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Greg Haddrick launches production shingle after 17 years with Screentime

Greg Haddrick (Photo credit: Lisa Tomasetti).

Greg Haddrick is embarking on a career as a solo producer, aiming to create TV dramas, feature films and one-off programming for Australian and worldwide audiences.

Haddrick has launched Rainfall Creations after departing Screentime, where he spent 17 years as head of drama, masterminding the Underbelly, MDA and Janet King franchises and numerous other series.

The veteran showrunner/producer/writer, who wraps shooting the six-part political thriller Pine Gap on Friday, is not severing his ties with Screentime. He and Screentime executive chairman Bob Campbell are confident Netflix and the ABC will commission a second series, which follows the Americans and Aussies who work at the spy satellite base in the Northern Territory.

Moreover, Campbell tells IF: “We would welcome any projects Greg brings to us and there will be projects that we will bring to him.”

Rainfall Creations takes part of its name from rainfall, which was the CIA’s code name for Pine Gap. Explaining his decision to go solo, Haddrick tells IF, “It’s something that has been evolving over the last few years; it came from my creative ambition to do features (which are outside Screentime’s remit) and one-offs as well as series.”

By one-offs he means single stories which could find a home on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other streaming services.

He won’t turn his mind to developing projects until he delivers Pine Gap in September. He describes collaborating with Netflix on this show as a highly positive experience.

While his primary focus will be on generating content for international audiences he will not be ignoring the Australian market.

On Pine Gap he is collaborating with co-writer Felicity Packard and the director Mat King. “I am always cautiously optimistic until I see the final cut but the assemblies I’ve seen are really exciting,” he says.

During his illustrious Screentime career he created and co-wrote three series of MDA, produced the first series of Underbelly with Brenda Pam and Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities and executive produced Underbelly: The Golden Mile, writing episodes for each.

His produced and script-edited Cloudstreet, executive produced and co-wrote Crownies and Bikie Wars: Brothers in Arms and executive produced three Underbelly Files telemovies as well as Underbelly: Razor, Underbelly: Badness, Underbelly: Squizzy and Fat Tony & Co.

More recently he executive produced both series of Stan’s Wolf Creek and the ABC’s ANZAC Girls and Janet King, writing numerous episodes of the latter.

Campbell said: “Greg was responsible for a tremendous body of work. We are proud to have been associated with him.”