Workerbee, the UK indie behind Idris Elba’s Fight School, is reshaping to focus on features and formats.
The Banijay UK-owned company has hired a pair of execs as part of the move and had promoted Michelle Chappell to Managing Director, with company founder Rick Murray becoming CEO to drive local and international busness. Mitchell joins from BBC Studios where he was Creative Director of Popular Factual to become Creative Director.
Manchester-based Workerbee will split clearly two two business diviisons, films and formats. “Creating these two divisions within the company gives us focus and purpose as we continue to build the team,” said Murray.
Films will focus on premium factual for the SVoD space and be led by Benjamin Hirsch, who has recent docs such as Janet Jackson (Sky, Lifetime and A+E) and Bruno Vs Tyson (Sky) and is currently working on an as-yet unannounced feature film for a major streamer.
The Banijay UK-owned company has hired a pair of execs as part of the move and had promoted Michelle Chappell to Managing Director, with company founder Rick Murray becoming CEO to drive local and international busness. Mitchell joins from BBC Studios where he was Creative Director of Popular Factual to become Creative Director.
Manchester-based Workerbee will split clearly two two business diviisons, films and formats. “Creating these two divisions within the company gives us focus and purpose as we continue to build the team,” said Murray.
Films will focus on premium factual for the SVoD space and be led by Benjamin Hirsch, who has recent docs such as Janet Jackson (Sky, Lifetime and A+E) and Bruno Vs Tyson (Sky) and is currently working on an as-yet unannounced feature film for a major streamer.
- 11/17/2022
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
When it comes to sheer magnitude of impact, few pop artists have come close to the legacy of the Janet Jackson. And while her story is certainly well-known in many aspects, the throughline of her life has left room for much speculation and heresy. For THR Presents, powered by Vision Media, Benjamin Hirsch and Rick Murray, the director and executive producer of Lifetime’s new four-part docuseries Janet Jackson, opened up about the years-long process of telling Jackson’s story in the right way.
The two British filmmakers are hardly an obvious choice for spearheading the telling of Jackson’s life. “I mean, do we look like your usual Janet fans? Two white guys from the U.K.?” asked Murray. “Janet was, in our country, as well as the U.S., a megastar, an icon. I sort of closely followed her career and...
When it comes to sheer magnitude of impact, few pop artists have come close to the legacy of the Janet Jackson. And while her story is certainly well-known in many aspects, the throughline of her life has left room for much speculation and heresy. For THR Presents, powered by Vision Media, Benjamin Hirsch and Rick Murray, the director and executive producer of Lifetime’s new four-part docuseries Janet Jackson, opened up about the years-long process of telling Jackson’s story in the right way.
The two British filmmakers are hardly an obvious choice for spearheading the telling of Jackson’s life. “I mean, do we look like your usual Janet fans? Two white guys from the U.K.?” asked Murray. “Janet was, in our country, as well as the U.S., a megastar, an icon. I sort of closely followed her career and...
- 6/15/2022
- by Hilton Dresden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
When Janet Jackson tapped Rick Murray‘s production company Workerbee to film her tour in 2017, he and director Benjamin Hirsch had a “secret mission” in mind. “From the moment we were invited, we were like, yeah, we’d love to come and make a tour documentary with you. However, it just felt that the Janet Jackson story hadn’t been told,” Murray tells Gold Derby at our Meet the Experts: Documentary panel (watch the exclusive video interview above). “From Day 1 of doing out to make that tour documentary, our sort of secret mission, really, was to try and persuade her to do a much bigger project and to make a feature film that tells her angle of the whole Jackson story.”
The end result is Lifetime’s four-part documentary series “Janet Jackson,” directed by Hirsch and executive-produced by Murray and Jackson. However, Murray and Hirsch knew it wouldn’t be...
The end result is Lifetime’s four-part documentary series “Janet Jackson,” directed by Hirsch and executive-produced by Murray and Jackson. However, Murray and Hirsch knew it wouldn’t be...
- 6/3/2022
- by Joyce Eng
- Gold Derby
Pop superstar Janet Jackson reveals much more of herself than she’s ever done before in the Lifetime-a&e documentary series aptly titled Janet Jackson.
The singer-actress discloses why her first marriage, to James DeBarge, failed (his drug use); her dream as a young woman; and why she counseled Justin Timberlake to avoid public comment after the infamous 2004 Super Bowl halftime show when he inadvertently ripped off Janet’s top, exposing her breast (she wanted to protect his career).
Contenders TV Docs + Unscripted — Deadline’s Complete Coverage
“Through this film, she’s been incredibly open and incredibly honest. And at times that has been very difficult for her,” Benjamin Hirsch, director of the four-part series, noted during an appearance at Deadline’s Contenders Television: Documentary + Unscripted event. “I admire her honesty and her ability to do that.”
Jackson serves as an executive producer on the series.
The singer-actress discloses why her first marriage, to James DeBarge, failed (his drug use); her dream as a young woman; and why she counseled Justin Timberlake to avoid public comment after the infamous 2004 Super Bowl halftime show when he inadvertently ripped off Janet’s top, exposing her breast (she wanted to protect his career).
Contenders TV Docs + Unscripted — Deadline’s Complete Coverage
“Through this film, she’s been incredibly open and incredibly honest. And at times that has been very difficult for her,” Benjamin Hirsch, director of the four-part series, noted during an appearance at Deadline’s Contenders Television: Documentary + Unscripted event. “I admire her honesty and her ability to do that.”
Jackson serves as an executive producer on the series.
- 4/23/2022
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Lifetime’s Janet Jackson four-hour docuseries averaged 3.1 million viewers across Lifetime and A&e. The delivery on Lifetime was the cable channel’s best for a nonfiction program since “Surviving R. Kelly” in early 2019.
“Janet Jackson.” — the documentary series’ official, stylized title — got off to the best start for any nonfiction program on all of cable since “The Last Dance” about Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls, aired on ESPN and ESPN2 in Spring 2020.
Here’s how “Janet” broke down, per episode, according to Nielsen:
Hour 1: 2.8 million viewersHour 2: 3.2 million viewersHour 3: 3.0 million viewersHour 4: 3.2 million viewers
The Janet doc also accrued 3.7 million video views across Lifetime’s and A&e’s TV Everywhere platforms. Tallying up all of the airings on linear and all of the video views on digital, “Janet Jackson.” reached more than 15.7 million (unduplicated) total viewers.
That all-in sum includes numbers from Adobe Analytics,...
“Janet Jackson.” — the documentary series’ official, stylized title — got off to the best start for any nonfiction program on all of cable since “The Last Dance” about Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls, aired on ESPN and ESPN2 in Spring 2020.
Here’s how “Janet” broke down, per episode, according to Nielsen:
Hour 1: 2.8 million viewersHour 2: 3.2 million viewersHour 3: 3.0 million viewersHour 4: 3.2 million viewers
The Janet doc also accrued 3.7 million video views across Lifetime’s and A&e’s TV Everywhere platforms. Tallying up all of the airings on linear and all of the video views on digital, “Janet Jackson.” reached more than 15.7 million (unduplicated) total viewers.
That all-in sum includes numbers from Adobe Analytics,...
- 2/1/2022
- by Tony Maglio and Sharon Knolle
- The Wrap
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