From a media release:
PDM ENTERTAINMENT BEGINS PRODUCTION ON UPCOMING CBC-TV SERIES, THE BEST LAID PLANS
PDM Entertainment in association with CBC-TV is pleased to announce production of the six-part limited series THE BEST LAID PLANS, shooting in various locations in Ottawa, ON. From award-winning producers Phyllis Platt, Brian Dennis and Peter Moss the series is based on the critically acclaimed political satire novel of the same name by Terry Fallis (Stephen Leacock Prize for Humour 2008, CBC Radio Canada Reads 2011). THE BEST LAID PLANS launches in winter 2014 on CBC-TV.
The ensemble cast stars Jonas Chernick (My Awkward Sexual Adventure, The Border), Kenneth Welsh (The Day After Tomorrow), Jodi Balfour (Bomb Girls), Sarah Allen (Being Human), Mark McKinney (The Kids in the Hall: Death Comes to Town), Peter Keleghan (Murdoch Mysteries), Eric Peterson (Corner Gas), Leah Pinsent (Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town), Sonja Smits (Cybergeddon, Traders), and Barbara Gordon (Little Mosque on the Prairie).
“We are honoured and privileged to be filming in Canada’s capital. Our goal is to tell Terry Fallis’ brilliant comedic story while presenting the extraordinary architecture and environs of Canada’s capital city in a whole new light,” says PDM partner Phyllis Platt.
“It’s a thrill to see what started as words on a page, come to life on the screen,†says novelist Terry Fallis. “These fine actors have taken the characters that only existed in my mind and made them real. It’s surreal and wonderful.”
Parliament is a secret and esoteric world with its own culture, customs and language. THE BEST LAID PLANS is a rollicking journey into this cosseted world. Our guide is the earnest, hopeful, English PhD, Daniel Addison (Jonas Chernick), head speech writer for the Leader of the Opposition. When Daniel catches his girlfriend and her boss in flagrante delicto he decides to return to academia as assistant professor of English at the University of Ottawa. But you don’t just walk away from the Opposition Party — freedom has a price and in this case it’s finding a candidate in a riding 50 kilometers away and managing the campaign in the next election, scheduled in approximately eight weeks. The catch: the riding in question has voted solidly for the Government Party since Confederation and the incumbent is Eric Cameron (Peter Keleghan), the extremely popular finance minister whose plurality in the last election was over 90%.
THE BEST LAID PLANS series is written by veteran screenwriters Susan Coyne (Slings and Arrows) and Jason Sherman (The Listener) and directed by Peter Moss (Booky and the Secret Santa) and Jim Allodi (Call Me Fitz).
What a fantastic Canadian cast.