Shoot The Messenger in production for CBC

From a media release:

SHOOT THE MESSENGER

• Created by award-winning Hungry Eyes creative team Jennifer Holness and Sudz Sutherland
• Principal photography now underway in Toronto

As production gets underway in Toronto on the new hour-long drama SHOOT THE MESSENGER, Hungry Eyes Film and Television in association with CBC Television and ITV are thrilled to announce the show’s topline cast – Elyse Levesque (“CEDAR COVE”, “SGU: STARGATE UNIVERSE”), Lucas Bryant (THE GIRL KING, “HAVEN”), Lyriq Bent (“BOOK OF NEGROES”, “ROOKIE BLUE”, PAY THE GHOST), and Alex Kingston (BUKOWSKI, “DOCTOR WHO”, “ER”).

The eight-episode, hour-long dramatic series from the multi-award winning creative team of Jennifer Holness and Sudz Sutherland (HOME AGAIN, “GUNS”) will shoot in and around the Toronto area through the end of November.

A gritty political thriller that centres on the complex relationships between crime reporters and the police, SHOOT THE MESSENGER follows Daisy Channing (Levesque), a sharp and ambitious j-school grad trying to balance a messy personal life while working at a big city newspaper. Things begin to go sideways for Daisy when she witnesses a murder she thinks is gang related, only to find herself slowly drawn into an interconnected web of criminal activity that reaches into the corridors of corporate and political power.

As Daisy, her editor Mary Fowler (Kingston), co-worker Simon Olendski (Bryant), and lead homicide detective Frank Lutz (Bent) pull at the threads of a cover up that gets more complicated the more they unravel, SHOOT THE MESSENGER also explores the ambiguous line between the private and the personal in the digital age.

The dynamic cast also includes Hannah Anderson (LIZZIE BORDEN TOOK AN AXE) Ari Cohen (Ricky Gervais’ SPECIAL CORRSPONDENTS), Edie Inksetter (“HEMLOCK GROVE”, “REIGN”), Al Sapienza (“PERSON OF INTEREST”, “HOUSE OF CARDS”), Nicholas Campbell (“HAVEN”, “DAVINCI’S INQUEST”), and features special appearances by The Barenaked Ladies’ Ed Robertson, The Raptor’s Jamaal Magloire, and ex-NBA television star Rick Fox (“SIN CITY SAINTS”, “OZ”).

The series is scheduled to air in the summer of 2016 on CBC Television.

“We’re extremely excited to be working with the CBC and ITV on SHOOT THE MESSENGER and deeply appreciate the support the CBC has shown us over the years,” said Hungry Eyes principal Jennifer Holness who also co-created, produces, and writes on the show. “SHOOT THE MESSENGER is an ambitious show that deals with challenging issues and we couldn’t do it without the staunch support of our partners. It is going to be a fast paced, atmospheric drama that is driven by contemporary urban issues in media, policing, and politics.”

Sutherland added, “We’re thrilled with the young, exciting cast that have boarded the show. Elyse Levesque has demonstrated incredible charisma in her past projects – she’s like a magnet on camera. SHOOT THE MESSENGER audiences are going to be introduced to her impressive dramatic range and vulnerability that really connects to the viewer – she also brings a sharp intelligence which was absolutely required for this material.”

Previously for the CBC, Holness and Sutherland created, wrote, produced and directed GUNS, a two-part mini-series which won Best Direction, Best Writing, Best Performance by an actor in a featured supporting role, Best Performance by an actress in a featured supporting role, and Best Editing at the Canadian screen awards. Their most recent feature film HOME AGAIN won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Festival Choice Award at the Pan African Film & Arts Festival, as well as garnering multiple nominations at the Canadian Screen and Director’s Guild Awards.