“Barons”, a surfing and business drama series that features this week on Series Mania, is a calling card for TV giant Fremantle's recently restructured Australian operations.
In recent weeks, leadership of the non-scripted part of the business has been handed over to Eureka, a company in which it bought a majority stake last year. That leaves the rest, under the direction of Greg Woods, focused on high-end dramas and documentaries.
Creators: Liz Doran, Michael Lawrence, John Molloy
Stars: Ben O'Toole, Jillian Nguyen, Sean Keenan
Pundits have called the new emphasis on premium drama and big factual set pieces a new chapter for the company. Other upcoming shows include the recently completed "Heartbreak High" for Netflix, "Significant Others" for Australian Broadcasting Corporation and "Jump" for local streamer Stan.
“These guys from very humble beginnings, in this tin town in Australia, they become like Cain and Abel. They are kind of friends and rivals. That works as a kind of ceiling. But no, they have very big plans," says Justin Davies, executive producer of "Barons."
“I think Fremantle is the best place to support this amazing co-production with people who know a lot about it. Mick has brought the entire surf community with him on this journey."
Conceived by Lawrence, Liz Doran and John Molloy, “Barons” is an upscale, yet easily accessible eight-part series that examines what happens when money is mistaken for friendship. The story of beach/boardroom rivalry set in the 1970s is fictional, but parallels the establishment of surfwear brands Billabong and Quiksilver in the real world.
It's been a little over seven years to get to this point. Seven years to be an overnight success. I had seen things like 'The Social Network' and 'The Wolf of Wall Street' and had a feeling that entrepreneurs were going to be like new chefs. The entrepreneurial stories were going to be compelling to the new generation of young people who aren't really doing things the way we all did.
I picked up a book at the airport called "Salts and Suits" which was a very dry business book written by a journalist I had met named Phil Jarratt. Not an outright roaring yawn or page turner. But what it did have was a really fun direction on how the surf industry was built starting in the 1970s. How they turned the idea of a surf lifestyle into a multi-billion dollar industry.
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