Shaftesbury’s Ireland-Canada co-pro Dead Still currently in production for RTE, Acorn TV, and Citytv

From a media release:

Dublin-based Deadpan Pictures and Toronto-based producer Shaftesbury today announced that production is underway on new mystery drama series DEAD STILL (6 X 60). The Ireland-Canada co-production is co-commissioned by RTÉ and Acorn Media Enterprises (AME) alongside ZDF Enterprises. Set in 1880s Ireland in the Victorian era heyday of “postmortem photography,” the six-episode period drama follows a renowned memorial photographer as he investigates the murders of his recently deceased subjects. DEAD STILL is written by John Morton and directed by Imogen Murphy (Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope, Red Rock) and Craig David Wallace (Slasher, Todd and the Book of Pure Evil, Murdoch Mysteries). Acorn Media Enterprises has secured all rights in the United States, Australia, New Zealand and United Kingdom; co-premiere rights in Canada; and secondary rights in Ireland. ZDF Enterprises will distribute the series in the rest of the world. It was developed with the support of Screen Ireland and Creative Europe. DEAD STILL will premiere in 2020 on RTÉ in Ireland, on Acorn TV in the United States as an Acorn TV Original, and in Canada on Citytv, a division of Rogers Media. The series, with the support of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI), is currently filming on location in and around Dublin through June 2019.

DEAD STILL blends mystery and drama with gallows humour, and features an incredible ensemble of acclaimed international actors including Michael Smiley (Luther as DS Benny Silver, Wire in the Blood, Death and Nightingales) as Brock Blennerhasset, Kerr Logan (Game of Thrones, Victoria, Alias Grace) as Conall Molloy, Eileen O’Higgins (Brooklyn, Mary Queen of Scots) as Nancy Vickers, and Aidan O’Hare (Jackie, Pilis) as Detective Frederick Regan. DEAD STILL also stars Jimmy Smallhorne (Taken Down, Clean Break) as Cecil Carruthers, Mark Rendall (Departure, Versailles) as Percy Cummins, Peter Campion (Derry Girls, Kat and Alfie: Redwater) as Henry Vickers, Michael Patric (Frontier, Supernatural), and Martin Donovan (Big Little Lies, Fahrenheit 451).

Dublin, 1880. The practice of memorial portraiture is at the height of its popularity – that is, the portrait photography of the recently deceased. As renowned memorial photographer Brock Blennerhasset (Smiley) expands his business with the help of his would-be actress niece Nancy Vickers (O’Higgins) and assistant Conall Molloy (Logan), someone with more sinister designs is getting in on the death photography game. A serial killer is cashing in on the sordid, developing taste for ‘snuff’ imagery – pictures of people in their death throes. The murders escalate and Detective Frederick Regan (O’Hare) of the Dublin Metropolitan Police suspects that Ireland may have its first serial murderer at large. As Blennerhasset becomes a possible suspect and his family is put in harm’s way, they must track down the serial killer before he strikes again.

DEAD STILL is executive produced by Paul Donovan, Ailish McElmeel, Christina Jennings, and Scott Garvie, and produced by Suzanne McAuley. DEAD STILL is an Ireland/Canada treaty co-production produced by Deadpan Pictures (Ireland) and Shaftesbury (Canada) in association with RTÉ, Acorn TV with Acorn Media Enterprises, ZDF Enterprises, and BAI, and with the participation of the Irish Tax Credit, Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit, and the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit. DEAD STILL was developed with the support of Screen Ireland and Creative Europe.

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