TV, eh?

From a media release:

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is pleased to announce the nominations for the 25th Annual Gemini Awards, recognizing the year’s best in Canadian English-language television. This year’s celebrations will be held in Toronto over three nights in November. The Industry Gala Presentations will take place on Tuesday November 2nd and Wednesday November 3rd at the Kool Haus Entertainment Complex; the Broadcast Gala will take place on Saturday November 13th at the historic Winter Garden Theatre and will be broadcast live-to-tape on Global and Showcase.

The drama Flashpoint leads the 2010 Gemini Awards nominations with 15 nominations including Best Dramatic Series. Coverage of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games garnered 13 nominations including Best Live Sporting Event. Bloodletting And Miraculous Cures, Guns, Stargate Universe, and The Summit are up for awards in 9 categories each; Less Than Kind and Love, Hate and Propaganda each received 8 nominations.

For the complete list of nominations, please visit www.geminiawards.ca.

From Judith Klassen of Movie Entertainment:

• The Doctor is In
  “I recently sat down in Toronto with Canadian actor Shawn Ashmore to talk about his latest projects, having a twin in the business and playing doctor. Ashmore laughs when I suggest it might put stress on brotherly love if Shawn or his identical twin Aaron (Smallville) were to work as the other’s stand-in. “You’d be surprised how many people on film sets will say, ‘Oh, you have a twin brother – and vice versa to Aaron – does he want to come in and do stunts?’” Ashmore shakes his head. “Right, it’s too dangerous for me, but I’ll put my brother in the line of fire.” Read more.

BLOODLETTING & MIRACULOUS CURES
Sunday, January 10 at 8 p.m.

As Ming (Mayko Nguyen) gets ready to proceed with her plans for artificial insemination, her husband, Chen (Byron Mann), is stressed and fantasizing about street races and infidelity. The sperm donor, Fitz (Shawn Ashmore), their medical school classmate and Ming’s former boyfriend, is considering reinstatement at the hospital which stirs up a lot of unresolved issues. His return would also create more tension between the trio since he wouldn’t be an absentee donor after all, but working alongside the couple every day.

Written by: Jason Sherman
Directed by: Rachel Talalay
Special Guest Star: Maurice Dean Wint (Blue Murder)

From me at Blogcritics:

• Love and Medicine Tangle in Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures
  “HBO Canada’s latest series, debuting tonight, brings with it a built-in audience. Adapted by Jason Sherman from Vincent Lam’s bestselling, Giller-winning book of interconnected short stories, the television version of Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures also brings with it inevitable comparisons. The verdict? It’s not the book. But it’s compelling TV.” Read more.

From Raju Mudhar of the Toronto Star:

• Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures: The miserable life of a resident doctor
  “Take one Giller Prize-winning novel, some of this country’s finest acting talent and mix in HBO Canada, and you have a prescription for homegrown TV success. That’s what makes up the TV miniseries adaptation of Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, which premieres Sunday night at 8.” Read more.

Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures premiers January 10, 2010 at 8pm on HBO Canada.

From Charles Foran of The Walrus:

• Bloodletting: Vincent Lam’s miraculous book goes under the knife for television
  “On a soundstage in Mississauga, Ontario, a man knocks on the door of the apartment occupied by the woman he loves. Both are young doctors. As students a few years before, they carried on a secret romance that fell victim to her family’s disapproval. He is Fitz, a.k.a. Dr. Fitzjohn, and she is Ming, a.k.a. Dr. Ming Lee. He is also the handsome actor Shawn Ashmore, best known for a recurring part in the X-Men movies, where he plays a creature able to control the temperature and create blocks of ice and cold air. She is also the attractive actress Mayko Nguyen, a Vancouver native of Vietnamese origin with a growing resumé of film and TV credits. They are characters in an eight-part miniseries entitled Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, which is based on a collection of stories of the same name, although in the book he was Fitzgerald, not Fitzjohn, and she was Chinese, not Vietnamese with Chinese adoptive parents.” Read more.

From Myles McNutt of Cultural Learnings:

• Missed Diagnosis: Narrative Pollution in HBO Canada’s Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures
  “The problem is that in a text, and a medium, defined by its presentation of various time periods, executive producer Jason Sherman simply got it backwards – the parts of the story which have the most weight are relegated to flashbacks, and instead of allowing the narrative to unfold on its own time the series creates a melodramatic and unnecessary ‘present’ which keeps it from engaging with the complexities of Lam’s story, complexities that seem perfectly suited to a new generation of serialized storytelling.” Read more.

From Bill Harris of QMI Agency:

• Medical drama slices up dark humour
  “Shawn Ashmore was asked what would happen if Iceman walked into Mercy Hospital. Ashmore naturally would have the best take on that. Not only has he played Iceman in the X-Men movies, but the fictional Toronto Mercy Hospital is the setting for his new TV series Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures, which debuts Sunday on HBO Canada.” Read more.

From Cassandra Szklarski of the Canadian Press:

• ‘Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures’ hits small screen as racy medical miniseries
  “Sex, alcohol addiction and long-simmering emotional trauma – such is life in the Toronto-based medical drama Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures. Based on the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning book by doctor/writer Vincent Lam, the racy TV miniseries picks up where Lam’s collection of short stories leaves off, with its tortured characters already well into the dysfunction that marked the surprise literary hit. Lam says it never occurred to him ‘in the slightest’ that his book would ever end up onscreen, but the soft-spoken author says he’s enjoyed being a consultant on the eight-part TV series, even though he doesn’t watch much TV himself.” Read more.

From Gayle MacDonald of the Globe and Mail:

• Bloodletting: Passion, addiction and the ER
  “Author and emergency-room doctor Vincent Lam and actor Shawn Ashmore talk to Gayle MacDonald about the challenges of bringing Lam’s searing book to TV.” Read more.

From Cassandra Szklarski of the Canadian Press:

• ‘Trailer Park Boys,’ prepping comebacks
  “A new year, a new batch of TV shows to savour. There may be a chill in the air, but things are heating up on the tube as several new Canadian series prepare to launch in early 2010. From the long-awaited return of the Kids in The Hall to a sexy adaptation of the Giller Prize-winning book “Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures” to a potty-mouthed Jason Priestley, there are plenty of homegrown series on tap for those snowed-in nights.” Read more.

Mayko Nguyen (Ming):

(more…)

From a media release:

THE MOVIE NETWORK AND MOVIE CENTRAL OFFER AN ONLINE, ON DEMAND AND IN-FLIGHT PREVIEW OF THE CANADIAN ORIGINAL SERIES BLOODLETTING & MIRACULOUS CURES

Beginning today, Astral Media’s The Movie Network (Eastern Canada) and Corus Entertainment’s Movie Central (Western Canada) are offering subscribers and non-subscribers alike numerous opportunities to catch a sneak preview the new Canadian original series Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures leading up to its network premiere on Sunday, January 10, 2010, at 8 p.m. ET/MT on HBO Canada.

(more…)

The eight-part series Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures premieres on HBO Canada January 10, with an online sneak peek starting December 22.  I have a copy of the award-winning Vincent Lam book it’s based on to give away, so comment or email to enter to win. (If you comment, please put your email in the email line; it won’t appear on the site.)

From a media release:

HBO Canada presents the Canadian original series Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures, a television adaption of Vincent Lam’s award-winning book

• New Canadian original series from The Movie Network and Movie Central premieres Sunday, January 10, 2010, at 8 p.m. ET / MT on HBO Canada
• Starring Shawn Ashmore, Mayko Nguyen and Byron Mann

HBO Canada, a multiplex channel of Astral Media’s The Movie Network (Eastern Canada) and Corus Entertainment’s Movie Central (Western Canada), presents the intertwining journeys of three young medical professionals as they navigate school, residency and their first years as doctors in the new Canadian original series Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures. Based on the critically acclaimed, Scotiabank Giller Award-winning book by Vincent Lam, the eight-part drama will premiere on HBO Canada on Sunday, January 10, 2010 at 8 p.m. ET / MT.

(more…)

From the Canadian Television Fund:

• interacTVity, No. 8

From Cassandra Szklarski of the Canadian Press:

• TV turns to literary hits for newest prime-time series
  “The small screen similarly offers the greatest potential for Vincent Lam’s Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures, said screenwriter and playwright Jason Sherman, who adapted the collection of stories for an eight-episode miniseries bound for The Movie Network and Movie Central early next year. Sherman wonders if the influx of literary inspiration is in any way driven by cable’s success with more sophisticated, layered TV dramas. ‘TV needs story,’ said Sherman, who has also adapted books for the stage and written for Citytv’s Murdoch Mysteries, based on a series of novels by Maureen Jennings.” Read more.

Looking forward to Blood Letting & Miraculous Cures or the return of Murdoch Mysteries? Enter the TV, eh? giveaway!

From Vit Wagner of the Toronto Star:

• Author’s cameo a weird case of déjà vu
  “There’s a blurry line between fiction and reality when novelist Vincent Lam appears on the Bloodletting set.” Read more.