Sony’s ‘Reckoning’ prodco Playmaker eyes chief as co-founders step down

Reckoning

Sony Pictures Television (SPT)-owned Australian producer Playmaker Media is looking for a new creative chief after co-founders David Maher and David Taylor revealed they are to step down from the company.

The duo, who founded Playmaker in 2009 before selling it to Sony in 2014, will continue to lead the company over the coming months as they and SPT look for a new creative executive team to take the reins.

Maher and Taylor will continue to co-develop and co-produce projects that have already come through Playmaker, but will then work as indie producers, with the set-up of future shows to be decided on a case-by-case basis.

Playmaker has been behind numerous shows for Aussie broadcasters, ranging from The Code for the ABC and Love Child for Nine Network, as well as Bloom and The Commons for domestic streamer Stan. The slate has also included Foxtel’s Slide, Netflix drama Reckoning and the Mandarin-language version of thriller series Chosen, produced for Chinese streamer iQiyi.

Wayne Garvie, president of international production at SPT, said: “After 11 highly successful years building Playmaker into a world class indie, we fully support David’s Maher and Taylor in their decision to go back to working as independent producers, and look forward to working with them in their new capacity, while continuing to invest in and build Playmaker under a new management team.”

Maher and Taylor added: “We’ve loved our time at Playmaker and with Sony Pictures Television, producing over 200 hours of drama we’re immensely proud of. We’d like to thank Wayne, SPT International and especially our brilliant team at Playmaker for that experience. It continues to be an exciting time to produce drama and we’re looking forward to whatever comes next.”