Tag Archives: Emily Andras

Link: Earpers unite: The power of fandom key to Wynonna Earp’s miraculous return to Alberta

From Eric Volmers of the Calgary Herald:

Link: Earpers unite: The power of fandom key to Wynonna Earp’s miraculous return to Alberta
“We weren’t going to do it without everybody. It turned out everybody wants to come back. Without giving anything away, I think there are a lot of other side characters and people the fans love who may or may not pop up but everybody contacted us and said ‘We’re down if you are.’” Continue reading.

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Paramount+ announces first Canadian development slate, commissioned Canadian documentary and investment in acquired Canadian series and films

From a media release:

Paramount+ today announced a Canadian content strategy in development, commissioned features and acquired programming. Announced at the BANFF World Media Festival, the slate includes an impressive roster of critically acclaimed Canadian series and features, including a Paramount+ Original documentary and four new development projects in partnership with some of the best and most diverse creators in the country.

Paramount+ Canadian Series in Development

HATE THE PLAYER: THE BEN JOHNSON STORY
A scripted comedy about the scandal behind the scandal that brought the “world’s fastest man” from hero to zero in 9.79 seconds. From writer Anthony Q Farrell (The Office U.S.) and award-winning producers New Metric Media (Letterkenny).

LEN & CUB
Based on a true story, this limited six-part series dramatizes the secret relationship of two young men in rural 20th-century New Brunswick whose story came to light when a box of photos was recently discovered in an estate sale. From writer Lynne Kamm and producers Muse Entertainment and Elliot Page’s Page Boy Productions.

CARPE DEMON
A one-hour genre series, based on the best-selling book series by Julie Kenner, about a frazzled suburban mom with a loving husband, two kids and one massive secret: she used to be a Demon Hunter. Out of practice and overwhelmed, she has no choice but to get back in the game when her supernatural past comes calling from award-winning showrunner Emily Andras (Wynonna Earp, Lost Girl) and producers December Films, Cineflix Studios, Gina Marcheschi and Jon Brown.

THEY DRIVE AT NIGHT
A dark comedy genre series about two best friends, a vampire and a werewolf, on a road trip across Canada. Written by Emmy Award winner Craig Wallace (Murdoch Mysteries, Todd & The Book of Pure Evil) and producers Black Birds Entertainment.

Paramount+ Original Documentary

500 DAYS IN THE WILD – Paramount+ Original
Fall 2023
Award-winning documentary filmmaker Dianne Whelan (This Land, 40 Days at Basecamp) recorded a solo self-recorded journey travelling across Canada in 2015. She began her trek feeling disillusioned with the state of the world, but six years and 28,000 km later she arrived back in Victoria, BC, feeling wiser, more hopeful, in love and with a passion to share her remarkable journey. Produced by Betsy Carson with Executive Producers Christine Haebler and Dianne Whelan for Rebel Sisters Productions and distributed in Canada by Elevation Pictures.

Produced in Association with Paramount+

THE BOY IN THE WOODS
The remarkable true-life survival story of a Jewish boy hiding and being hunted in the forests of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. Based on the memoir The Boy In The Woods by Maxwell Smart. The film is produced by Lumanity Productions and JoBro Productions and distributed by Photon Films.

Paramount+ Canadian Acquisitions

Today’s announcement comes on the heels of Paramount+’s ongoing investments in best-in-class content and promotion for its Canadian catalogue. Recently, Paramount+ invested in marketing and publicity for acquired Canadian content such as the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) Documentary Anything For Fame and the CSA nominated NEVER SEEN AGAIN from Efran Films.

Paramount+ has also acquired Canadian feature films Midnight At The Paradise from LevelFILM currently slated for 2023, along with All The Lost Ones, Café Daughter, Orah and Who’s Yer Father? for 2024.

From Vortex, Paramount+ has acquired the romantic comedy feature The End Of Sex.

By the end of this year, Paramount+ will have acquired hundreds of hours of Canadian content from numerous partners including those noted above as well as Elevation Pictures, Mongrel Media, Sphere Films and Blue Ant Media. A selection of those titles currently streaming on the service include Paramount+ Original series NEVER SEEN AGAIN and FBI: TRUE as well as PAW PATROL and films Away from Her (available July 1), Aline, Kayak to Klemtu and PAW PATROL: THE MOVIE.

The Paramount-owned streamer’s expanded Canadian content offering complements the company’s existing expansive Canadian content lineup on its FAST service in the market, Pluto TV. Currently, Pluto TV offers 45 dedicated Canadian channels spanning different genres including Home + DIY, Food, Kids, Factual and News through its ad sales and content partnership with Corus Entertainment Inc., based in Toronto. In addition, in February Pluto TV in Canada had the Worldwide premiere of Canadian FAST Channel Out TV Proud and also launched the Blue Ant Media-owned channels HauntTV, Crimetime, HistoryTime and Homeful. In March the service debuted The Weather Network’s new FAST Channel.

On July 1, three additional channels will join the Pluto TV family. Truly Canadian, which will highlight Canadian-produced scripted series such as Little Mosque on the Prairie, Edgemont and Arctic Air and Pluto TV Documentaries which will include NFB documentaries and films that have been featured at Hot Docs such as Canadian-produced When Jews Were Funny by Alan Zweig and Randy Bachman’s Vinyl Tap: Every Song Tells a Story. On July 1, Pluto TV will also launch The Red Green Show Channel.

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Wynonna Earp’s Emily Andras, Schitt’s Creek and The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco capture WGC Screenwriting Awards

From a media release:

A full house gathered at the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning’s Koerner Hall in Toronto last night for the 23rd annual WGC Screenwriting Awards gala.

Winners of the night’s top prizes included Sarah Dodd (Cardinal: Blackfly Season), Daegan Fryklind (The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco), Rupinder Gill (Schitt’s Creek) and Michael McNamara (Catwalk: Tales from the Cat Show Circuit). Congratulations to 2019’s talented winners and nominees.

WGC special awards were also presented at the gala, with the WGC Showrunner Award going to Emily Andras, the McGrath Service Award to Bruce Smith, the Sondra Kelly Award to Jinder Oujla-Chalmers, and Pat Holden and Amir Kahnamouee each receiving the Jim Burt Screenwriting Prize.

The WGC Screenwriting Awards were hosted by Gavin Crawford and written by Kyle Tingley, with awards presented by Noelle Carbone, Jennica Harper, Carol Hay, Jordan Johnson-Hinds, Elena Juatco, Adam Pettle, Kathleen Phillips, Sugith Varughese and Jennifer Whalen.

2019 WGC SCREENWRITING AWARDS WINNERS

BEST NEW SERIES SCRIPT
The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco “Presidio,” written by Daegan Fryklind

CHILDREN’S
Wishfart “I Wear This Hat Ironically,” written by Josh Sager & Jerome Simpson

COMEDY SERIES
Schitt’s Creek “RIP Moira Rose,” written by Rupinder Gill

DOCUMENTARY
Catwalk: Tales from the Cat Show Circuit, written by Michael McNamara

DRAMA SERIES
Cardinal: Blackfly Season “Red,” written by Sarah Dodd

FEATURE FILM
22 Chaser, written by Jeremy Boxen

MOW & MINISERIES
Odd Squad: World Turned Odd, written by Tim McKeon

SHORTS & WEBSERIES
We’ve Come to the End of Our Time, written by Alex Epstein & Lisa Hunter

TWEENS & TEENS
Star Falls “The Picnic Auction,” written by Cole Bastedo

JIM BURT SCREENWRITING PRIZE
Pat Holden for Mirsada and Amir Kahnamouee for Harbour House

McGRATH SERVICE AWARD
Bruce Smith

SONDRA KELLY AWARD
Jinder Oujla-Chalmers

WGC SHOWRUNNER AWARD
Emily Andras

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Wynonna Earp: Melanie Scrofano talks directing, Mama Earp and Letterkenny

Fans of Wynonna Earp are still aching over the death of Xavier Dolls. And, understandably so. But last week’s new episode, “Colder Weather,” went a long way to healing those wounds with a memorable and emotional sendoff.

With a new episode coming later this week, here’s our interview with Melanie Scrofano, who talked about this season, the man who plays the show’s biggest bad, directing and her scene-stealing role on Letterkenny.

Despite the fact that it’s been fantastic to have a baby in real life, has it been kind of nice to not have to worry about your health while filming the third season of Wynonna Earp?
Melanie Scrofano: Yeah. There is such a freedom that came with having my body back, but also just not having … it was not just that it limits your movements, to do everything it was just less elegant. And it wasn’t as free as I wanted to feel, but it was also just hard feeling like everybody for lack of a better term, was babying you, because everybody understandably was like, ‘I don’t want to be the reason that she has a miscarriage on set.’

How fun has it been to come back into that world and to play this character for the third season?
MS: Well, funny you should mention that. I think Emily [Andras] wanted to start off with a bang and really remind people who Wynonna is and that for me was just so fun. I was scared in Season 2. I was like, ‘If we don’t get a Season 3, I won’t get to feel this free and have fun again.’ We just had the best time. I think there’s no better way to show people how not private I am any more than riding the mechanical bull and being drunk and having your shirt wide open.

A lot has been said about Megan Follows and the character. I know you’ve been asked this question before and I apologize, but I have to ask it, what was it like working with her?
MS: She is such an icon and you never know what you’re gonna get because she’s been around for long and done such iconic stuff. She brought her skills and professionalism and it really just reaffirmed my wanting to make the show the best it could be because that’s what she wanted to do. She questioned her character all the time and she always wanted to make it honest and authentic. You know, for someone going into Season 3 who could become a bit complacent, it was a great way to kickstart the season by really reaffirming all those questions why am I doing what I’m doing.

One of the big fears that Wynonna had back when we first met her in Season 1 is that she was crazy.
MS: I think any kid—don’t tell my parents—but you see your parents, and you want to emulate their good side, but more often than not we’re taken with what we don’t want to replicate. For Wynonna it’s one of her biggest fears is ending up … she was in a mental institution when she was a teenager. She was proven to be not crazy by the fact in Season 1 everything that she had been talking about turns out to be true.

However, there’s still an element of that all happened to her when she was so young and seeing her mom go to the psych ward, it never stopped being a part of her DNA to be afraid of it. I think it’s just a constant battle not to end up like her mom in a lot of ways. As a parent even.

Let’s talk about this character played by Jean Marchand. What can you say about this incredibly bad dude that has entered this world named Bulshar?
MS: It’s like everything else is a trickle-down of this demon so he’s like the scariest. The way Jean Marchand plays him, it’s just such an unexpected refinement. It’s kind of refreshing to have, it’s sort of like the scariest dogs are the ones that don’t bark.

He just oozes this sinisterness and doesn’t have to really say anything which is kind of cool.
MS: Yeah. What’s interesting is that he in real life is the most generous, like he will not stop giving me DVDs. He’s generous, kind, and a fan of the show before he was on it. He is exactly the opposite which is so often what you hear about these bad guys, but it’s so cool to see him play such a dark presence.

A quick question about directing. You directed a scene. Is that something you’ve always wanted to do? Is that a natural progression for you?
MS: I think it’s a natural progression. I think it’s something that maybe I didn’t know I always wanted to do but then once I did it, I was like, ‘Oh my God, this fits. It makes sense.’ I just love storytelling in general. I love being able to work with people and create … I think a lot of times as an actor the external really drives the internal. So being a part of creating the external down to just little details really help tell the story in a way that felt so, it was so satisfying.

I can’t talk to you without asking you about Letterkenny. You are fantastic as Mrs. McMurray. What’s it been like working with these guys and playing this character?
MS: It’s just so, they’re so fun. All you do, and I think you can tell when you watch the show like all we do is laugh and mess up takes. But that’s so fun and it’s nice to go from a show where I have so much on my shoulders—which I love and wouldn’t trade that for the world—but it’s nice to be able to breathe and play on somebody else’s show where they set such a great tone.

I just have fun with them and know that if Mrs. McMurray messes up, people are still gonna watch the show. There’s no pressure. So if Mrs. McMurray sucks, they’re still gonna watch Letterkenny. It’s an amazing show which is a breath of fresh air as an actor to not have an pressure.

Jared Keeso has created a really fun work environment. I mean, you all do work hard there, I know, but also they like to have a lot of fun.
MS: Yeah. And Jacob Tierney as well. As a team, they are just unstoppable.

Wynonna Earp airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on Space.

Letterkenny is streaming on CraveTV.

Images courtesy of Bell Media.Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail