BBC Studios is gearing up for next week’s Showcase event by signing a global first-look deal with former Warner Bros. Australia TV boss Shaun Murphy.
The agreement gives the BBC’s commercial arm a first look outside Australia at Big Owl Pictures’ slate of original factual entertainment and entertainment formats. It also includes a commitment to co-develop paper formats through BBC Studios’ global production network, which spans territories including the U.S., the UK, France, Germany and Nordics.
Murphy launched Big Owl in July last year with backing from Californian billionaire Steve Luczo, as we revealed at the time. The company focused on all genres of unscripted content, and select scripted and film projects, working domestically and internationally.
The news comes soon after BBC Studios CEO Tom Fussell told Deadline of plans to further expand the organisation’s international production capabilities through acquisition, talent deals and other creative partnerships.
The agreement gives the BBC’s commercial arm a first look outside Australia at Big Owl Pictures’ slate of original factual entertainment and entertainment formats. It also includes a commitment to co-develop paper formats through BBC Studios’ global production network, which spans territories including the U.S., the UK, France, Germany and Nordics.
Murphy launched Big Owl in July last year with backing from Californian billionaire Steve Luczo, as we revealed at the time. The company focused on all genres of unscripted content, and select scripted and film projects, working domestically and internationally.
The news comes soon after BBC Studios CEO Tom Fussell told Deadline of plans to further expand the organisation’s international production capabilities through acquisition, talent deals and other creative partnerships.
- 2/23/2023
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
Shaun Murphy, former head of television at Warner Bros Australia, on Wednesday announced the launch of television and film production company Big Owl Pictures. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, the venture has received backing from private equity group, Balance Vector.
Murphy will serve as CEO and executive producer at the new outfit. He says Big Owl Pictures will aim to develop and produce all genres of unscripted content, as well as select scripted and film projects. The company is expected to announce an executive team and first slate of projects in the coming months.
Balance Vector is the privately held firm of Steve Luczo, former CEO of hard-drive giant, Seagate Technology. The group is involved in technology and environmental investments, real estate development, sports ownership, music, television and film production. Balance Vector has taken a stake in Big Owl, with Luczo acting as a senior advisor.
Shaun Murphy, former head of television at Warner Bros Australia, on Wednesday announced the launch of television and film production company Big Owl Pictures. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, the venture has received backing from private equity group, Balance Vector.
Murphy will serve as CEO and executive producer at the new outfit. He says Big Owl Pictures will aim to develop and produce all genres of unscripted content, as well as select scripted and film projects. The company is expected to announce an executive team and first slate of projects in the coming months.
Balance Vector is the privately held firm of Steve Luczo, former CEO of hard-drive giant, Seagate Technology. The group is involved in technology and environmental investments, real estate development, sports ownership, music, television and film production. Balance Vector has taken a stake in Big Owl, with Luczo acting as a senior advisor.
- 7/20/2022
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: Former Warner Bros Australia Head of Television Shaun Murphy has launched his own production company. Focusing on TV and film, Big Owl Pictures has backing from Balance Vector, the private equity group owned by California billionaire businessman Steve Luczo.
Murphy will serve as CEO and Executive Producer at Big Owl, which will develop and produce all genres of unscripted content, as well as select scripted and film projects for domestic platforms and the international marketplace.
Murphy is well known in Aussie production circles, having spent three years as Executive Producer at Shine Australia between 2012 and 2015 and the following six years as TV chief at Warner Bros Australia where he was responsible for executing local versions of The Masked Singer, The Bachelor, First Dates, Who Do You Think You Are, Celebrity Apprentice, The Bachelorette and Dancing With the Stars among others.
He had initially joined Warner Bros International Television Production Australia,...
Murphy will serve as CEO and Executive Producer at Big Owl, which will develop and produce all genres of unscripted content, as well as select scripted and film projects for domestic platforms and the international marketplace.
Murphy is well known in Aussie production circles, having spent three years as Executive Producer at Shine Australia between 2012 and 2015 and the following six years as TV chief at Warner Bros Australia where he was responsible for executing local versions of The Masked Singer, The Bachelor, First Dates, Who Do You Think You Are, Celebrity Apprentice, The Bachelorette and Dancing With the Stars among others.
He had initially joined Warner Bros International Television Production Australia,...
- 7/19/2022
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- Following "Riding Giants'" big-wave surfing excursion, feature documentary director Stacy Peralta returns to Southern California with Made in America, albeit the mean streets of south Los Angeles rather than the Santa Monica hardtop of Dogtown and Z-Boys.
In its examination of the origins of the notorious African-American street gangs, the Bloods and Crips, Made in America adopts a far more serious tone than either of Peralta's previous docs, which may make it most suitable for cable broadcast and DVD.
In a typical pubcaster-style setup, Peralta chronicles African-Americans' post-WW II westward migration and the establishment of black working class enclaves in Los Angeles during the '50s. Longtime south L.A. residents, many of them former gang members, relate how blacks were shut out of predominantly white organizations like the Boy Scouts of America and subsequently formed their own clubs, some of which became the precursors to street gangs.
The rival groups of the Crips and Bloods emerged in the neighborhood following the 1965 Watts riots and erosion of the black power movement's favorable influence. Defined by color-coded clothing, gestural signs and block-specific neighborhood boundaries, they've been engaged in ongoing internecine conflict for decades, as the death toll and incarceration rate among African-American men has soared throughout the area.
According to Peralta, himself an L.A. native, the statistics are staggering: Over the past 30 years, 100,000 people have been shot and 15,000 murdered as a result of gang violence in South Los Angeles -- more than even the long-running Northern Ireland conflict.
Combining archival photos, TV and film footage and first-person interviews with current and former gang members, as well as academics and community leaders, Peralta initially creates a persuasive account of the oppression and economic marginalization that have affected Los Angeles' inner-city black neighborhoods.
While Peralta's predominantly African American primary sources provide a unique and sympathetic outlook on gang rivalry and violence, much of the information about institutional discrimination against blacks, particularly the well-documented animosity demonstrated by the Los Angeles Police Department, feels conspicuously dated. The absence of supportive voices from the mainstream black political and Civil Rights communities further compromises the film's impact.
As Made in America unspools without introducing sufficient countervailing viewpoints, tucking information about the gangs' wide-ranging illegal activities deep into the running time, the film shifts from a reportorial documentary style to more of an advocacy approach. Although the film's strength is clearly its definitive point of view, this perspective sometimes comes at the expense of a more rigorously objective treatment.
Technical aspects are impressive with T.J. Mahar's energetic editing giving particular attention to the incorporation of distinctive archival images.
MADE IN AMERICA
Verso Entertainment and Balance Vector Productions present a Form Production
Credits:
Director: Stacy Peralta
Writers: Stacy Peralta, Sam George
Producers Baron Davis, Dan Halsted, Stacy Peralta, Jesse Dylan
Executive producers: Steve Luczo, Quincy "QD3" Jones III
Director of photography: Tony Hardmon
Music: Kamasi Washington, Matter
Editor: T.J. Mahar
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- Following "Riding Giants'" big-wave surfing excursion, feature documentary director Stacy Peralta returns to Southern California with Made in America, albeit the mean streets of south Los Angeles rather than the Santa Monica hardtop of Dogtown and Z-Boys.
In its examination of the origins of the notorious African-American street gangs, the Bloods and Crips, Made in America adopts a far more serious tone than either of Peralta's previous docs, which may make it most suitable for cable broadcast and DVD.
In a typical pubcaster-style setup, Peralta chronicles African-Americans' post-WW II westward migration and the establishment of black working class enclaves in Los Angeles during the '50s. Longtime south L.A. residents, many of them former gang members, relate how blacks were shut out of predominantly white organizations like the Boy Scouts of America and subsequently formed their own clubs, some of which became the precursors to street gangs.
The rival groups of the Crips and Bloods emerged in the neighborhood following the 1965 Watts riots and erosion of the black power movement's favorable influence. Defined by color-coded clothing, gestural signs and block-specific neighborhood boundaries, they've been engaged in ongoing internecine conflict for decades, as the death toll and incarceration rate among African-American men has soared throughout the area.
According to Peralta, himself an L.A. native, the statistics are staggering: Over the past 30 years, 100,000 people have been shot and 15,000 murdered as a result of gang violence in South Los Angeles -- more than even the long-running Northern Ireland conflict.
Combining archival photos, TV and film footage and first-person interviews with current and former gang members, as well as academics and community leaders, Peralta initially creates a persuasive account of the oppression and economic marginalization that have affected Los Angeles' inner-city black neighborhoods.
While Peralta's predominantly African American primary sources provide a unique and sympathetic outlook on gang rivalry and violence, much of the information about institutional discrimination against blacks, particularly the well-documented animosity demonstrated by the Los Angeles Police Department, feels conspicuously dated. The absence of supportive voices from the mainstream black political and Civil Rights communities further compromises the film's impact.
As Made in America unspools without introducing sufficient countervailing viewpoints, tucking information about the gangs' wide-ranging illegal activities deep into the running time, the film shifts from a reportorial documentary style to more of an advocacy approach. Although the film's strength is clearly its definitive point of view, this perspective sometimes comes at the expense of a more rigorously objective treatment.
Technical aspects are impressive with T.J. Mahar's energetic editing giving particular attention to the incorporation of distinctive archival images.
MADE IN AMERICA
Verso Entertainment and Balance Vector Productions present a Form Production
Credits:
Director: Stacy Peralta
Writers: Stacy Peralta, Sam George
Producers Baron Davis, Dan Halsted, Stacy Peralta, Jesse Dylan
Executive producers: Steve Luczo, Quincy "QD3" Jones III
Director of photography: Tony Hardmon
Music: Kamasi Washington, Matter
Editor: T.J. Mahar
Running time -- 105 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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