Yearly Archives: 2016

Corner Gas

More Gas in the Tank: The Comedy Network greenlights animated reboot of Canadian comedy Corner Gas

From a media release:

– New adventures, new episodes: pre-production begins January 2017 in Vancouver and Toronto –
– Animated world allows Brent Butt’s comedy to be as limitless as his imagination –
– New series brings new opportunities for brand integration –

Life in Dog River is about to get a lot more animated! Following a trailblazing six-season run and a blockbuster 2014 movie, The Comedy Network announced today it has greenlit an all-new animated version of the acclaimed, smash-hit comedy franchise CORNER GAS from 335 Productions and Vérité Films. The 13-episode, half-hour series for The Comedy Network’s 2017-2018 broadcast season is the latest original 4K production from Bell Media. Re-imagined by CORNER GAS creator and star Brent Butt, who released a sneak peek of his animated-character yesterday, the all-new animated CORNER GAS delivers its revered brand of comedy, but this time in an animated Dog River where anything is possible.

The new series comes from CORNER GAS executive producers Brent Butt and David Storey from Prairie Pantoons (335 Productions), and Virginia Thompson from Moving Mountoons (Vérité Films), in association with The Comedy Network. Animation will be produced by Prairie Pantoons, Moving Mountoons and Smiley Guy Studios. The series begins pre-production in January 2017 in Vancouver and Toronto, with the main cast confirmed to return. Producers also confirmed today that beloved character Emma will live on in the animated world with the blessing of the late Janet Wright’s family.

Brent (Brent Butt), Lacey (Gabrielle Miller), Oscar (Eric Peterson), Hank (Fred Ewanuick), Davis (Lorne Cardinal), Karen (Tara Spencer-Nairn), and Wanda (Nancy Robertson) are all getting a cartoon makeover as the main cast returns to Dog River for CORNER GAS. Casting for the voice of Emma is currently underway.

CORNER GAS brings together Butt’s comedy style and love for comic books. Before pursuing his passion as a stand-up comedian, Butt and a friend started a publishing company – Windwolf Graphics. His first comic, Existing Earth, was nominated for a Golden Eagle Award. Windwolf Graphics published two issues before Butt hit the stand-up circuit full time. Butt’s passion for comics lived on through his work, a common theme in the CORNER GAS franchise. Bringing CORNER GAS into the animated world allows Butt’s comedy to be as limitless as his imagination.

The new animated CORNER GAS also presents a vast new world of opportunity for branded integration. With Dog River open to expansion through animation, and beyond, brands are able to explore the environment in new ways.

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Industry News

Link: Melanie Joly’s fight for Canadian culture is neither easy nor popular

From Kate Taylor of The Globe and Mail:

Link: Melanie Joly’s fight for Canadian culture is neither easy nor popular
Minister of Canadian Heritage Melanie Joly was in Paris this week doing exactly that, taking meetings with French and European culturecrats who can be counted on to understand Canada’s dilemma: How does a mid-sized power maintain any notion of cultural sovereignty in the face of the aptly acronymed FANG? (That’s Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google.) Continue reading.

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Canada's Smartest Person

Professional gamer Stephanie Harvey claims Canada’s Smartest Person title

From a media release:

A season full of mind-bending challenges and intense competition on CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON came down to five worthy finalists vying for the title in Sunday’s holiday-themed season finale on CBC. In the end, 30-year-old Stephanie Harvey, a professional gamer from Quebec City, rose to the final challenge to take the crown and — in a CANADA’S SMARTEST PERSON first — to have a $20,000 donation made to her charity of choice, Operation Enfant Soleil.

Harvey and her four fellow finalists did battle in festive versions of some of the show’s classic challenges that added holiday magic to the season finale, creating a winter wonderland complete with falling snow.  Edmonton’s Joshua Williams, a 25-year-old youth-program director, was the first competitor to be eliminated after registering the lowest score through the first three challenges. Mechanic Brittain Bancroft, 30, from Minto, N.B., bowed out next followed by Calgary’s Maria Samson, a 33-year-old former national team rugby player.

The grand finale, known as the Super Gauntlet, saw Harvey go head-to-head with Eric Yue, 40, a recreational hockey league commissioner from Victoria. The fast and festive face-off featured Christmas trees and snowmen as the key to the ultimate prize, the title of “Canada’s Smartest Person” and the $20,000 charitable donation. Yue leapt to an early lead in the first challenge of the Super Gauntlet, which tested linguistic intelligence, but struggled with the visual intelligence challenge that followed. Harvey took advantage of this opening and never looked back, flying through the visual, physical, musical and logical intelligence challenges to complete the Super Gauntlet and become the fourth person to be named “Canada’s Smartest Person.”

Harvey was moved to tears by her win and the knowledge that Operation Enfant Soleil, a foundation that raises funds for the care of sick children throughout Quebec, would receive the $20,000 donation in her name.

Image courtesy of CBC.

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Wynonna Earp

Link: Passionate fan base has high expectations for second season of Alberta-shot Wynonna Earp

From Eric Volmers of the Calgary Herald:

Link: Passionate fan base has high expectations for second season of Alberta-shot Wynonna Earp
“It just making the world a little bigger and really upending expectations. So much of the show is about the nature of good and evil and how that’s really relative and we’re really going to flip a lot of that stuff on its head this year.” Continue reading.

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