysteries, returns home to 1959 Ballarat to take over his deceased father’s general medical practice after an absence of 30 years.

PUBERTY BLUES
Southern Star Entertainment Pty Ltd
Producers John Edwards, Imogen Banks
Writers Alice Bell, Tony McNamara, Fiona Seres
Directors Emma Freeman, Glendyn Ivin
International Sales Endemol Worldwide Distribution
Australian Broadcaster Network Ten
Synopsis The classic story of the seventies retold. Sex, surf and suburbia rediscovered.

UNDERGROUND
Matchbox Pictures Pty Ltd
Producer Helen Bowden
Executive Producer Tony Ayres
Writer/Director Robert Connolly 
International Sales NBC Universal
Australian Broadcaster Network Ten
Synopsis Set in suburban Melbourne in the late 1980s, Underground follows a teenage Julian Assange and his gang of friends – the International Subversives – as they try to break into the computer systems of the world’s most powerful organisations. Hoping to uncover the inner workings of these groups, the boys wage battle from their bedrooms with the technologies, with each other and with the Senior AFP Detective who is intent on shutting down their group.

WORLD SERIES CRICKET (AKA PYJAMA GAME)
Southern Star Entertainment Pty Ltd
Producers John Edwards, Mimi Butler
Writer Christopher Lee
Director Daina Reid
International Sales Endemol Worldwide Distribution
Australian Broadcaster Nine Network
Synopsis World Series Cricket is the story of how in 1976 businessman Kerry Packer caused a cricket war by signing up 50 of the world’s best cricketers and establishing World Series Cricket, a highly successful rebel group which challenged the establishment and thrust the game into a new era of professionalism.

THE BIKIE WARS: BROTHERS IN ARMS
A Screentime production
Co-producers Louisa Kors, Peter Andrikidis
Executive Producers Des Monaghan, Greg Haddrick, Rick Maier
Series Producer Roger Simpson
Writers Roger Simpson, Jo Martino, Greg Haddrick
Director Peter Andrikidis
Broadcaster Network Ten
Synopsis Brothers in Arms tells the story behind the fatal feud between two outlaw motorcycle clubs that resulted in the Milperra Bikie Massacre in south-western Sydney on Father’s Day, 1984.

DRIPPING IN CHOCOLATE
Southern Star Entertainment Pty Ltd
Producers Julie McGauran, Sarah Smith
Writers John Ridley, Sarah Smith
Director TBC
Sales Endemol Worldwide Distribution
Broadcaster BBC Worldwide Australia
Synopsis When Detective Bennett O’Mara investigates the death of a strangled girl it leads him to voluptuous chocolatier Juliana Lovece. Just as this intriguing woman gets under his skin, he suspects she may be at the centre of an increasing murder count.

JACK IRISH
Essential Media & Entertainment Pty Ltd
Producer Ian Collie
Writers Andrew Knight, Matt Cameron
Director Jeffrey Walker
Sales ZDF Enterprises and ABC Commercial
Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis Jack Irish – criminal lawyer, collector of uncollectable debts, football lover, punter, trainee cabinet-maker and sometime lover. The complete man, really. Two telemovies based on the successful character created by crime novelist Peter Temple.
 
REDFERN NOW
Blackfella Films Pty Ltd
Producers Darren Dale, Miranda Dear
Story Producer Jimmy McGovern
Writers Jon Bell, Michelle Blanchard, Danielle MacLean, Steven McGregor, Adrian Wills
Directors TBC
Broadcaster ABC
Sales ABC Commercial
Synopsis Think Redfern, think black ghetto full of junkies and criminals, right? Think again. Redfern Now is a kaleidoscopic drama that explores this inner-city suburb and the people who inhabit it. Over six episodes we join the households of six ordinary families whose lives are forever changed by a seemingly insignificant incident – an accident, a weakness, a lie.

SUNDOWNER
Cordell Jigsaw Productions and Zinc Finger Films
Producers Russell Vines, Michael Cordell, Paul Bennett
Executive Producers Jo Horsburgh, Nick Murray 
Writer Reg Cribb
Director Geoff Bennett
Sales Nine Film and Television
Broadcaster Nine Network
Synopsis Sundowner is an extraordinary tale about two innocent men who become embroiled in one of the most famous heists in Australia’s history. It is a mysterious saga about their fight to clear their names over a crime that has never been solved.

Children's Television

GET ACE
Galaxy Pop Pty Ltd
Producers Gian Christian, Dina McPherson
Writers Dina McPherson, Ray Boseley, Brendan Luno
International Sales Moonscoop
Australian Broadcaster Ten Network
Synopsis Meet Ace McDougal... just your average, everyday nerdy school kid... Well he was, until he happened to be in the wrong dentist’s chair at the wrong time and accidentally said the wrong secret codeword. Next thing he knew he’d been fitted with a set of top-secret, ultra high-tech experimental braces. From that moment on he’s catapulted – teeth first – into one oddball adventure after another! Now he’s the kid proving you’re never too nerdy to be cool!

DANCE ACADEMY SERIES 3
Werner Film Productions
Executive Producers Bernadette O’Mahony, Joanna Werner
Producer Joanna Werner
Head Writer Samantha Strauss
Directors TBC
International Sales ZDFE
Australian Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis Tara and her friends are now seniors at the Academy and no one can forget for a second that the Company is watching. It will be a nail-biting chase to the finish line to see who will be offered a contract and finally achieve what they have been working towards for so long… and who will have to find a new dream...

THE FLAMIN’ THONGS
Media World Holdings Pty Ltd
Producer Colin South
Writers Bruce Griffiths, Simon Dodd
Director Kelly Lynagh
International Sales Daro
Australian Broadcaster ABC
Synopsis Whale Bay is home to Australia’s least visited tourist attraction, the Giant Thong. But that may be about to change, for all the wrong reasons.

IN YOUR DREAMS
Southern Star Entertainment Pty Ltd
Producer Noel Price
Writers John Armstrong, Tim Gooding, Kym Goldsworthy, Julie Miller
Director Ralph Strasser
International Sales Endemol Worldwide Distribution
Australian Broadcaster Network Seven
Synopsis Australian teenage twins Samantha and Ben Haselton discover what ‘culture shock’ is all about when they spend the summer with some eccentric, aristocratic and accident-prone relatives who live in a remote German castle.

MAKO – ISLAND OF SECRETS
Jonathan M Shiff Productions
Producer Jonathan M Shiff
Writers Sam Carroll, Anthony Morris, Chris Roache
Director Evan Clarry
Sales ZDF Enterprises
Broadcaster Network Ten
Synopsis When 15-year-old Zac goes camping on Mako Island, he has no idea his every move is being monitored by real-life mermaids Sirena, Nixie and Lyla, whose job it is to ward off trespassers. When he comes into contact with the magical waters of the Moon Pool on the night of a full moon, Zac is given a taste of Mako’s powers, waking the next day to discover he has been granted fin-like feet and the power to control water… causing all sorts of trouble for Sirena, Nixie and Lyla.