Dead Lucky: A Showrunner’s Perspective

Do we have showrunners in Australian TV? Yes, says Drew Proffitt, co-creator of SBS series 'Dead Lucky', and it's the way to go if you want to retain creative control and IP rights.
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‘Who’s got control here?’ Yoson An and Rachel Griffiths star in ‘Dead Lucky’. Image supplied. 

Think of the word ‘showrunner’ and it conjures a particularly American vision: the Golden Age of television with Matthew Wiener masterminding Mad Men, the Duffer brothers breaking out Stranger Things or Donald Glover’s unclassifiable Atlanta. But last year, when a pair of youngish Australian writer-producers, Drew Proffitt and Ellie Beaumont, announced the launch of their new production company, Subtext Pictures, and declared themselves to be the showrunners of a four-part crime thriller, Dead Lucky (premiering at Series Mania at ACMI on 22 July and then screening on SBS from 25 July), it was clear what they wanted to say: We’re making premium television for a global market, and we have creative control.

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Rochelle Siemienowicz is the ArtsHub Group's Education and Career Editor. She was previously a journalist for Screenhub and is a writer, film critic and cultural commentator with a PhD in Australian cinema. She was the co-host of Australia's longest-running film podcast 'Hell is for Hyphenates' and has written a memoir, Fallen, published by Affirm Press. Her second book, Double Happiness, a novel, will be published by Midnight Sun in 2024. Instagram: @Rochelle_Rochelle Twitter: @Milan2Pinsk