Yearly Archives: 2017

Big Brother Canada, Featured

Big Brother Canada goes on hiatus after five seasons

It’s the end of the road for Big Brother Canada. For now, at least. Host Arisa Cox made the surprising announcement on Monday afternoon with a post on Twitter.

“It’s been FIVE BRILLIANT SEASONS and now it’s official, @BigBrotherCA is on hiatus,” she wrote. “MASSIVE LOVE to our BB fam from the bottom of my heart.”

The announcement came the same day Corus made its upfront announcement, outlining American primetime acquisitions and Canadian original orders and renewals. Big Brother Canada wasn’t listed on any of the press materials, but it being a spring program isn’t always on fall materials.

“We CAN and we WILL get through this together!” Cox tweeted a few moments later. “The second we know more I’ll share it, so stay tuned. LOVE! #BBCAN @BigBrotherCA @Global_TV”

Listen to our interview with Big Brother Canada supervising producer Trevor Boris

The hiatus comes following the series’ May 18 season finale when professional poker Kevin Martin of Calgary emerged victorious, scoring the $100,000 grand prize, $30,000 gift card from The Brick and 2017 Toyota ’86. Season 5 of brought back some of Canada’s favourite houseguests from the past to battle new houseguests from the present, pitting them against each other in a fight for future supremacy inside the Big Brother Canada “Odyssey” house. Second chance houseguests included Gary Levy from Toronto; Neda Kalantar from Vancouver; and Bruno Ielo from Ottawa. First-time houseguests joining the returning players included Andre “Dre” Gwenaelle, a masters student from Montreal; Mark Chrysler, a bartender from Edmonton; William Laprise Desbiens, a marketing student from Trois-Rivieres, QB; and Emily Hawkin, a bartender from Lindsay, ON.

Though fans should still hold out hope Big Brother Canada could return, Insight Productions—the folks behind the program—placed Canadian Idol on hiatus with CTV after six seasons. It never came back. Insight produces Top Chef Canada for Food Network Canada and The Amazing Race Canada for CTV.

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Industry News

Cue the hits in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… City unveils its 2017/18 prime-time schedule

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From a media release:

Proven, powerful, and pedigreed. Today Rogers Media unveils City’s 2017/18 programming schedule, building on last season’s proven hits with bold new additions backed by some of the most creative minds in television today. Rogers Media president, Rick Brace, and senior vice president of television & broadcast operations, Colette Watson, together with the executive team will present the new schedule to advertisers and media this afternoon at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Comedies
This broadcast year, City had three of the Top 10 and eight of the Top 20 comedy hits4, and City will continue to bring the laughs with five new comedy series for the 2017/18 season. Joining the fall lineup, The Orville, from Emmy Award-winning executive producer and creator Seth MacFarlane and director Jon Favreau, is an irreverent workplace sci-fi adventure comedy set 400 years in the future that follows the adventures of the U.S.S. Orville, an exploratory spaceship, and the familiar and funny everyday challenges of its human and alien crew. The weird and wonderful out-of-this-world theme continues with Ghosted, when a cynical skeptic (Craig Robinson, The Office) and a genius “true believer” (Adam Scott, Parks and Recreation, Big Little Lies) are recruited to investigate unexplained phenomena in Los Angeles – all the while uncovering a larger mystery that could threaten the existence of the human race. Canadian cult classic Fubar moves to the small screen, propelling beloved characters Terry and Dean into the modern age. New-to-City, Speechless starring Minnie Driver joins the schedule in mid-season, along with new Will Ferrell-produced commuter comedy LA to Vegas.

Dramas
Power and political games drive City’s scripted drama slate for the 2017/18 season with four new series joining the lineup.  A City original, Bad Blood follows the true-crime saga of one of Canada’s most notorious mob families, a revenge story of Godfather-like proportions. New-to-City this fall, hit series The Blacklist joins the schedule with prime-time’s favourite fugitive-turned F.B.I informant, “Red” Reddington (James Spader), as he teams up with his hand-picked profiler to work through his own “most wanted” list of criminals. Coming in 2018, Versailles is a lush Canadian drama about Louis XIV, and the darkness, ambition, and manipulation that simmers just beneath the gilded surface of the Sun King’s court. Also, a young doctor’s ethics are tested when The Resident, starring Canadians Emily VanCamp and Bruce Greenwood, joins City’s schedule in mid-season.

Returning Favourites
Proven hits and fan favourites return as City confirms the renewal of 16 prime-time series, delivering more laugh-out-loud moments, dramatic plot twists, and thrilling competition through the 2017/18 season. Returning series include The Bachelor franchise, Black-ish, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Family Guy, Hell’s Kitchen, Hockey Night in Canada, Last Man on Earth, Lethal Weapon, Life in Pieces, The Mick, The Middle, Modern Family, Mom, New Girl, Nirvanna The Band The Show,and Scorpion.

New Series:

BAD BLOOD
60-minute Canadian scripted drama series
Thursdays at 8 p.m.
National broadcast

Inspired by reputed mobster Vito Rizzuto, and based on the best-selling book, Business or Blood: Mafia Boss Vito Rizzuto’s Last War by Antonio Nicaso and Peter Edwards, Bad Blood: The Vito Rizzuto Story is a six-part limited event series. While imprisoned in Colorado’s Supermax Prison for the murders of three Bonanno family members, Rizzuto watches helplessly as the thriving empire he built is dismantled, and his closest friends and family members are mysteriously murdered one by one. When Rizzuto is finally released from prison, a Shakespearean-level revenge tale plays out – leading to the brutal murders of his closest companions, and ultimately the death of Rizzuto himself.

PRODUCTION COMPANY: New Metric Media, Sphere Media, and DHX Media
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Michael Konyves, Simon Barry
CAST: Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace), Kim Coates (Sons of Anarchy), Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas), Enrico Colantoni (Flashpoint)

FUBAR: THE AGE OF THE COMPUTER
30-minute Canadian scripted comedy series
Sundays at 10:30 p.m.
National broadcast

Based on the beloved film franchise and hurdling it into the modern age, Fubar: The Age of the Computer finds Terry and Dean fleeing from the wildfires of Fort McMurray in a desperate retreat to Calgary, with nothing but emergency government debit cards to their names. Discovering high-speed Internet for the first time, Terry is exposed to a world of commerce and social media and attempts to harness the web to make a profit. Meanwhile, Dean embarks on a journey to record a triple-concept album using his burnt bass guitar and extreme falsetto voice.

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Busted Tranny Productions Ltd Cardinal Film Inc., Vice Studio Canada
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Michael Dowse
CAST: David Lawrence (Freezer Burn), Paul Spence (It’s All Gone, Pete Tong)

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Awards

Link: B.C. film biz celebrates indie and service work a Leo Awards red carpet gala

From Sabrina Furminger of Westender:

Link: B.C. film biz celebrates indie and service work a Leo Awards red carpet gala
If you needed a reminder that the British Columbia film and television industry is both a top-tier service provider and rich with boundary-pushing independent filmmakers, you got it at the 2017 Leo Awards red carpet gala.

Now in its 19th year, the Leo Awards recognize achievements in the BC screen scene. 113 Leos were handed out this year over three ceremonies and two weekends, culminating on Sunday with the annual Red Carpet Gala, held in a cavernous ballroom in the Hyatt Regency Vancouver. Actor and comedian Peter Kelamis (Beyond) presided over the event, which saw trophies handed out to cast and crew from independent motion pictures, locally shot American and Canadian television series, and narrative short films. Continue reading. 

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Industry News

Rogers Media expands CityNews across Canada

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From a media release:

Building on its commitment to deliver more local news to even more Canadians, Rogers Media will expand its award-winning news program, CityNewsâ„¢, across Canada, beginning September 4. Currently seen in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area, the expansion ofCityNews will now include local versions of CityNews produced locally and airing daily on City, in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Montreal.

The one-hour newscasts will broadcast seven days a week with CityNews at Six at 6 p.m., and CityNews Tonight at 11 p.m. local time. Newscasts in Edmonton and Winnipeg will debut Monday, Sept. 4 at 6 p.m. local time. CityNews will expand into the Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary markets in Winter 2018.

Debuting in Toronto in 1975, the multi-award winning CityNews has been globally recognized as a trailblazer for news innovation, earning accolades for its local coverage including the esteemed RTDNA National Bert Cannings Award for Best TV Newscast in a Large Market in 2016. Late last month, CityNews reporter Cynthia Mulligan won the national RTDNA Adrienne Clarkson Award for Diversity in Reporting for her in-depth series on Danica Rain – a transgender Ontario woman who underwent gender reassignment surgery at a clinic in Bangkok.

Adding regional and national perspectives, complementary stories from Rogers Media’s sister brands such as Maclean’s, Breakfast Television, and Sportsnet will also be featured in the broadcasts. Viewers will also see news content delivered across all platforms, with each CityNews team engaging with audiences through their respective local websites and social media channels.

Additional programming details and on-air news talent will be announced in the coming months.

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Industry News

Cameras roll on Carmilla the Movie based on groundbreaking digital series

From a media release:

Shaftesbury’s international runaway hit web series Carmilla has begun principal photography on feature-length film Carmilla The Movie (working title). Series stars Elise Bauman and 2017 Canadian Screen Awards Fan’s Choice Award-winner Natasha Negovanlis return for the supernatural spin-off film, and are joined by Dominique Provost-Chalkley (Wynonna Earp, Murdoch Mysteries), Grace Lynn Kung (Mary Kills People, The Strain), and Cara Gee (The Expanse, Inhuman Condition) as well as returning Carmilla cast Annie Briggs (Luvvie, Murdoch Mysteries), Kaitlyn Alexander (Couple-ish, Full Out), Nicole Stamp (The Handmaid’s Tale, First Round Down), and Matt O’Connor (Murdoch Mysteries, Ozion). Carmilla The Movie is currently filming on location in Toronto and is slated for a Fall 2017 release.

It has been five years since Laura (Bauman) and Carmilla (Negovanlis) vanquished the apocalypse and Carmilla became a bonafide mortal human. They have settled in to a cozy apartment in downtown Toronto; Laura continues to hone her journalism skills while Carmilla adjusts to a non-vampire lifestyle. Their domestic bliss is suddenly ruptured when Carmilla begins to show signs of “re-vamping” – from a fondness for bloody treats to accidental biting – while Laura has started having bizarre, ghostly dreams. The couple must now enlist their old friends from Silas University to uncover the unknown supernatural threat and save humanity – including Carmilla’s.

Produced by Shaftesbury’s digital studio Smokebomb Entertainment and its branded entertainment agency shift2, in partnership with executive producer U by Kotex®, the Carmilla digital series (108 x 5 minutes) is a scripted transmedia series that puts a modern spin on the cult classic gothic vampire novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Meshing the vlog format aesthetic with scripted storytelling, Carmilla follows the adventures of university student Laura Hollis (Bauman) whose world is turned upside down after a vampire, Carmilla Karnstein (Negovanlis), moves into her dorm room. Carmilla has engaged and inspired fans around the world – the series has been viewed in 193 countries and translated in over 20 languages by fans. Available on YouTube channel KindaTV, the largest scripted YouTube channel for millennials in Canada, and subscription video service Fullscreen, the series has generated over 69 million views and 233 million minutes of watch time across all three seasons since its launch in 2014.Carmilla has been recognized with numerous national and international honours and awards including the Streamy Awards, the Webby Awards, the Shorty Awards, and the Canadian Screen Awards, including a 2017 Fan’s Choice Awards for Negovanlis.

Carmilla The Movie is produced by Shaftesbury with the financial participation of Telefilm Canada, the Canada Media Fund, Fullscreen, and Hollywood Suite. Carmilla The Movie is directed by Spencer Maybee (Carmilla, Letterkenny ORIDG DIDG); story by Alejandro Alcoba (Degrassi: The Next Generation, The Next Step), screenplay by Alcoba and Jordan Hall (Carmilla, Run Dry). The movie is based on Carmilla the digital series, written by Hall, and co-created by Hall, Jay Bennett, and Steph Ouaknine. Carmilla The Movie is executive produced by Christina Jennings and Scott Garvie, produced by Bennett, Ouaknine, and Melanie Windle.

Image courtesy of Amy Wilson.

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