Tag Archives: Rookie Blue

Caught, Featured

Caught: Charlotte Sullivan teases Jennifer’s tragic twist

With the first episode of Caught under our wide, leather belts—catch up on “The Break” here—Monday night’s new instalment “Old Wounds” promises to dig more into Slaney (Allan Hawco) and Hearn’s (Eric Johnson) past. I can’t help but wonder if that will include Jennifer.

As played by Charlotte Sullivan (Rookie Blue, Mary Kills People), viewers have gotten a taste of what Jennifer is all about. She has a daughter Slaney thinks of as his own even though the infant is not his. And Jennifer hates the fact Slaney got roped into Hearn’s drug boat purchase. Of course, she had a right to be upset; Slaney got caught and put into prison.

I spoke to Sullivan during a break in filming last summer in downtown Hamilton, Ont., about Caught, adapting a novel for the screen and saying goodbye when a project wraps production.

Had you worked with Allan Hawco on anything before? Did you ever guest-star in an episode of Republic of Doyle?
Charlotte Sullivan: No, I had never met him. He’s so sweet.

What can you tell me about Jennifer?
It’s a bit of a tragic story. Without giving away too much—because there is a major twist coming—she has a secret and she has been keeping it from Slaney to keep him. And she has to make a choice between Slaney and her daughter. And you know how that’s going to go. It’s a horrible decision. They have a very passionate love affair that’s very intense and I think it’s based solely on tragedy.

What were your thoughts on this miniseries after reading the book?
It’s a little bit different. There’s a lot of pressure to take a book that is so critically acclaimed and then turn it into a TV or film project. I always say that it’s a bit of a poison chalice because it’s an honour to get to do it, but there will be people who are pissed off.

What was your takeaway of the story after reading Lisa Moore’s novel?
If there is a book, I always want to read it before I watch the film. I love to see how close they got it, or how off the mark they were. You also pick up on little nuances that maybe you wouldn’t have picked up on before. But it is tough to take something like this but from what I’ve seen of the esthetic so far, it’s going to be stunning. It’s the 70s and you get to play with that time period. I just love esthetics. I mean, look at these clothes. We went to a couple of stores and didn’t find Jennifer in there. And then we went to a vintage store and said, ‘Jennifer is in there!’ That’s the creative collaboration.

Did you audition for the role of Jennifer?
Oh yeah. I put myself on tape and sent it in. I was in the middle of shooting something else and I needed the time to take away from that before I could send them a tape because I get so emotionally caught up in [the current role].

Does a short-run project like Caught excite you because it’s not an 18-episode season?
I find it kind of tragic, actually. Just because I don’t want it to end. Even with the longer seasons, you’d be amazed at how fast they go. Filming is tragic for actors because you’ve built your own community and connection with people and it’s wonderful and magical. And then it completely dissipates. I actually go through a little bit of depression when I’ve had a really great experience. I come home and I’m like, ‘Ah, that was so beautiful and lovely.’ And you feel so lucky because you were able to do it. After Rookie Blue it took me a month to get over it. I just moped around.

Caught airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Image courtesy of CBC.

 

 

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Caught, Featured

Caught: Allan Hawco’s adaptation of Lisa Moore’s novel was worth the wait

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Way back in the spring of 2016, the CBC announced Caught—an adaptation of Lisa Moore’s acclaimed noverl—as part of its 2016-17 broadcast lineup. But by June of 2016, Caught‘s fate had changed. So, what was the reasoning behind the project’s delay of over a year? Timing.

“This got announced back when we were wrapping Republic of Doyle,” Allan Hawco, Caught‘s writer, showrunner, executive producer and star, says. “I took the time to go deeper into the material. The ambition of the material, the ambition of the period and because it’s an adaptation of Lisa’s book, we just needed the time to gather more resources.”

The wait has been worth it.

Debuting Monday at 9 p.m. on CBC, Caught is a five-part roller coaster caper lovingly wrapped up in the pot-fragranced, lead gas guzzling, rock anthem setting that is 1978.

Tori Anderson as Ada, Greg Bryk as Cyril Carter

Locked up after a drug deal goes wrong, David Slaney (Allan Hawco) breaks out of a New Brunswick prison to try one more caper with his former partner Brian Hearn (Eric Johnson). It’s Slaney’s last chance at freedom, but nothing is what it seems. Slings & Arrow‘s Paul Gross plays RCMP detective Roy Patterson; Open Heart‘s Tori Anderson is Ada, Brian’s gal pal; Mary Kills People‘s Charlotte Sullivan is Jennifer Baker;  Rookie Blue‘s Enuka Okuma is KC Williams, a DEA agent who teams with Roy; and Greg Bryk as Cyril Carter, a friend of Brian’s.

Eric Johnson as Brian Hearn

Monday’s debut opens to the strains of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Up Around the Bend,” as Slaney sprints through a darkened forest, prison dogs and guards at his heels. But as Slaney quickly discovers, his friend Brian may be the reason he ended up in prison in the first place. Filmed in St. John’s, Hamilton, Ont., and the Dominican Republic, Caught certainly captures the late 70s in all its glory, from pale brown leather jackets and wood panelling to the permed hair and tobacco smoke hanging over everything. And, as Slaney crosses the country attempting to evade capture at the hands of Patterson and KC, we meet colourful characters along the way.

Hawco purchased the television rights to Caught after Tecca Crosby, eOne’s senior vice-president of creative affairs, handed the book to him in 2014. Hawco was in Toronto performing Belleville at The Company Theatre and headed back to where he was staying. He and Perry Chafe—one of his partners at Take the Shot Productions and executive producer on Doyle, Frontier and Caught—bought a couple of copies of the book at a local Chapters bookstore. Hawco read Caught in three hours.

Paul Gross as Roy Patterson

“I could hear the soundtrack, I could see the show right away,” Hawco says. “The rights for the book were being sought after by a bunch of people, so I called Lisa and said, ‘I want to work with you on this.’ I think the pedigree of Doyle and that we were just starting Frontier at the time helped. The character of Slaney spoke to me.” Hawco credits Moore’s writing—the ability to craft an inner monologue on the page—with his connection to Slaney and offered the veteran performer the opportunity to play a role he’s never done. Hawco did futz with the source material a bit when crafting his adapation—creating KC Williams as a partner for Patterson, who is a lone wolf in the novel—and some plot deviations, but the novel’s DNA is still there.

Enuka Okuma as KC Williams

“For a cops and smugglers story on television, there were some plot points we had to adjust and characters’ drives that needed to be changed,” Hawco says. “But I worked really hard to anchor all that in pivotal moments in the book so that you’re not watching a completely different thing. I tried to honour the pillars that Lisa put in there.”

Caught airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.

 

 

 

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Featured, Frankie Drake Mysteries

Preview: Frankie Drake Mysteries flies high with Lucas Bryant and Laurence Fox

This week on Frankie Drake Mysteries are two truly high-profile guest stars. I’ve been excited for this episode ever since I saw a short video of Lucas Bryant and Laurence Fox fooling around in the Drake makeup trailer where they were on location.

“The Pilot,” written by co-creators Michelle Ricci and Carol Hay and directed by Leslie Hope, finds Bryant playing Phillip Anderson, an aviator whose son is kidnapped. I’ve been a fan of Bryant since Season 1 of Haven (serious Stephen King fan over here) and was furthered in CBC’s excellent miniseries Shoot the Messenger, which bows on WGN in the U.S. on Feb. 26. As for Fox, he’s been on my radar for over 40 episodes of the PBS series Inspector Lewis, where he played DS James Hathaway. Anyway, enough of me being a fanboy; here’s what the CBC has revealed as the synopsis for Monday’s episode:

A day off turns into a day at the office for Frankie and Trudy when the son of an aviator is kidnapped.

And here is more information I gleaned from watching a screener.

Airplanes aplenty
I love airplanes. I love history. I was, therefore, giddy to see “The Pilot” involved both as stunning old aircraft zipped around the sky in Guelph, Ont. for the episode. (Read Bill Brioux’s set visit piece for more details.) Interestingly, this was the first episode of Frankie Drake Mysteries to be filmed but airs as Episode 7. Ah, the magic of television. And meetings.

Charlotte Sullivan guest-stars
Hold onto your hats Rookie Blue and Mary Kills People fans! Charlotte Sullivan, who also appears in CBC’s Caught next month, is Meara, wife of Phillip Anderson and mother to Charlie, the missing child.

Cheeky Fox
When we first meet Laurence Fox, he’s an unnamed gent who sidles up to Frankie and begins some major flirting. Who is he, and why does he seem to have bad will towards Phillip Anderson? They have a history, but what is it? Like I’ve already said, this was the first episode of Frankie to be filmed, but it doesn’t feel like it. Frankie’s sass, strong character and love of motorcycles and planes are firmly in place, as well as her relationship with Trudy. As a matter of fact, we learn some key backstory about Frankie thanks to her motorcycle and the conversation she has about it.

A storyline never revisited
Kris Holden-Ried appears at the end of Monday’s episode as a someone Frankie turns to for support. What’s interesting is that it’s tied to the backstory we’ve already mentioned but is never referred to, so far at least, in Season 1. Again, this was the first episode of Frankie Drake Mysteries so things change, but it would have been interesting to see this storyline fleshed out more.

A very special guest star
On top of the folks we’ve already mentioned, a certain someone drops by to escort Frankie into a building where women aren’t allowed. I kind of wish their name had been left out of the credits because it’s a major spoiler. I’ve already said too much.

Frankie Drake Mysteries airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.

 

 

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Burden of Truth, Featured

Kristin Kreuk and Peter Mooney battle big pharma in CBC’s Burden of Truth

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Kristin Kreuk has swapped Superman and a Beast of a man to battle big pharmaceutical. The Vancouver native headlines and executive-produces Burden of Truth, CBC’s new legal drama, debuting Wednesday at 8 p.m. on CBC.

Created by Brad Simpson (Rookie Blue), Burden of Truth is a 10-part serialized drama about a big-time lawyer named Joanna Hanley (Kreuk) who returns to her small town as the representative of a pharmaceutical company whose drugs are thought to be making young women sick. Once in Millwood, however, Joanna finds herself—after crushing the case made by the girls and led by her former high school classmate Billy Crawford (Peter Mooney)—questioning whether she’s on the right side of the lawsuit and discovering some bad feelings were left behind when she exited Millwood at 14 years old. Burden of Truth‘s first episode has the feeling of a John Grisham novel—slick lawyer slam-dunks on the locals—and that’s a good thing for viewers.

“He was definitely on the inspiration list,” Kreuk says during CBC’s press day for its winter lineup. “It was, tonally, what we were looking for.”

Often, first episodes can feel cluttered. Introducing a raft of characters, as well as major and minor storylines, in 22 or 44 minutes can be a confused mess. That doesn’t happen in Wednesday’s debut, a credit to executive producer Ilana Frank (Saving Hope, Rookie Blue), who admits Truth‘s storytelling style—one case contained in one season—was a challenge.

“I’ve never done a serialized show before,” Frank says. “All of my shows have been episodic. So the idea that you have time was new to me. There were certain things that we knew we had to hit in the first episode and that was it. We made a short list. We knew we needed a reason for her to go to Millwood, we had to have a reason for her to stay in Millwood. There were certain things that were a must and if they didn’t work there it was going to work somewhere else.”

One of the musts was to pit Joanna against Billy. After eviscerating him in court she reflects on what she’s done and has second thoughts on who she’s fighting for. A lot of that reflection is because of her past with Billy, who is beloved by Millwood’s citizens.

“It’s such an interesting dynamic to take two people who knew each other more than half their lives and through circumstance have them come smashing back together,” Mooney says. “Their freshest memory of each other is them as teenagers. They’re trying to reconcile who they are now, how they’ve changed, who they were then and what their relationship was then.” They start out on opposite sides of the legal case, Mooney explains, and the relationship develops through Season 1 with Joanna and Billy realizing what makes them different as lawyers is a benefit in the courtroom.

Every small town, on TV at least, has a secret and Millwood is no different. Kreuk teases the reason Joanna and her father—played by Alex Carter—left the area when she was a teen will be revealed; that has a huge impact on Joanna and who she is. It also runs parallel to the court case.

“There may be a moment when her and her father are at odds,” she says with a laugh. “She followed her father, she became her father, she did everything centred around him. Everything she learns in town is really new and shocking and jarring for her.”

Burden of Truth airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.

 

 

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Burden of Truth, Featured

Showrunners exit CBC legal drama Burden of Truth starring Kristin Kreuk

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Not only has the CBC’s new legal drama gone through a name change, but the project’s showrunners—Noelle Carbone and Adriana Maggs—have departed the project.

“Noelle and Adriana, were both key to shaping the first season of Burden of Truth, but at this time they have left to pursue other projects,” confirmed a representative from eOne, one of the show’s production companies, on Friday afternoon. While it’s fairly common for a television project to swap out some key cast between being greenlit and production, it’s a little more rare for showrunners to leave. Production on the 10-episode project, starring Kristin Kreuk, is set to begin this summer in Manitoba with a winter 2018 debut. Carbone most recently served as writer and co-executive producer on CTV projects Saving Hope and Rookie Blue; Maggs was writer and consulting producer on Space’s Aftermath and Rookie Blue.

We’re awaiting news on who will assume showrunner duties on the series.

Formerly known as Burden of Proof, Burden of Truth stars Kreuk as lawyer Joanna Hanley, who returns to her hometown to take a case after being passed over as partner in the big-city firm she’s been working for. After clearing a drug company accused of causing a debilitating illness among high school girls, Joanna discovers the case has more to it than she first assumed.

Burden of Truth is produced by eOne, ICF Films and Eagle Vision. The series was created by Brad Simpson (Rookie Blue, King) and executive-produced by Ilana Frank (Saving Hope, Rookie Blue), Linda Pope (Saving Hope, Rookie Blue), Jocelyn Hamilton (Mary Kills People, Cardinal) and Kreuk (Smallville, Beauty and the Beast). Kyle Irving and Lisa Meeches (Taken, Ice Road Truckers) are co-executive producers.

Photo: Frank Ockenfels /The CW

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