Mark Fennessy, who launched MasterChef and Married At First Sight, shifts to drama and docos with new venture
He launched MasterChef and Married at First Sight. Now, Mark Fennessy has started a new venture, with a John Ibrahim series the first on his slate.
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Australian television’s man with the Midas touch, Mark Fennessy, who launched blockbuster series from MasterChef to Married At First Sight, is back in the production game after a year on the bench.
Fennessy, who left Endemol Shine a year ago with his brother Carl after it was taken over by multinational behemoth Banijay, officially launched his new global label Helium this week.
The mad music fan will not only develop film and television projects but already has a chart-topping act on the record side of his new business with country pop rock band Darlinghurst.
While the powerful executive shaped Australia’s reality television landscape for more than a decade, creating Australian Ninja Warrior, Lego Masters, Australian Survivor and Beauty and the Geek and most notably fashioning the MasterChef format which was adopted worldwide, his new endeavour kicks off with a slate of drama and film projects.
“I am not saying that Helium won’t do unscripted television – never say never – but certainly the focus is on premium scripted and factual content,” he said.
Top of the list is Last King of the Cross, the adaptation of the memoir of Sydney identity and former nightclub owner John Ibrahim.
He is also producing the film 6 Festivals with filmmaker Macario D’Souza (Bra Boys) which has suffered multiple delays since it commenced shooting last year as the pandemic continues to shut down live music events.
Fennessy is also developing a limited television series with director Richard Lowenstein; the pair worked together on the Michael Hutchence documentary Mystify after the television executive finished developing the INXS; Never Tear Us Apart miniseries.
That project will be Sex, Thugs and Rock’n’Roll, based on the late rocker Billy Thorpe’s sensational book about seeking his future rock fame in Kings Cross when he was 17.
“It’s a rollicking, funny drama and it’s all true. Billy landed in the Cross from Brisbane when he was 17, auditioned for the Aztecs and got the gig and in the middle of all of this is a story about prostitutes being murdered by a serial killer in the late 60s,” Fennessy said.
The producer, who has long been involved in music and worked on MTV when it was hosted by Richard Wilkins in the late 80s and early 90s, was keen to support emerging artists as part of his new business.
Darlinghurst released their debut album last week and not only landed on top of the ARIA Country chart but made an impressive top 10 debut on the mainstream pop charts.
Fennessy, who spent a lot of his gardening leave noodling on his collection of electric and acoustic guitars “because I don’t play golf”, hopes to be as big a disrupter in the music business as the television landscape.
“I never thought my most successful TV show I would produce would be a cooking show and I never thought that the biggest artist I would have on the record label so far would be a country act,” he said.
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