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Martin Fabinyi
Martin Fabinyi is an Australian film and television producer and director, songwriter and screenwriter and has written books on the local rock music scene. He was the Chief Executive Officer of Mushroom Pictures from its formation in 1995 to 2009. His film projects include the features Chopper (2000), Gettin' Square (2003) and Macbeth (2006). In 2001, Fabinyi was named one of the top ten international producers to watch by Variety and one of the most influential people in the Australian film industry by Screen International magazine.
In 1978, Fabinyi and composer, Cameron Allan, formed the Regular Records label, initially for releases by pop and R&B band, Mental As Anything, which were soon managed by his younger brother, Jeremy.
Andrew Fabinyi was president of the Australian Book Publisher’s Association and president of the Australian Institute of International Affairs.
Married to Elisabeth Robinson in 1940, he had five children. His eldest, Margaret, and second daughter Janet, are social workers and eldest son Gavin is a leading neurosurgeon and former President of the Australian Society of Neurosurgeons. The youngest, Jeremy, was a filmmaker in New York and Milan and returned to Australia to manage the band Mental Anything. He subsequently became the Managing Director of Festival Records and Head of the Performing Rights Association in Paris and then London.
Fabinyi was educated at Wesley College, Melbourne, he then spent two years studying drama at Flinders University in Adelaide from 1969 where he founded and edited the student newspaper Empire Times and mobilised the student body against the Vietnam war.
In 1972 he moved to Sydney and joined the Filmmakers Co-op, which at the time not only counted experimental film makers such as Albie Thoms, Aggy Read and Mick Glasheen as members, but also filmmakers who would become some of the most popular and commercial directors including Peter Weir, Phillip Noyce and Bruce Beresford. Fabinyi, who had shot independent works in Adelaide, received a grant from the Experimental Film Board to make The Vacuum, one of the first projects in Australia to be shot on portable videotape. A satire on the personalities behind religious cults, featuring a game show starring Johnny O’Keefe and drag act Sylvia and the Synthetics, the video premiered at the Co-op and toured universities with a live performance from the Synthetics and Fabinyi’s earlier work, including the controversial TV Dinner, which polarised audiences due its uncompromising and unerotic sexual subject matter. Fabinyi, who was influenced by German artist Otto Muehl, continued to work in video and was a founding member of Bush Video, the group which wired up and broadcast on-site during the 1973 Aquarius Festival in Nimbin, an event that has become the epitome of the hippie movement. In 1974 Fabinyi received a grant to screen a selection of Australian experimental films in London which was warmly received.
He continued working with the group Sylvia and the Synthetics in performance art and was invited to participate in the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 1975. His piece, which involved nudity and video (the audience only seeing the video and therefore not sure whether the event was live or not) was staged in a tent next to the Torrens River and attracted the attention of the local police who claimed they could see behind the screens and charged Fabinyi with "Aiding and abetting an indecent act". Whilst the Adelaide Festival organisers debated whether to show the video across the city (that year monitors screened events on most city street corners), Fabinyi was in court. Eventually, after an appeal was lost, he was sentenced to three months hard labour. This was reported in Sydney by Richard Neville in the Nation Review as an outrage, prompting still more debate.
Fabinyi returned to Sydney and the world of rock and roll, teaming with photographer Philip Morris for the book, The Bumper Book Of Rock. He and Philip designed record covers, photo shoots and documented the 1970s Sydney scene and the life of Johnny O’Keefe.
Fabinyi began writing scripts for directors Phillip Noyce, Jim Sharman and Michael Thornhill, and with composer Cameron Allan. Allan and Fabinyi also shared a passion for pop music and Sydney-based band Mental As Anything became the first signing for their new label, Regular Records, formed in September 1978. The band were soon managed by his brother, Jeremy. Although distributed by Festival Records, Regular Records remained as an independent label for fifteen years, breaking artists such as Icehouse, Austen Tayshus and Kate Ceberano. In 1986, with music journalist, Toby Creswell, he co-wrote Too Much Ain't Enough, a biography of pub rocker and former Cold Chisel vocalist Jimmy Barnes.
In 1990, Fabinyi was appointed editor of Follow Me Gentlemen, the men’s fashion version of Follow Me. Changing the name to FMG, the magazine was a precursor to men’s fashion and general magazines. In 1999, Fabinyi and Creswell co-authored The Real Thing, a history of Australian rock and roll between 1957 and the late 1990s.
When Regular Records was sold to its distributor, Mushroom Pictures began with documentaries, for the ABC, Discovery Channel and the Nine Network. Titles such as Tribal Voice featuring Yothu Yindi, Kate Ceberano & Friends, Next To Nothing and Nothing to Hide (on lingerie and swimwear) and The Singer and The Swinger (the story of Johnny O’Keefe and Lee Gordon) cemented Mushroom’s documentary credentials.
In 2000, Mushroom Pictures produced and released the horror feature spoof Cut starring Molly Ringwald and Kylie Minogue, which was sold worldwide and achieved box office success in Europe and Asia. Mushroom Pictures’ second feature, Chopper, which Fabinyi executive produced, was the first Australian “R” rated feature to go #1, grossing over $5 million. It became a worldwide cult phenomena and launched the careers of both director Andrew Dominik and actor Eric Bana. Mushroom Pictures moved into local distribution with Russian Doll. In 2003, Fabinyi produced Gettin' Square, directed by Jonathan Teplitzky and starring David Wenham and Sam Worthington, which garnered box office success and critical acclaim. This was followed by Geoffrey Wright’s take on Macbeth, also starring Sam Worthington. Mushroom Pictures moved back to television with Great Australian Albums Volumes 1 & 2, an eight-hour documentary set of the most influential Australian bands for SBS Television. It was described by Graeme Blundell in The Australian as one of the most important local documentary series ever produced. Mushroom Pictures distributed the U.S. documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil and Cedar Boys, and will distribute the Australian feature Mad Bastards in 2010. Fabinyi left Mushroom Pictures in 2009 and works independently as both a producer and writer.
In 1978, Fabinyi and composer, Cameron Allan, formed the Regular Records label, initially for releases by pop and R&B band, Mental As Anything, which were soon managed by his younger brother, Jeremy.
Biography
Martin Fabinyi was born in Melbourne, the second son of Dr Andrew Fabinyi, who left Budapest in 1938 and arrived in Melbourne in 1939. He was to become one of the most influential book publishers in Australia, discovering new writers such as Joan Lindsay, David Malouf, Robin Boyd, Alan Marshall and many others.Andrew Fabinyi was president of the Australian Book Publisher’s Association and president of the Australian Institute of International Affairs.
Married to Elisabeth Robinson in 1940, he had five children. His eldest, Margaret, and second daughter Janet, are social workers and eldest son Gavin is a leading neurosurgeon and former President of the Australian Society of Neurosurgeons. The youngest, Jeremy, was a filmmaker in New York and Milan and returned to Australia to manage the band Mental Anything. He subsequently became the Managing Director of Festival Records and Head of the Performing Rights Association in Paris and then London.
Fabinyi was educated at Wesley College, Melbourne, he then spent two years studying drama at Flinders University in Adelaide from 1969 where he founded and edited the student newspaper Empire Times and mobilised the student body against the Vietnam war.
In 1972 he moved to Sydney and joined the Filmmakers Co-op, which at the time not only counted experimental film makers such as Albie Thoms, Aggy Read and Mick Glasheen as members, but also filmmakers who would become some of the most popular and commercial directors including Peter Weir, Phillip Noyce and Bruce Beresford. Fabinyi, who had shot independent works in Adelaide, received a grant from the Experimental Film Board to make The Vacuum, one of the first projects in Australia to be shot on portable videotape. A satire on the personalities behind religious cults, featuring a game show starring Johnny O’Keefe and drag act Sylvia and the Synthetics, the video premiered at the Co-op and toured universities with a live performance from the Synthetics and Fabinyi’s earlier work, including the controversial TV Dinner, which polarised audiences due its uncompromising and unerotic sexual subject matter. Fabinyi, who was influenced by German artist Otto Muehl, continued to work in video and was a founding member of Bush Video, the group which wired up and broadcast on-site during the 1973 Aquarius Festival in Nimbin, an event that has become the epitome of the hippie movement. In 1974 Fabinyi received a grant to screen a selection of Australian experimental films in London which was warmly received.
He continued working with the group Sylvia and the Synthetics in performance art and was invited to participate in the Adelaide Fringe Festival in 1975. His piece, which involved nudity and video (the audience only seeing the video and therefore not sure whether the event was live or not) was staged in a tent next to the Torrens River and attracted the attention of the local police who claimed they could see behind the screens and charged Fabinyi with "Aiding and abetting an indecent act". Whilst the Adelaide Festival organisers debated whether to show the video across the city (that year monitors screened events on most city street corners), Fabinyi was in court. Eventually, after an appeal was lost, he was sentenced to three months hard labour. This was reported in Sydney by Richard Neville in the Nation Review as an outrage, prompting still more debate.
Fabinyi returned to Sydney and the world of rock and roll, teaming with photographer Philip Morris for the book, The Bumper Book Of Rock. He and Philip designed record covers, photo shoots and documented the 1970s Sydney scene and the life of Johnny O’Keefe.
Fabinyi began writing scripts for directors Phillip Noyce, Jim Sharman and Michael Thornhill, and with composer Cameron Allan. Allan and Fabinyi also shared a passion for pop music and Sydney-based band Mental As Anything became the first signing for their new label, Regular Records, formed in September 1978. The band were soon managed by his brother, Jeremy. Although distributed by Festival Records, Regular Records remained as an independent label for fifteen years, breaking artists such as Icehouse, Austen Tayshus and Kate Ceberano. In 1986, with music journalist, Toby Creswell, he co-wrote Too Much Ain't Enough, a biography of pub rocker and former Cold Chisel vocalist Jimmy Barnes.
In 1990, Fabinyi was appointed editor of Follow Me Gentlemen, the men’s fashion version of Follow Me. Changing the name to FMG, the magazine was a precursor to men’s fashion and general magazines. In 1999, Fabinyi and Creswell co-authored The Real Thing, a history of Australian rock and roll between 1957 and the late 1990s.
When Regular Records was sold to its distributor, Mushroom Pictures began with documentaries, for the ABC, Discovery Channel and the Nine Network. Titles such as Tribal Voice featuring Yothu Yindi, Kate Ceberano & Friends, Next To Nothing and Nothing to Hide (on lingerie and swimwear) and The Singer and The Swinger (the story of Johnny O’Keefe and Lee Gordon) cemented Mushroom’s documentary credentials.
In 2000, Mushroom Pictures produced and released the horror feature spoof Cut starring Molly Ringwald and Kylie Minogue, which was sold worldwide and achieved box office success in Europe and Asia. Mushroom Pictures’ second feature, Chopper, which Fabinyi executive produced, was the first Australian “R” rated feature to go #1, grossing over $5 million. It became a worldwide cult phenomena and launched the careers of both director Andrew Dominik and actor Eric Bana. Mushroom Pictures moved into local distribution with Russian Doll. In 2003, Fabinyi produced Gettin' Square, directed by Jonathan Teplitzky and starring David Wenham and Sam Worthington, which garnered box office success and critical acclaim. This was followed by Geoffrey Wright’s take on Macbeth, also starring Sam Worthington. Mushroom Pictures moved back to television with Great Australian Albums Volumes 1 & 2, an eight-hour documentary set of the most influential Australian bands for SBS Television. It was described by Graeme Blundell in The Australian as one of the most important local documentary series ever produced. Mushroom Pictures distributed the U.S. documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil and Cedar Boys, and will distribute the Australian feature Mad Bastards in 2010. Fabinyi left Mushroom Pictures in 2009 and works independently as both a producer and writer.
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Filmography of Martin Fabinyi (8 films)
Producer
Add to a movie list
Storm Warning (2008)
, 1h22Directed by Jamie Blanks
Genres Thriller, Horror
Actors Nadia Farès, Robert Taylor (acteur australien), David Lyons, Mathew Wilkinson
Roles Executive Producer
Rating57%
Rob and Pia are a young couple who travel out for a day of sailing along coastal marshland. They become lost in a heavy storm and end up on a desolate island. They come across a decrpid old house and nearby barn with no one home. There is a large amount of marijuana growing in the barn that suggests the homeowners may not welcome their presence. There is also no telephone or means of communication with the outside world. But when the deranged, redneck owners—Brett, his brother Jimmy, and their even more terrifying father Poppy—return, Rob and Pia realize a fear far beyond anything they have ever known. Resentful of the affluent intruders, the three monstrously sadistic hillbillies imprison and enslave the couple, who—fearing for their lives—submit to appalling degradation and humiliation. When Rob and Pia learn their kidnappers have no intention of ever letting them go alive, they finally understand they must do whatever it takes to survive, and whatever it takes means going to a limit they could never have imagined which leads to the violent climax and ending; they will have to kill all three of the hillbillies by themselves in order to escape and survive.
Macbeth (2006)
, 1h49Directed by Geoffrey Wright
Origin Australie
Genres Drama, Thriller, Action
Themes Seafaring films, Théâtre, Transport films, Political films, Films based on plays, Films based on works by William Shakespeare, Films about royalty
Actors Sam Worthington, Victoria Hill, Lachy Hulme, Steve Bastoni, Bob Franklin, Kate Bell
Roles Producer
Rating46%
This adaptation of Macbeth takes place in the Melbourne underworld. Macbeth (Sam Worthington), a loyal underboss to his crime boss Duncan (Gary Sweet), is told by teenage witches that he will one day assume great power. Driven by their prophecy, his wife (Victoria Hill) plans to kill Duncan and take the leadership of the gang for herself and her husband. Macbeth's obsessive love for her leads him to agree to her murderous plan, but he finds that maintaining his power will require a lot more from him than first imagined.
Wolf Creek (2005)
, 1h35Directed by Greg McLean
Origin Australie
Genres Thriller, Horror, Slasher
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films, Films about automobiles, Serial killer films, Road movies
Actors John Jarratt, Cassandra Magrath, Kestie Morassi, Nathan Phillips, Greg McLean, Teresa Palmer
Roles Producer
Rating62%
In Australia in 1999, two British tourists, Liz Hunter (Cassandra Magrath) and Kristy Earl (Kestie Morassi), are backpacking across the country with Ben Mitchell (Nathan Phillips), an Australian friend from Sydney. Currently in Broome, Western Australia, they constantly get drunk at wild, extravagant pool parties and camp out on the beach. Ben buys a dilapidated Ford XD Falcon for their road journey from Broome to Cairns, Queensland via the Great Northern Highway.
Gettin' Square (2003)
Genres Drama, Thriller, Comedy, Action, Crime, Politic
Themes Seafaring films, Transport films, Heist films
Actors Sam Worthington, David Wenham, Gary Sweet, Timothy Spall, David Field, Freya Stafford
Roles Producer
Rating65%
Barry Wirth (Sam Worthington) is a retired small time criminal who is released on parole following the death of his mother, so that he can care for his younger brother, Joey (Luke Pegler). Wirth was falsely convicted for murder by corrupt police detective Arnie DeViers (David Field), who is in the employ of criminal kingpin Chicka Martin (Gary Sweet). Shortly after Wirth is released, a corrupt accountant is arrested and his records seized, causing difficulties for Wirth's new employer, Darren "Dabba" Barrington (Timothy Spall), an ex criminal turned restauranteur whose money is seized along with that of Chicka. Wirth's friend Johnny "Spit" Spitieri (David Wenham), a heroin addict and small time criminal, is arrested while conducting a drug deal and finds himself owing twenty thousand dollars to Chicka. DeViers continues to harass and threaten Wirth, even as the latter finds success as a chef in Dabba's restaurant. Despite his best efforts to remain clean, Wirth finds himself under increasing pressure to return to his criminal ways in order to help both Dabba and Spit.
Chopper (2000)
, 1h34Directed by Andrew Dominik
Origin Australie
Genres Drama, Thriller, Biography, Comedy-drama, Crime
Themes Seafaring films, Prison films, Transport films
Actors Eric Bana, Vince Colosimo, Kate Beahan, David Field, Daniel Wyllie, Fletcher Humphrys
Roles Executive Producer
Rating70%
In and out of jail since he was 16, Melbourne standover man Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read (Eric Bana) is serving a 16-year sentence for kidnapping a supreme court judge to get his childhood friend, Jimmy Loughnan (Simon Lyndon), out of the notorious H Division of maximum security Pentridge Prison. To become leader of the division, he ignites a power struggle which gains him more enemies than admirers. Eventually, even his gang turn their backs on him and Loughnan stabs him several times in a failed assassination attempt. Chopper voluntarily has his ears cut off by a fellow inmate in order to be transferred out of the H Division; this also gains him recognition in and out of the prison.
Cut (2000)
Directed by Kimble Rendall
Genres Thriller, Comedy, Horror comedy, Horror, Slasher
Themes Comedy horror films
Actors Molly Ringwald, Kylie Minogue, Jessica Napier, Paul Blackwell, Stephen Curry, Don Barker
Roles Producer
Rating43%
Fed up with Brad's (Frank Roberts) on-screen antagonist's foul-ups, his director, Hilary Jacobs (Kylie Minogue), publicly humiliates him and fires him on the spot in front of onlookers. Her further degrading of him (as he comes hoping for one more chance) in her office causes this actor to go berserk, mutilating himself before cutting out her tongue using the modified prop shears as his real-life signature weapon. Before he could harm anyone else, his co-star Vanessa Turnbill (Molly Ringwald) gives him a makeshift tracheotomy which ends in Brad being seemingly electrocuted as P.A. man Lossman (Geoff Revell) looks on. But as Brad dies it seems he curses the source of his misery: Hot Blooded and all who would work on it. Now in present-day Australia, Lossman is a teacher using his personal experiences as warnings to his students that any attempts to complete filming or even screening of Hot Blooded! has ended up with lives being lost in mysterious and disturbing ways (like a producer being suspiciously electrocuted in an editing room or a director mysteriously discovered with his throat slit). But some of his pupils decide such a chance is too much of a temptation and despite his better wishes they decide to try to finish the film as a graduation grade. They contact Vanessa Turnbill to co-star; she is persuaded by her agent to go back to Australia; when she arrives at the airport she is greeted by Raffy and Hester who take her to a press conference to give the film publicity; while being interviewed a local reporter asks Vanessa if she is worried about the curse on the film, she passes off the question with a joke saying that "Oh if I die, I get paid extra".
Cut (2000)
, 1h20Directed by Kimble Rendall
Origin Australie
Genres Thriller, Comedy, Horror
Themes Films about films, Serial killer films
Actors Molly Ringwald, Kylie Minogue, Stephen Curry, Jessica Napier, Paul Blackwell, Don Barker
Roles Producer
Rating43%
Raffy Carruthers, une jeune réalisatrice, décide de terminer un film d'horreur laissé à l'abandon des années auparavant après plusieurs meurtres commis sur le tournage. Mais le film est réputé pour être maudit et un tueur masqué fait son apparition sur le nouveau tournage...
Team
True Love and Chaos (1997)
Genres Drama, Crime
Actors Naveen Andrews, Miranda Otto, Noah Taylor, Hugo Weaving, Ben Mendelsohn, Kimberley Davies
Roles Thanks
Rating57%