“Barons,” a surf and business drama series that plays this week at Series Mania, is a calling card for the newly re-structured Australian operations of TV giant Fremantle.
In recent weeks, leadership of the unscripted side of the business has been put in the hands of Eureka, a company in which it bought an increased shareholding last year. That leaves the remainder, under the management of Greg Woods, focused on high end drama and documentaries.
Insiders have called the new emphasis on premium drama and big factual pieces a new chapter for the company.
Other upcoming shows include the recently wrapped “Heartbreak High” for Netflix, “Significant Others” for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and “Jump” for local streamer Stan.
“These guys with very humble origins, in this tin pot town in Australia, become like Cain and Abel. They’re kind of friends and rivals. That works as a kind of ceiling. But no, they have very big plans for [their businesses],” says Justin Davies, executive producer of “Barons.”
“I think Fremantle is the best place to support this amazing co-production with people who know so much about this subject. Mick [Lawrence] has brought all the surfing community with him on this journey.”
Conceived by Lawrence, Liz Doran and John Molloy, “Barons” is an upscale, but easily approachable, eight-part series that examines what happens when money gets muddled with friendship. The 1970s-set beaches-to-boardroom rivalry story is fictional, but parallels the establishment of the real-world Billabong and Quiksilver surf-wear labels.
Variety spoke to Lawrence about how the show was hatched, filmed during COVID times, and where it might go next in future seasons.
How long did it take you to get from concept to completion?
It has been a bit over seven years to get to this point. Seven years to be an overnight success. I had watched things like ‘The Social Network’ and ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ and had a feeling that entrepreneurs were going to be like the new chefs. Entrepreneurs’ stories were going to be compelling to the new generation of younger people that really aren’t doing things the way that we all did it.
I picked up a book at the airport called “Salts and Suits,” which was a very dry business book by a journalist that I had known called Phil Jarratt. It’s not an absolute roaring yawn or a page turner. But what it did have was the really fun kind of direction as to how the surf industry was built from 1970s. How they turned the idea of a surf lifestyle into a multi-billion-dollar industry.
You’ve said that this one-horse town where these brands started, Australia’s Silicon Valley, has been renamed Velcro Valley?
I’d grown up surfing and had met some of those owners and had done business with them. But the actual magnitude of what they achieved was quite incredible. And the Machiavellian nature of the way they’ve done it and then turned on each other and the amount of money involved, floating on the stock exchange… I’m like, this is a ripping yarn.
How was it set up and packaged?
My business partner and I optioned the book. Then I was lucky enough to meet John Molloy, who’d just come off the back of “Molly,” which is still today, Australia’s highest rating miniseries, about Molly Meldrum. And we got Liz, one of the lead writers of “Molly,” involved. She brought the female perspective and female voices for this show, which are really important. We formed this little family and started developing and shopping the show as this cautionary tale. Where does commercialism fit? Where does freedom fit?
When you go out to package something like this, there are no rules. But Sally Riley at the ABC really loved the show and wanted to make it.
Then we went to [Fremantle’s] Chris Oliver-Taylor and Justin Davies. It was almost a handshake deal. Chris just kind of sat in. We pitched the show. He read the materials. We told him the team. And he just came back with a one-page email within 24 hours and said: ‘This is how we work together. This is the way we’d like to shape a deal.’ And within like three days, we had an MOU. I’m like, that’s kind of old school!
Will there be more?
We’ve planned to do five seasons, like 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. They’re taking it to market that way. The 80s and 90s are crazy as far as the characters and the decadence in that time.
How are you benchmarking the show?
Stylistically, and being about a family and sport, maybe like “Friday Night Lights.” But then we have our own rules. Like you’re meant to have like three big belly laughs each episode and to be jolted by the craziness of the world. So, it’s a relationship drama set against a period of money and surfing. And these characters do crazy shit.
How was production?
We went into production in the second quarter of last year. And finished it at the end of last year. This COVID thing was being an absolute nightmare.
[So too was trying to] build teams when there was a production rush into Australia and [2020-21 the country] looked like the safest place in the world to film. We never actually got shut down from COVID. But it put us through some challenges. And in another way, it was a gift that brought the actors closer together. They were spending more time and bonded into an ensemble.
Did you end up shooting in the U.S. and Indonesia, as originally planned?
Sadly, COVID didn’t allow travel. So, we got really clever about how and where we shot the surfing, mostly around Byron Bay. Our goal was to make this the most authentic surfing show ever. A lot of time went into working with the stunt doubles. Some of the cast are absolutely amazing surfers themselves. George Pullar, who plays Hunter George, is probably as good if not better than his stunt double. When you see the trailer with George on the inside of the wave in a barrel, that’s actually George. He wasn’t getting out of the water until he got that shot.