From Patrick Munn of TV Wise:
Link: Universal Channel Acquires Canadian Mystery Series ‘The Disappearance’
Universal Channel is adding a second Canadian import to their line-up.
The NBCU backed channel has secured the exclusive UK rights to CTV’s mystery series The Disappearance. NBCUniversal International Studios handles international distribution. Continue reading.Â
Camille Sullivan was nominated for a Gemini Award for best actress in a television series for her work on Shattered, opposite Callum Keith Rennie. Camille was also nominated for a Gemini for her portrayal of Francine Reardon, the volatile cocaine and alcohol addicted wife of a west coast crime boss, in the critically acclaimed Intelligence, a series from DaVinci’s Inquest creator Chris Haddock.
She recurred on Rookie Blue and Hellcats, both times as the ex who has come back to haunt you. She recently played a large recurring role on The Man in the High Castle for Amazon and can be seen currently in the indie films; The Birdwatcher and The Unseen.
Camille’s latest project is the limited series The Disappearance for CTV/NBC Universal.
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From Heather M. of The Televixen:
Link: Camille Sullivan Talks The Disappearance
“I started watching documentaries about children who had gone missing and been found or never been found. What struck me was that the parents would say they felt an overwhelming sense of hopelessness. You want, as a parent, to save your kids, find your kids, and protect your kids and you can’t do anything. The emotion starts there and then you just jump in.†Continue reading.
From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:
Link: Strong characters draws viewers into The Disappearance’s mystery
“We have a family drama here and what makes the show so good, in my opinion, is the interpersonal dynamics between these people. Regardless of subject matter, what I love is the relationships. For instance, the relationship between Helen and Luke is a relationship that’s not often depicted, one of divorced parents trying to make it work for the sake of the kid.” Continue reading.
From Bill Brioux of The Canadian Press:
Link: Peter Coyote on finding ‘the best writers’ have moved to television
There’s something about Peter Coyote’s voice that simply makes you listen.
The U.S. actor, having just narrated “The Vietnam War” for award-winning documentarian and frequent collaborator Ken Burns, sat with four journalists about a year ago on location at a campground outside Montreal to discuss his role in the six-part miniseries “The Disappearance,” a psychological thriller premiering Sunday on CTV. Continue reading.
From John Doyle of The Globe and Mail:
Link: The Disappearance and Ten Days in the Valley give two weirdly gripping takes on the missing-child genre
The six-episode series is certainly recommended but lacks the quiet intensity and precise, unfussy restraint of Cardinal, CTV’s most successful foray into original crime drama. As a twist on the disappeared-child genre template, it isn’t twisted enough. Continue reading.
From Heather M. of The Televixen:
Link: Director Peter Stebbings Previews CTV’s The Disappearance
“The scripts were sent to me and I devoured them. It took me a while because I kept reading forward and backwards trying to connect all the dots and out guess the story. I was hooked. I was smoking them like crack.†Continue reading.Â
From Brad Oswald of the Winnipeg Free Press:
Link: An uncomfortable story — told well
The Disappearance, which was shot in and around Montreal last year, does a credible job of locking viewers in by offering up a core group of characters whose various strained interactions and individual inner conflicts are allowed to develop at a steady tension-building pace. Continue reading.
A child gone missing. It’s one of the most traumatic things a family can face. The Sullivan family experiences that awful scenario this Sunday when the original six-part miniseries The Disappearance debuts at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV. Starring Peter Coyote, Aden Young, Camille Sullivan, Joanne Kelly, Micheline Lanctôt, Kevin Parent and Michael Riendeau, The Disappearance is a gripping thriller about lives turned upside down.
“What is the worst thing that can happen to parents?” executive producer Sophie Parizeau asks television critics during a set visit to Montreal. “It’s having a child that disappears. And not having answers as to why is very, very difficult. Emotionally, I think people will really connect with it.”
It won’t take long for viewers to be drawn into the story on Sunday; Normand Daneau and Geneviève Simard’s first script of six directed by Peter Stebbings is tightly-wound and traumatic, beginning with an idyllic day at school for Anthony Sullivan (Riendeau) and ending with darkness, police lights, an investigation by Lieutenant-Detective Susan Bowden (Lanctôt) and Sergeant-Detective Charles Cooper (Parent), and an overturned bicycle. Between those bookends, we learn Anthony’s father, musician Luke Sullivan (Young), and mother, microbiologist Helen (Sullivan), are signing off on their divorce, something Luke’s father, former prosecutor and judge Henry (Coyote) frowns upon. Meanwhile, Anthony has gotten in trouble at school—a class project on the community invades his neighbours’ privacy—and how to discipline him divides Henry, Helen and Luke.
Daneau and Simard brought The Disappearance to Joanne Forgues at Productions Casablanca in 2011, but after some initial interest in Quebec, the project stalled. After translating the first script into English they pitched it to Bell Media, thinking the psychological drama would fit on a variety of properties, including Bravo and The Movie Network. Bell Media bit and the project was a go, but landing their leading man proved to be a challenge: Young was starring in an ABC pilot and wouldn’t be available. But, as often happens in Hollywood, the pilot wasn’t picked up.
“They sent me three episodes,” the Canadian-Australian actor recalls over lunch. “My agent called me and asked how far I was into the scripts and I said I was on the third one. I realized I’d just been blowing through the pages … it was a real whodunnit and that excited me. This was an investigation, a let’s get into it and get after what’s happened kind of thing.”
What’s happened is key. Was the person who took Anthony a neighbour unhappy at the boy entering their home while he researched the project? Could someone Henry put in prison during his 40-year-career be exacting revenge? Or is the disappearance related to someone from Luke’s past? Secrets are revealed—and they’re not pretty—but there is at least one sliver of hope.
“Usually, something like this would break a relationship,” Sullivan says of Luke and Helen. “We’re already split at the beginning and, because we’re locked into the search for Anthony, we really do start to rediscover each other. There is also no one else in the world at that moment who can understand what you’re going through. Only the other parent, and I think that’s something that really draws us together.”
The Disappearance airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.
Images courtesy of Bell Media.
