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Production Underway on Discovery’s New Series Heavy Rescue: 401 from Highway Thru Hell producers

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From a media release:

Discovery announced today that production is underway on HEAVY RESCUE: 401, a new original Canadian series set to debut in 2017 based on the network’s hit series HIGHWAY THRU HELL. With the support of the OPP, Ministry of Transportation of Ontario, York Regional police, maintenance contractors, and several other organizations, the new documentary series follows the men and women who keep Ontario’s 400-series highways operating at any cost.

Spanning the Greater Toronto Area and southern Ontario, HEAVY RESCUE: 401 follows multiple major tow operators, rescue, and maintenance crews day and night along North America’s most intense stretch of highway. From Sarnia eastbound to Toronto and north to Barrie, the cast of heroes work diligently to keep Canada’s most important and busiest series of highways open through any weather condition. From monster snow storms creating kilometers of mayhem to trucks spilling their loads, these efforts safeguard the country’s most important trade route with the U.S. from grinding to a crippling halt through the worst of the winter driving season.

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Industry News

Link: Canadian TV is a place of squalor and neglect

From John Doyle of The Globe and Mail:

Canadian TV is a place of squalor and neglect
I’m surprised it took him so long to recognize that Canadian TV execs are extremely rich and don’t care much about fulfilling their mandated obligations to the Canadian culture. It’s a lucrative racket. If we see television as a landscape filled with a variety of buildings and edifices, then Canadian commercial TV execs are slum landlords, getting rich by bilking pitiful tenants. What they own and manage, in terms of Canadian content, is a place of squalor and neglect. A slum. Continue reading.

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Industry News

CBC greenlights drama The Council from René Balcer

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From a media release:

CBC has greenlit THE COUNCIL (working title), a compelling international thriller woven around a remote Canadian Arctic town from Emmy® Award-winning showrunner and writer René Balcer (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) with Lark Productions and Keston International Productions. THE COUNCIL is set against the unfolding drama of our changing planet and draws inspiration from the true-to-life fight over the vast and valuable resources of the Arctic. The series traces the journey of two cops who uncover a small-town murder that is at the heart of a global conspiracy. Production kicks off this summer, shooting in Resolute, Iqaluit, London, Copenhagen and Manitoba. THE COUNCIL will debut with 10 episodes on CBC-TV in fall 2016.

THE COUNCIL begins on the edge of the Arctic frontier during the endless days of the polar summer when a young woman, a renowned environmentalist, is found ritualistically murdered near the Canadian hamlet of Resolute. An investigation is mounted by the local RCMP inspector Mickey Behrens, an outsider and new-comer to the north who is running from a derailed personal and professional life, and her partner, officer Jo Ullulaq. A soulful counterpoint to Mickey, Jo is torn between the duty to his job and loyalty to his Inuit culture. The pair quickly discovers that the mystery extends far beyond the borders of the town and to the backrooms of Canadian parliament in Ottawa, the dark corridors of U.S. intelligence in Washington, D.C., the halls of European parliament in Brussels, the airbases of world powers, and the migrant conflicts at the border of Norway and Russia. Yet it all traces back to the Arctic, as they gradually expose a complex international conspiracy to control the vast natural resources at the top of the world.

Balcer is a 20-year veteran of the Law & Order franchise, beginning as a writer and rising to executive producer and showrunner. In 2001, he left the series to create the show’s spinoff Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which he developed with creator Dick Wolf. He is also the creator of the international drama JO. Balcer has been awarded with an Emmy® Award, Peabody Award, a Writers Guild of America Award and four Edgar Awards for his television work.

THE COUNCIL will be produced by Lark Productions (Motive), with executive producers Louise Clark and Erin Haskett, in partnership with Keston International Productions’ executive producers Trevor Walton and Denis Coyne. The series is a Canada/UK Co-Production, with Nick O’Hagan’s London-based Giant Films Ltd. NBCUniversal International Distribution retains all distribution rights.

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Industry News, Wynonna Earp

Link: Women Behind Canadian TV: Alexandra Zarowny

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Women Behind Canadian TV: Alexandra Zarowny
“I love the idea of setting stages where women and young girls can recognize themselves, and understand that they can build equally grandiose stages to play on that explore every facet of who they are, and that it’s OK to do that. You don’t have to compartmentalize who you are. You don’t have to be one thing at any given time. You can be everything all at once and sometimes – okay, most times – it’s going to be messy, but you know what? That’s what makes an amazing character. And, I think, an amazing writer as well.” Continue reading.

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Industry News

Creators of Hit Epic Meal Time Make the Jump to CBC

From a media release:

The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) is pleased to announce that Elebrity, a series by Montreal-based production company NextTime Productions and creators behind thesmash hit YouTube series Epic Meal Time, has been picked up for a development deal with the CBC. This deal was made possible through the inaugural Jumping Screens Comedy Workshop, Canada’s first-ever enhanced pre-development lab for online creators who want to migrate their talents to television and other screens. NextTime Productions will co-develop the series with Toronto-based independent content production company Aircraft Pictures, the official production partner of the program.

Elebrity explores the notion of becoming a celebrity overnight. It follows Herschel Bock, an eternal slacker, as he attempts to navigate his newfound celebrity status in the digital influencer world or risk losing it all to return to his regular life.

Brothers Darren and Harley Morenstein co-founded NextTime Productions in 2011. Since then, the production company has created and produced several web series, three YouTube channels and two cookbooks, and has amassed more than 7 million subscribers. Their flagship show, Epic Meal Time, has grown to be the number one online cooking show in the world.

NextTime Productions was selected for a TVseries deal out of three YouTubers/YouTube teams who participated in the inaugural Jumping Screens Comedy Workshop, including singer/songwriter and comedian Mikey Bustos, and the award-winning web series Convos With My 2-Year-Old, from creator and star Matthew Clarke and fellow star David Milchard. Mikey Bustos and the team behind Convos With My 2-Year-Old are currently pursuing various opportunities to develop their respective TVseries concepts developed through the Workshop with Aircraft Pictures.

The Jumping Screens Comedy Workshop was a five-month part-time program created by CFC Media Lab, in collaboration with the CBC and Aircraft Pictures, which experimented with a novel approach to series creation. From June to November 2015, the Workshop offered the three aforementioned digital creative teams the opportunity to refine their writing, story structure and characterization skills, and gain valuable experience navigating the Canadian entertainment ecosystem under the mentorship of CBC creative executives, the CFC Media Lab and its mentors, and the experts at Aircraft Pictures. The three YouTube teams debuted their individual series concepts at a VIP screening and reception in late November 2015.

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