Stephen Garrett to leave Shine

Stephen Garrett, Shine Pictures executive chairman and chairman of Kudos Film and TV, is to leave the company later this year to pursue other opportunities in the scripted drama space.

With Kudos CEO Jane Featherstone, Garrett was responsible for building one of the UK’s most successful and respected independents, responsible for hit BBC series including Life on Mars, Hustle and Spooks.

Film productions under Garrett’s stewardship as executive chairman of Shine Pictures have included Eastern Promises and Salmon Fishing in The Yemen.

Shine Pictures and Kudos are currently co-producing feature spin-off Spooks: The Greater Good staring Peter Firth and Kit Harington (Game of Thrones). Garrett continues as producer on the upcoming project alongside Madden and Featherstone. The film is due for release in 2015. 

These and future projects will be led solely at Shine Pictures by head of film Ollie Madden, who joined Shine Pictures three years ago.

Shine bought indie Kudos Film and Television for around £35m ($58m) in 2007.

Garrett said: “I’m leaving behind, in Kudos and Shine Pictures, two vibrant creative businesses that have never been in better shape. It’s been an inspiring ride with Jane and the exceptional team at Kudos and more recently with Ollie at Shine Pictures.

“I will miss their passionate intelligence, so too that of all at the wider Shine Group - which has been like a family you marry into only to discover that, wherever you turn on the planet, you’ve acquired some unexpectedly stimulating and entertaining new relatives.

“As for my own plans, I’m excited by the blurring of boundaries and the fusion of forms. It’s not really about film or TV or even theatre anymore. It’s just about telling great stories, stories that electrify audiences that unfold on screens which might be the size of a stamp or a six-storey building. Addictive hours that are binged in a weekend or drip-fed in tantalising nuggets over months.

“Scripted content is what I love. It’s endlessly reinventing itself. This feels like a great time to reinvent myself in the scripted space.”

Shine Group CEO, Alex Mahon added: “Stephen is an exceptional producer, a passionate intellectual and thoughtful collaborator. He leaves a great base to build on in our film team, he has been an enduring influence on our scripted business and we wish him the best for the future.

“After 20 years as part of the wider Group we will miss him.”