Long-time collaborators Naomi Just and Justine Flynn have formalised their working relationship with the launch of Drama Queen, a production entity focused on scripted content across all demographics.
The pair last worked together on ABC children’s series Born to Spy, which Flynn created and produced through her company Buster Productions. Just, who also has her own company in Mischief Media, served as series producer.
For their new business, the pair are aiming to originate, develop, and produce a bespoke slate of projects, while working alongside both domestic and international partners.
Despite frequently making use of each other’s talents throughout their more than two-decades-long friendship, Just said the idea for the company had only come about in the past couple of years since “being in the trenches again” filming Born to Spy.
“We definitely have projects on the slate ready that we’re working on together and that’s what brought us to this point,” she said.
“We were already cross-pollinating on these projects and we just went, ‘Okay let’s just call this what it is and put a ring on it’.”
Flynn said the new venture would be a way for her and Just to enjoy the “similar tone and sensibility” they share, while continuing to build their respective companies.
“Naomi has another production house that’s doing some beautiful things – some in the scripted, some in the factual, and some in the bigger entertainment area,” she said.
“My production company is the same, and I also do some in-house work for some other big production houses as well. We still want to keep those things brewing because they make us happy, but we like working together.”
Aside from Born to Spy, Just’s prior producing credits include Christmas Ransom, The Unusual Suspects, Safety Net, Stackorama!, Life at 9, and Ronny Chieng: International Student.
Flynn, a former manager of factual development at ABC, is known for creating and producing content across factual, entertainment, and scripted, such as Me & My Monsters, Hot Spell, Dirtgirl World, Five Minutes More, and The Unlisted.
Just said the partnership would be characterised by an intersection of skills that were “both complementary and different”.
“Justine is fabulous showrunner, writer, and creator, whereas I’m not a writer, but I am a creative producer, and I’m very happy to mould and shape a vision through production and delivery,” she said.
“We both have great contacts – Justine has fabulous international contacts – and we both know the domestic landscape here very well, so it seems like a really great fit to be able to work in partnership and have our own special areas of expertise within the partnership.”
While details of the Drama Queen slate are still under wraps, Flynn and Just have confirmed they are working on a launch series, with the pair taking meetings at last week’s Screen Forever, and also talking with partners in the UK and Canada about opportunities to collaborate.
“We feel like we’re in a really great spot,” Flynn said.
“It’s early days, but this is a fun part.”