UK’s ITV Studios has acquired a majority stake in Lingo Pictures, with the company to become its first ever Australian scripted label.
As part of the wider ITV Studios Group, Lingo will sit under the international production arm led by managing director Lisa Perrin. ITV Studios will handle the international distribution for all new series from the company.
Managing director Helen Bowden and creative director Jason Stephens will continue to lead the Sydney-based business, and there will be no changes to the broader team.
Bowden and Stephens formed Lingo in 2015, marrying their respective experience as the foundation MD of Matchbox Pictures and Fremantle Australia creative director.
Its most recent productions include second seasons of Upright for Foxtel and Sky UK and The Secret She Keeps for Paramount+ in Australia, BBC One in the UK and Sundance/AMC for the US.
Upcoming projects include The Messenger for the ABC; Prosper for Stan and Lionsgate; BBC’s The Queen of Oz, starring and written by Catherine Tate; and New Zealand project After The Party, a six-part co-production with Luminous Beast for TVNZ and the ABC.
SBS also announced today that it has commissioned Erotic Stories, an anthology of contemporary tales about lust, desire, and longing.
Past Lingo Pictures projects include the Lambs of God, which won nine AACTA Awards, On The Ropes and Wake In Fright.
“I’m absolutely delighted to welcome Helen and Jason whose partnership has become one of the most admired in the Australian and international scripted space,” Perrin said.
“Their talent for producing high quality scripted content is clear and they are well positioned to take even more advantage of the unprecedented demand for English language drama as part of our global network of production companies.”
In a joint statement, Bowden and Stephens said it was a privilege to join an “international powerhouse” like ITV Studios at at time when Australian stories were exploding around the world.
“We are so excited to be sitting alongside the other illustrious ITV Studios labels and can’t wait to get started!”
The Messenger is based on Marcus Zusak’s best-selling novel of the same name, and stars William McKenna as Ed Kennedy, who stops an armed robbery and becomes an accidental hero. Starring alongside are Maggie Dence, Alexandra Jensen, Chris Alosio and Kartanya Maynard.
Sarah Lambert leads the writing team, which also includes Kirsty Fisher, Kim Wilson, and Magda Wozniak, while Daniel Nettheim, Jennifer Leacey and Helena Brooks are the directors.
Stephens produces with Elisa Argenzio, while Helen Bowden, Markus Zusak, Mika Zusak, Sarah Lambert and Daniel Nettheim are the EPs.
Six-part comedy Queen of Oz, commissioned directly by BBC One in the UK, is co-written by Tate and Jeff Gutheim, from an original idea by Tate and Borga Dorta.
Tate stars as Princess Georgiana, the black sheep of a fictional British Royal Family. A PR disaster, she’s spent her spoilt, party-girl life plastered over the tabloids. On the back of her latest scandal her father, the King, makes the unprecedented move of abdicating his Australian throne in favour of his daughter. It is hoped that giving her some real responsibility will finally be the making of her – and if it isn’t, at least shipping her off keeps her 10,000 miles away from London.
Accompanied by a useless entourage, Queen Georgiana of Australia goes kicking and screaming to a country she has zero interest in beyond the Hemsworth Brothers.
Michele Bennett produces with Bowden as EP, with Christiaan Van Vuuren directing.
Stan recently took Prosper to commission, with the four-part series written by a leading roster of Aussie scribes in Matt Cameron, Liz Doran, Louise Fox and Belinda Chayko.
Due to shoot in NSW, the epic drama is set in the inner sanctum of a family bound together by unfathomable wealth and unchecked power as they build an evangelical megachurch hell-bent on global domination. Stephens and Bowden produce alongside Andrew Walker.
After The Party received funding from NZ On Air in May via the Puna Kairangi – Premium Productions for International Audiences Fund.
The six-parter follows Penny, who accuses her husband of a sex crime, and nobody believes her. Five years later, she must decide what’s more important – the truth, or rebuilding her relationship with her daughter. Bowden produces with Peter Salmon, who also directs from a script by Dianne Taylor.
An 8 x 30 drama, Erotic Stories explores desire from different character’s perspectives,
Writers include Niki Aken, Tamara Asmar, Alistair Baldwin, Christine Bartlett, Glace Chase, Marieke Hardy, Sara Khan, and Sarah Walker. Bowden produces with Liam Heyen, with Stephens EP.
Other scripted labels that have recently come under ITV Studios’ wing include Ben Stephenson’s label; Poison Pen Studios; Nicola Shindler and Quay Street Productions; Dominic Treadwell Collins and Happy Prince; Patrick Spence and David P.Davis, whose label 5Acts sits within Spence’s studio; Arturo Diaz with Cattleya Producciones; Moritz Polter with Windlight Pictures; Marty Adelstein and Becky Clements with Tomorrow Studios and Tony To and Dan Sackheim with Bedrock Entertainment.