This week, Greg and Amy go through debuts and returns on the Canadian TV calendar.
Then, we cover the latest Canadian TV news, including Global greenlighting Season 3 of Family Law, Screen Nova Scotia’s 2022 award nominees and CBC’s Race Against the Tide returning with a totally hip new host. Then, in a new segment in class Canadian TV, we look back on the success of Orphan Black.
This episode is brought to you by Pimm’s and Canada Dry ginger ale.
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From a media release:
Today, Global announced it has greenlit a new original scripted series Robyn Hood (8×60). Created by prolific Canadian music director and renowned TV director and filmmaker Director X, and written by award-winning screenwriter Chris Roberts (Orphan Black, Frontier), the new near-fi action drama is a contemporary re-imagining of Robin Hood. The eight-episode scripted series, produced by Boat Rocker, is slated to begin production this summer in the Toronto and Hamilton area and will premiere on Global in the 2023 broadcast year. Additional information including casting and start of production for Robyn Hood will be announced at a later date.
In this modern take on the Robin Hood legend, Robyn is a fearless young woman who is not just another superhero, with abilities normal people don’t have. She is a Gen Zer driven by the injustices of today who embraces the heroic, hopeful and playful elements of the world’s most recognizable folk hero. She learns to fight for what’s right, to care for and lead her followers. And like all Robin Hoods since the first ballad, Robyn holds those in power to account by using their greed against them to help her community.
Robyn Hood follows Robyn Loxley, a young woman whose masked hip-hop band, The Hood, is known for their inventive videos and anti-authoritarian message. She lives in Sherwood Towers, a cluster of rental high-rises in a working-class corner of New Nottingham, a near-fi city where the cost of living has skyrocketed, leaving an ever-widening gap between the rich and everyone else.
When Robyn finds herself fighting for her home and her family against local property developer John Prince and The Sheriff of New Nottingham, Robyn and her band The Hood decide to fight back, righting the wrongs of the corrupt elite to give back to the people who are living under their regime.
Robyn Hood is produced by Boat Rocker in association with Corus Entertainment. The series is executive produced by Director X (Superfly, Mister Tachyon), Chris Roberts (Orphan Black, Frontier), Kerry Appleyard (Orphan Black, X-Company) for Boat Rocker Studios, Jill Green (Alex Rider, Magpie Murders) for Eleventh Hour Films, and Luti Fagbenle (Maxxx) for Luti Media, with Boat Rocker Rights handling distribution.
From a media release:
Amazon Prime Video today announced the start of production of the first scripted Canadian Amazon Original series, The Lake. Set in cottage country, the 30-minute episodic comedy will film in northern Ontario from August to September. The Lake stars Jordan Gavaris (Orphan Black), Julia Stiles (Hustlers, The Bourne Identity) and Madison Shamoun (#blackAF, Black-ish). The series will launch in 2022 and be available exclusively on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.
The Lake centres on the quintessential Canadian cottage experience, and one man’s attempt to recreate his childhood memories in an effort to re-connect with his biological daughter. Produced by AMAZE and filmed in northern Ontario, the series taps into the family bonding, relaxing in nature and the peacefulness of cottage country then turns it on its head, with petty rivalry, strained relationships, day drinking, and mosquito-ravaged sunburns.
In The Lake, Justin (Jordan Gavaris) returns from living abroad after a break-up with his long-term partner, in the hope of reconnecting with the biological daughter that he gave up for adoption in his teens. His plans to create new memories with his city-loving daughter Billie (Madison Shamoun) at the idyllic lake from his childhood go awry when he finds out his father left the family cottage to his “picture-perfect†stepsister, Maisy-May (Julia Stiles). Additional cast include Jon Dore (Funny As Hell, Humour Resources), Carolyn Scott (Pushing Tin, Goosebumps), Natalie Lisinka (Orphan Black, The Expanse), Travis Nelson (Tucker and Dale vs Evil) and Declan Whaley (Criminal Minds).
The Lake is produced by AMAZE, with Michael Souther and Teza Lawrence serving as executive producers for AMAZE (Carter, Call Me Fitz), and is written and executive produced by Julian Doucet (Killjoys, St Nickel). The Lake comes from Amazon Studios and is part of Prime Video’s continued investment in Canada. The Lake is the fourth announced Canadian Amazon Original series following the revival of the sketch comedy The Kids in the Hall, docu-series All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs, and comedy-variety series LOL: Last One Laughing Canada. Since 2015, Amazon Studios has filmed 24 Amazon Original series and films in Canada, including The Man in the High Castle and Upload in Vancouver, The Boys and The Expanse in Toronto, Tales from the Loop in Winnipeg, as well as parts of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan and The Voyeurs in Montreal.
The Lake will join the thousands of TV shows and movies from Hollywood and worldwide in the Prime Video catalog including award-winning and critically acclaimed Amazon Originals like The Tomorrow War, The Underground Railroad, Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm, The Boys, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, and Emmy and Golden Globe award winners Fleabag and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, all on Prime Video, which is available at no extra cost for Amazon Prime members.
Prime members will be able to watch all episodes of The Lake anywhere and anytime on the Prime Video app for smart TVs, mobile devices, Fire TV, Fire TV stick, Fire tablets, Apple TV and stream online.
Image courtesy of Peter Stranks.
From a media release:
The Pacific Screenwriting Program (PSP) is excited to announce that award-winning Writer/Producer/Director Will Pascoe will serve as Showrunner-in-Residence for the 2021 Scripted Series Lab. Pascoe will mentor six up-and-coming BC-based screenwriters selected to participate in the program. He will lead the Writer’s Room as they develop his original series in the PSP’s flagship training program starting in January.
Going into its third year, the lab will implement a hybrid-style Writer’s Room combining in-person and virtual meetings that reflect the current production protocols due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants will still get the full PSP experience including mentoring on their original pilot, additional workshops and information sessions with other industry leaders to equip them with the skills, experience and connections necessary to help establish a sustainable career in the province’s dynamic screen industry. The Pacific Screenwriting Program is a collaboration between Netflix, CMPA, the Writer’s Guild of Canada and Creative BC.
Will Pascoe most recently wrapped Showrunning the third season of Amazon’s hit series, Absentia. Previous to that, he wrote for Fox’s The Finder, Bell/SyFy Channel’s, Bitten; NBC’s drama series Chicago Med; BBC Worldwide/Starz’s Da Vinci’s Demons and Hulu’s Shut Eye starring Jeffrey Donovan and Isabella Rossellini. While working as writer and co-producer on Bell/BBC America’s Orphan Black, his episode “Variations Under Domestication†earned Pascoe a Canadian Writer’s Guild Award and nominations for an Edgar Allan Poe Award and a Hugo Award. A graduate of the Writer’s Guild of America’s prestigious Showrunner Training Program, Will has also developed television series for Twentieth-Century Fox, Playtone, and Universal Studios.
The Scripted Series Lab is a 15-week intensive training program providing support and career-advancement opportunities for active and aspiring screenwriters from across British Columbia, where they receive the necessary support to expand their portfolio and pursue opportunities in the evolving TV marketplace. Throughout the program, participants hone their craft, strengthen their collaboration and presentation skills, and obtain a deeper understanding of the global television industry and how to market themselves within it. As the Scripted Series Lab showrunner, Pascoe will mentor the six selected participants within a real-world story room over 10 weeks, breaking stories and writing scripts for the original project he brings to the room and will subsequently be pitching to streamers and networks around the world.
For more information, please visit the Pacific Screenwriting Program website.
From Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly:
Link: New Orphan Black series in the works from AMC
There may be another attack of the clones coming to television. EW has confirmed that Temple Street Productions and AMC are in the early stages of development on a possible new series set in the Orphan Black universe. Variety first broke the news. Continue reading.
