“The concept initially encountered some skepticism: What if you applied the investigative chops of seasoned reporters to the murky conservatorship constraining Britney Spears? Could anything new or insightful emerge from that process, given the swirl of media coverage that always surrounds the pop star? But it was a combination that filmmaker Mary Robertson believed could”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
But it was a combination that filmmaker Mary Robertson believed could be revelatory when she was the showrunner of The New York Times Presents — and it’s something she has been continuing to champion ever since. At the NYT, that approach resulted in two hit films, Framing Britney Spears and Controlling Britney Spears, which reignited conversation around the pop star’s push to end her conservatorship and prompted responses from celebrities like Kacey Musgraves and Hayley Williams. At the production company that Robertson founded in March 2022, Maxine, a similar fusion of investigative journalism and popular figures and brands has paid dividends.
In a little under three years, Maxine has produced a news cycle-generating show that was Max’s biggest unscripted series since the streamer’s launch (Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV), gained access to key sources in competitive story situations (in the ongoing Sean “Diddy” Combs scandal) and landed awards attention (the company was nominated for two Emmys and won a TCA Award). On Sunday, just days after Maxine’s Combs’ investigation The Fall of Diddy began streaming on Max, where as of press time it is listed as the platform’s No. 2 show, the company is up for a Grammy for the Paramount+ film June, which spotlights the life and work of June Carter Cash.
It’s been a quick rise in an age of relative austerity for documentaries, which Peacock evp of unscripted content, lifestyle and documentaries Rachel Smith attributes to Robertson’s ability to bring a “high/low sensibility together” with her projects. In this market, “the focus is definitely on self-marketing, buzzy titles,” says Smith, who worked with Robertson on 2023’s Dr. Death: Cutthroat Conman and 2024’s Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story. “Mary is at the crux of that in that she’s able to uniquely identify what a mass audience is going to be interested in, but she can do it in a very sophisticated way with a lot of journalistic integrity.”
From Robertson’s point of view, it’s important to scrutinize omnipresent figures and brands, which opens doors to a larger conversation. “I learned — and believe so deeply — that it is meaningful and important to look closely at culture and that it’s not trivial,” says Robertson. “Our culture is a reflection of our values and our standards and our mores, and it shows us and it tells us who we’re allowed to be, who and what we want people to be.”
With many of its recent projects, Maxine has followed a tried-and-true model of partnering journalists and filmmakers to excavate familiar cultural figures and organizations in serious ways. The company’s development team, led by former TIME Studios development producer Jessica Call, cultivates relationships with journalists, news outlets and independent filmmakers to swap and stress-test ideas. Currently, for instance, Maxine is working with Buzzfeed, The Guardian and, yes, The Hollywood Reporter on concepts.
When the company believes it has a project that can go the distance, it invests in creating a treatment or a trailer and starts connecting with potential contributors (i.e. potential talking heads or sources) to the story. A premium is put on gaining access to people with direct, firsthand experience; several members of the company’s core team have backgrounds in journalism, with stints at The New York Times, U.S. News & World Report and Frontline.
The company’s first hit release, Quiet on Set, offers one example of this approach. Business Insider reporter Kate Taylor’s 2022 investigative story on former Nickelodeon uber-producer Dan Schneider formed the basis for the series. But Maxine didn’t just want to take a “cut-and-paste” approach, says the series’ co-director, Emma Schwartz. “It’s a matter of saying what more can we bring to the story? What was in the Business Insider article was great, but what was in Quiet on Set was orders of magnitude more.” Ultimately, the series made headlines for on-the-record conversations with an array of former Nickelodeon cast and crew members — especially with Drake Bell, who went public for the first time about surviving child sexual abuse perpetrated by a Nickelodeon dialogue coach in the series.
Subsequent Maxine projects have also plumbed the problematic pasts of once-dominant brands with considerable access to key people involved. For Maxine’s Amazon Prime series Glitter and Greed: The Lisa Frank Story, the filmmakers worked over the course of two years to cultivate relationships with people who worked at Lisa Frank Inc. and never told their stories, says Robertson, including Frank’s ex-husband and former business partner James Green. In a competitive situation for nonfiction projects about Combs — at least four other major titles are out, with another at Netflix to come — The Fall of Diddy tells its story with the help of accusers, former press reps, a onetime assistant and a childhood friend, among other insiders.
The success of Quiet on Set has helped open doors with potential contributors, notes Schwartz, who recently co-directed The Fall of Diddy: “People say, okay, this was credible, this was impactful, and you’re not just another random person calling me.”
In several cases, Maxine projects have involved interviews with trauma survivors. Robertson emphasizes that in dealing with contributors who have difficult stories, the producers take a “trauma-sensitive approach” that aims to avoid any surprises. “We’re not going to ambush a survivor of sexual abuse with a question that they didn’t see coming,” she says. “There are no gotcha moments, and I think we do this in a manner that aligns with journalistic practices.” Schwartz adds that the producers maintain relationships with certain contributors during the edit process and post-release.
The company hasn’t made everyone happy. Several contributors have critiqued Quiet on Set, including Nickelodeon game show host Marc Summers, who claimed he was “ambushed” by the filmmakers, who he says weren’t upfront about the focus of the documentary. (“We are clear with each participant about the nature of our projects,” Robertson and Schwartz said in a comment about Summers’ claim.) Former Nickelodeon stars and series contributors Raquel Lee Bolleau and Alexa Nikolas have also expressed disappointment with Quiet on Set.
Says Robertson of the series, “I think with that amount of attention, there’s pleasures and pains.” She says she’s gratified by “many contributors who felt and feel as though they were finally able to share a story that had previously been pushed into the shadows.”
Still, even at a moment when many entertainment companies are shying away from telling nonfiction stories that are perceived as risky, Maxine has continued to place projects that touch on sexual abuse and harassment, bullying and workplace misconduct. This kind of investigative storytelling comes with its own perils: Last spring, former Nickelodeon producer Schneider sued the Quiet on Set producers for defamation; a judge allowed the case to proceed in November, though the defendants have appealed that order.
“The market’s been tougher overall. Nothing just slides through without a second look. Things get scrutinized,” says Eli Holzman, the president of Sony Pictures Television Nonfiction, where Maxine has its overall deal. “What we have seen is the marketplace has fled toward reliable suppliers.” Maxine has become one of those reliable suppliers, he argues, at a moment when a less experienced company proposing to do a story with First Amendment and liability concerns would have a much harder time.
That was certainly the case for Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story, which Buzzfeed initially pitched to Peacock with audio from a lengthy interview journalist Scaachi Koul conducted with the brand’s embattled founder. Because Buzzfeed didn’t have the production capabilities to take the story on, Peacock evp Smith paired the publication with Maxine. “Given the sensitivities of the Girls Gone Wild story, we needed a company that was very victim-forward, sensitive when dealing with victims, as well as great storytellers,” Smith says. “Mary felt singularly equipped to do this.”
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the doc market remains receptive to nostalgia-infused stories about celebrities, brands, true crime and scandal, which overlaps with Maxine’s bread and butter so far. But with their storytelling, the company’s filmmakers aim to drive home some valuable messages, too. “It’s sort of like when you make your kids zucchini bread, but it’s got the vegetables hidden in there, so you don’t quite know it’s there,” says Schwartz. And it hasn’t all been Trojan horses: In September, Frontline released a collaboration with Maxine and the Associated Press about serious fraud allegations within South Korea’s adoption industry.
Robertson is tightlipped about the company’s upcoming projects. One is announced: a documentary about the sex-trafficking and assault accusations facing the high-profile real estate agents Oren and Tal Alexander and their brother, Alon. Otherwise, there are multiple pop culture and true-crime projects and two limited series — one music-oriented, the other about a “major figure in pop culture” — in development, she says, along with dozens of other ideas. The company isn’t ruling out a follow-up to Quiet on Set, either: “Our interest in the subject matter remains incredibly high,” Robertson says. She is interested in expanding the brand identity of the company beyond limited series focused on pop culture — doing more archival-based projects and “sweeping features,” for instance. “We’re here to grow, we’re here to move beyond where we are right now,” she says.
Still, when asked if she has a pipe-dream project, Robertson gravitates to a Hollywood icon. “I’d love to make a documentary about Miley Cyrus if she’s interested,” she says. She’s tackled former Nickelodeon stars and the work culture they experienced as minors — why not a former icon of the Disney Channel, Hannah Montana herself? “Call me, Miley,” she says.