Everything about Alias Grace, eh?

Link: Sarah Gadon to star in Netflix’s Margaret Atwood drama ‘Alias Grace’

From Lesley Goldberg of The Hollywood Reporter:

Link: Sarah Gadon to star in Netflix’s Margaret Atwood drama ‘Alias Grace’
Sarah Gadon is going from Hulu to Netflix.

The Canadian actress has been tapped to topline Netflix’s Margaret Atwood drama Alias Grace, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Gabon, who most recently co-starred opposite James Franco in Hulu’s Stephen King limited series 11.22.63, will play Grace Marks in the streaming giant’s adaptation of Atwood’s award-winning novel. Continue reading. 

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CBC and Netflix join forces with Halfire Entertainment to adapt Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace

From a media release:

Halfire Entertainment, CBC and Netflix announced that production will begin on Alias Grace, a six-hour miniseries inspired by the historical true story of convicted murderer Grace Marks and based on the award-winning novel by Margaret Atwood. The miniseries is being written and produced by Sarah Polley (Looking for Alaska, Take this Waltz, Away from Her) and will be directed by Mary Harron (American Psycho, I Shot Andy Warhol), with production scheduled to begin in Ontario in August 2016. Alias Grace will be broadcast in Canada on CBC and will stream everywhere globally on Netflix.

The story of Alias Grace follows Grace Marks, a poor, young Irish immigrant and domestic servant in Upper Canada who, along with stable hand James McDermott, was convicted of the brutal murders of their employer, Thomas Kinnear, and his housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery, in 1843. James was hanged while Grace was sentenced to life imprisonment. Grace became one of the most enigmatic and notorious women of 1840s Canada for her supposed role in the sensational double murder, and was eventually exonerated after 30 years in jail. Her conviction was controversial, and sparked much debate about whether Grace was actually involved in the murder, or merely an unwitting accessory.

Both the screen adaptation and the Margaret Atwood novel on which the miniseries is based, introduce a fictional young doctor named Simon Jordan who researches the case and begins to fall in love with Grace. He soon becomes obsessed with her as he seeks to reconcile his perception of the mild-mannered woman he sees with the savage murder of which she has been convicted.

Alias Grace will be broadcast in Canada on CBC and stream globally on Netflix. Executive producers will be Sarah Polley, Mary Harron and Noreen Halpern (Aftermath, Working the Engels, Rookie Blue). Co-producing alongside Polley will be D.J. Carson (Spotlight). Polley was nominated for an adapted screenplay Academy Award for the 2006 drama Away from Her, which was adapted from the Alice Munro short story The Bear Came Over the Mountain.

Published in 1996, Alias Grace was awarded the Giller Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Additional books by Atwood that have been adapted for film and television include The Handmaid’s Tale, Payback, The Robber Bride, The Sin Eater and Surfacing. Kids’ CBC recently greenlit an animated series based on Atwood’s children’s book The Wide World of Wandering Wenda.

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Comments and queries for the week of May 27

Greg’s away so the Diane mouse will play in this week’s issue of Comments and Queries. Here are answers to questions we got by Twitter, Facebook, emails and comments:

CBC’s new season announcement

Pure is a new new show, do you know? Because the others were ordered last season, no?

CBC’s 2016-17 season announcement snuck in news of this previously unknown (to me) series about the Mennonite mob, which will apparently air in winter 2017. I posted more about it here but in brief, it’s described as “the story of Noah Funk, a newly-elected Mennonite pastor, who is determined to rid his community of drug traffickers by betraying a fellow Mennonite to the police. But instead of solving the problem, Noah’s actions trigger an ultimatum from Menno mob leader Eli Voss: in order to protect his family he must get involved in the illegal operation. Noah decides that if he must work for the mob, he will secretly gather enough evidence to dismantle the organization.”  It’s created by David Macleod (Haven, Call Me Fitz) and Michael Amo (The Listener, Transporter: The Series).

I wonder if This is That, the webseries, is based on the radio show/podcast.

It is indeed. From CBC:  This is That is an award-winning current affairs program that doesn’t just talk about the issues, it fabricates them. Nothing is off-limits — politics, business, culture, justice, science, religion — if it is relevant to Canadians, hosts Pat Kelly and Peter Oldring will find out the “this” and “that” of the story. Each week, they introduce the voices and stories that give this country character in this 100% improvised, satirical send-up of public radio. In a new original digital series, they will be This is That-ing a new range of topics ripe for parody, including autonomous cars, rock-star chefs and thought leaders.


Private Eyes

Has it been picked up in the UK yet?

No word on international pickups yet for the Global series starring Jason Priestley and Cindy Sampson but it is produced by global studio eOne so they’re likely to be shopping it around. Stay tuned for any news.


Alias Grace

Which network or channel will this air on?

My cyber-sleuthing has failed me and I have no idea. I have an inquiry out to the production office but the bare bones news we have from the above link seems to originate from production information which lists Mary Harron (American Psycho, I Shot Andy Warhol) as director and Sarah Polley (Stories We Tell, Away from Her) as producer — and we know Polley wrote the mini-series adaptation of the Margaret Atwood novel.


Canadian Pickers

I’m trying to get ahold of Scott and Sheldon, do you know how I can do that?

Canadian Pickers was cancelled a few years ago, so the men are not likely to be answering queries related to the show. However, if you think your question outlives the series, Cineflix was the producer and you could start with them for contact information.

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