Workerbee today announces a multi project deal with Scottish director and producer Kevin Macdonald to Executive Produce and Direct premium factual projects over the next two years as the company continues to build its client base.
This is the first creative partnership to be announced by the newly formed Workerbee Group, which has been established under CEO Rick Murray to back up and coming businesses and forge new creative partnerships with a focus on the North of England and Wales.
Macdonald, whose television credits include One Day in September (1999), a documentary about the 1972 murder of 11 Israeli athletes which won him the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, the climbing documentary Touching the Void (2003), the Bob Marley documentary Marley (2012) and the Whitney Houston documentary Whitney (2018) will work closely with the ‘Films’ division of Workerbee to jointly identify premium unscripted projects to collaborate on.
The first project Macdonald is Exec Producing is a major feature documentary for a streamer to be announced shortly.
Rick Murray, CEO of the Workerbee Group said;
“After working closely with Kevin as co-Director on Bruno Vs Tyson and Exec on our Janet series, we are delighted to be furthering our relationship with this deal. On a personal level I’m huge fan of Kevin’s approach to storytelling and his partnerships with our lead Director Ben Hirsh have produced our most exciting documentary projects to date. Knowing we are going to forge more high-profile films together is a great way to kick start our Workerbee Films division.”
Kevin Macdonald added;
“I’ve had a rewarding time working with Rick and the Workerbee team on several projects over the last few years and am excited to formalise our relationship and work with them on a host of new documentaries.”
Workerbee has grown its turnover three-fold over the past five years, making a range of premium factual and formats for linear and Svod platforms alike. Recent hits have included Janet for Lifetime and A&E, Bruno Vs Tyson (Sky), The Bridge for Channel 4 and HBO Max, Peter Crouch: Save Our Beautiful Game for Discovery and Idris Elba’s Fight School for BBC Two. The company is currently working on several unannounced projects for Svods for 2023.
Workerbee has recently been restructured to focus on clear business divisions – ‘Films’ and ‘Formats’ and a new senior team established including Ben Mitchell who joins the Manchester based company as Creative Director from BBC Studios and the promotion of Michelle Chappell to Managing Director.