John and Dan Edwards have joined forces with Roadshow Films
Prolific TV producer John Edwards (Gallipoli, Puberty Blues, Offspring, Love My Way) has announced he will join forces with Roadshow Films to launch a new production company, along with son and former ITV Studios and Endemol executive Dan Edwards.
The new production company, known as Roadshow Rough Diamond, aims to create original Australian television and feature films and will have a focus on quality drama.
Co-CEOs of the Roadshow Group, Chris Chard and Joel Pearlman, said they had aimed to align with the best for the new venture.
Chard said Edwards, who has more than 30 production credits to his name, was “without peer in the Australian television landscape”.
“We are thrilled to have his expertise and eye steering our course as Roadshow re-enters the television production arena. We intend to bring the same level of quality and commitment to our TV productions as we do with our films,” said Chard.
In recent years, Roadshow has had its focus on film, with many successes at the box office with the likes of Mad Max: Fury Road and Red Dog.
The company last had a TV venture in the 80s and 90s with Roadshow Coote and Carroll, producing Brides of Christ, GP and A Long Way From Home.
“It is great to have found partners who share our vision of creating and celebrating unique Australian stories, with the aim of bringing them to the world. Both Roadshow and Rough Diamond are 100 percent Australian in our heritage and vision, so it’s thrilling that we can garner both our resources to create what we believe will be a true new powerhouse of Australian drama,” said Edwards.
Edwards told IF that Roadshow Rough Diamond has already quite a few productions in development, including two long-form series, a small feature film, a telemovie, a mini-series and other shorter-form series.
However, Edwards said the focus for the new company would be primarily long-form television series.
“It’s where I most enjoy working; in that longer series form. Those… frankly, will be our priorities, as both a business and creatively,” he said.
He said he also hopes the company will break some new ground, mentioning he is currently in talks with a network to produce a program in a genre it has not worked in before.
“That’s extremely exciting to us; that’s the sort of thing we’ll go on trying to do.”