Tag Archives: CBS

Ransom

Links: Ransom, Season 2

From Scott Campbell of the Renfrew Mercury:

Link: ‘Ransom’ a special show, says actor Brandon Jay McLaren
“It’s action-packed, there’s a cool international flavour. We take place in all these different cities. Most importantly, what’s cool about this show is we don’t use violence to solve our problems.” Continue reading.

From Charles Trapunski of Brief Take:

Interview: Ransom’s Nazneen Contractor
“The show has definitely helped me to better understand other people and to form some kind of agreement with them. And when I’m on the show I try not to negotiate with the people around me, but it has definitely helped me to become a better communicator.” Continue reading.

 

 

 

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Ransom

Season 2 of Global’s intense original drama Ransom returns April 7

From a media release:

Global raises the stakes this spring as Season 2 of original suspense drama Ransom returns Saturday, April 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT in simulcast with CBS. From Entertainment One (eOne), Korda Studios, Big Light Productions and producers Sienna Films, the 13-episode series returns to the life-and-death world of crisis and hostage negotiator Eric Beaumont (Luke Roberts, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) and his elite team of experts. This season, as they negotiate with top-ranking criminals and delve deep into the world of high-stakes hostage situations, the team members struggle to balance their personal lives in a criminal world that knows no boundaries.

New this season, Karen LeBlanc (Mary Kills People), joins the series as new team member Cynthia Walker, a confident, charming, and clever, corporate lawyer in whom Eric (Roberts) quickly meets his match.

Along with Luke Roberts as hostage negotiator Eric Beaumont, Season 2 also welcomes back Tony Award nominated Sarah Greene (Penny Dreadful), as Maxine Carlson, the young newcomer eager to prove herself; Canadian Brandon Jay McLaren (Graceland), as Oliver Yates, the psychological profiler on the team; Canadian Nazneen Contractor, (Heroes Reborn) as ex-cop Zara Hallam; Emma de Caunes (Mr. Bean’s Holiday) as Nathalie Denard, a sometime client of Crisis Resolution; and Canadian Morgan Kohan (Star Trek: Discovery) joins the cast as Evie Beaumont, Eric’s 15-year-old daughter.

The Season 2 premiere entitled “Three Wishes,” picks up moments after Season 1’s cliffhanger, where Eric’s longtime adversary, Damien Delaine (guest star Carlo Rota, Jane the Virgin), has taken Eric and Nathalie’s (de Caunes) daughter, Evie (Kohan), hostage. Delaine appears at Crisis Resolution and demands that Eric fulfill his ‘3 wishes’ in order to release Evie, threatening to kill her within hours if he doesn’t comply. In a race against time, the team works to fulfill Delaine’s strange demands which include Eric answering a series of emotionally compromising questions and performing ethically questionable tasks. Tensions rise when Damien challenges Eric with a final wish that will force him into making an impossible decision.

Ransom is inspired by the professional experiences of distinguished crisis negotiator Laurent Combalbert, who along with partner, Marwan Mery, are considered to be among the top negotiators in the world. Today, they travel around the globe to help multinational corporations and governmental agencies with complex negotiations and conflict resolution.

Ransom was created by David Vainola (Diamonds, Combat Hospital) and Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files, The Man in the High Castle). Ransom is a Canada-Hungary treaty co-production and is produced by eOne with executive producers Jennifer Kawaja and Julia Sereny via their Sienna Films banner and Spotnitz, via his Big Light Productions banner. Wildcats Productions’ Valérie Pechels and Odile McDonald will executive produce with Daniel Kresmery and György Rajnai of Korda Studios co-producing. Ransom is developed in association with Corus Entertainment Inc., with the participation from the Canada Media Fund, and is produced with the financial assistance of the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit. eOne controls worldwide rights to the series.

 

 

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Ransom

Links: Ransom

From Victoria Nelli of The TV Junkies:

Sarah Greene previews Ransom
“I understood that there was something dark in her past and it interested me. It’s always interesting to me to play a character with layers and the audience doesn’t know the half of it yet. She’s trying to figure out who she is, she wants questions answered.  I was really intrigued after I read the pilot and then I got the job and I just really liked her storyline and I really liked where it was going.” Continue reading. 

From Roxanne Santo of Paste:

Penny Dreadful’s Sarah Greene on her new drama, Ransom, and the power of “difficult women”
“They don’t get the press involved, it’s all solved without anyone knowing what’s happened. These cases are usually solved within 24 to 48 hours, so that actually makes for great TV: it’s adrenaline, it’s fast paced.” Continue reading.

From Benjamin Lindsay of Rotten Tomatoes:

Sarah Greene reads minds and speaks body language in crime thriller Ransom
“They’re adrenaline junkies, basically. They don’t use weapons; they don’t use violence. They use their words and they try to figure out why someone is doing it. No one ever kidnaps someone just to be evil; their back is against a wall, they want something. The negotiators figure out what they want and help them get it.” Continue reading.

From Michael Starr of the New York Post:

New series goes inside top-secret hostage negotiations
“It’s a fascinating world I knew nothing about. There are something like 30,000 private kidnapping and hostage negotiations around the world each year. These guys travel all over the world, and their one job is to negotiate the safe return of loved ones … in all kinds of situations.” Continue reading.

 

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Featured, Ransom

Set visit: Global’s crisis negotiation drama puts Toronto up for Ransom

Living in Toronto, seeing orange traffic cones signify one of two things: road work or a film or television production. I’ve seen plenty of the former and latter over the past 15 years, but never a full-on road closure for a television production. Until earlier this summer.

The reason? Global’s crisis negotiation drama, Ransom. The co-production between the Canadian network, CBS in the U.S. and TF1 in France (Toronto’s Sienna Films and eOne are among the production partners) closed down a block near the Eaton Centre, filming a bank heist scene taking place during one of 13 episodes. Yellow barriers and Toronto police redirected traffic while black SUVs and cop cars emblazoned with the NYPD logo sat staggered in front of an old office building standing in for a bank. A phalanx of actors portraying SWAT police trooped down the street during several takes as a drone buzzed loudly overhead, capturing the action.

Ransom stars Luke Roberts (Black Sails) as Eric Beaumont, a hostage negotiator who jets to locales around the world talking criminals out of dire situations. The hook? Eric doesn’t carry a gun, preferring to use his gift of patter to disarm the bad guys. Based on the real-life experiences of negotiator Laurent Combalbert, executive producer Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files) says this is the biggest international show he’s done.

“I was told about Laurent about two and a half years ago,” Spotnitz says. “It already makes a great TV show, because, in the case of Laurent, every case is 24 to 48 hours. They are naturally adrenaline and suspense-filled. And he doesn’t carry a gun. That’s crazy. I’ve done lots of shows, including The X-Files, where people solved their problems with guns. To have a guy who says, ‘No guns. I’ll solve this with my mind,’ is a challenge but I wanted to do a show like that.”

Ransom2

Rounding out Ransom‘s cast is Sarah Greene (Penny Dreadful) as Maxine Carlson, a girl with a secret; Brandon Jay McLaren (Slasher) as Oliver Yates, a psychological profiler; and Nazneen Contractor (Covert Affairs) as ex-cop Zara Hallam. After filming in Toronto for several months—the city stood in for North American locations—the series decamped for the south of France, with the area representing European spots.

Spotnitz, who lives in London, full-time says he fell into the current production model where several countries toss production money into a hat and share costs but sees it as the way of the world now, where viewers are watching programs both traditionally and non-traditionally (like his The Man in the High Castle on Amazon).

“When I moved to London, I sort of fell into this model,” he says. “It’s an amazing time to be in Europe. There is a real awakening of television and a new ambition to do shows in the English language that compete with the best shows in North America. It’s challenging to do a show for two or three broadcasters but I enjoy it, travelling and getting to know all of these different cultures.”

Ransom airs during the 2016-17 broadcast season on Global and CBS. Look for more Ransom coverage on TV, Eh? as we get closer to a broadcast date.

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Mr. D

Link: CBS signs rights deal for CBC’s ‘Mr. D’

From Jim Slotek of Postmedia Network:

CBS signs rights deal for CBC’s ‘Mr. D’
Turns out CBS likes the CBC classroom sitcom Mr. D – a lot. They just want to American it up a bit.

Comedian Gerry Dee, the creator of the sitcom, told Postmedia he’d signed a deal Thursday with CBS for the format rights to the series based on his career as a Toronto teacher.

Fellow Canadian Will Arnett will be shepherding the project through his production company. Continue reading.

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