Jungle Moves into Drama, Hires New MD

Courtney Gibson has been named managing director and partner at Jungle, which is making its foray into television drama.

Gibson has served as CEO of Screen NSW, a programming production executive at the Nine Network and director of programs at Southern Star, as well as executive head of content creation and head of arts, entertainment and comedy at Australia’s ABC TV. Gibson starts as Jungle makes its first moves into TV drama. The slate includes a fully financed long-form drama series going into production in August and another television drama in funded development, created by showrunner Kristen Dunphy.

Jungle has also announced the formation of The Jungle Collective, a creative hub for Jungle production partners and incubator for next-generation showrunners and filmmakers. It will be managed by Jungle’s head of production, Chloe Rickard. Joining The Jungle Collective are the Van Vuuren Bros—Christiaan and Connor Van Vuuren—the writers/directors behind Bondi Hipsters and the Seeso series Soul Mates. The Van Vuurens are set to direct the first Jungle feature, with development funding from Screen Queensland, and they also have two TV projects in development with Jungle.

CEO Jason Burrows said: “We’re incredibly excited to have Courtney on board. She has fantastic instincts for creating great television, with significant experience across so many genres.”

Gibson said: “I have a huge amount of respect for the team at Jungle; they’re such a class act of creative talent and I’m delighted to be joining the company as it moves into an exciting new phase.”