From The Chronicle Herald:
Jonathan Torrens, a man of many talents
Jonathan Torrens has been a TV star for 25 years, so it is hard to believe when he says the Canadian Screen Award he won last week in Toronto is his first as a solo performer.
“I wish it didn’t mean as much as it does,†Torrens muses by phone, back home in Nova Scotia the day after claiming the award for best performance by an actor in a featured supporting role in a comedy series. Continue reading.
From James Bradshaw of The Globe and Mail:
Take U.S. networks off Canadian airwaves, Bell Media urges
The president of Bell Media fired a broadside at Canada’s broadcast regulator on Friday, saying its policies are hobbling the company’s profitability and suggesting that U.S. networks such as CBS, NBC and FOX should be kicked off the country’s airwaves.
In a speech to a TV industry audience in Ottawa, Kevin Crull argued the business model for traditional broadcasters is “fundamentally broken†and “unsustainable,†pointing a finger at Hollywood’s direct intrusion on Canadian TV dials. Continue reading.
From Michael Geist of the Toronto Star:
Behind the scenes of Ontario’s campaign for a Netflix tax
Despite the fact that a Netflix tax would yield less than one per cent of the annual expenditures on Canadian television financing (about $15 million dollars in support for a sector that spent $2.3 billion last year), most content groups called for mandatory Canadian content contribution funding from online video providers during the CRTC’s TalkTV hearings. Amidst the clamour for new funding, there was one voice that attracted the most attention — the Government of Ontario. Continue reading.
Motive is all about the mystery. Who is the victim and why did they become a chalk outline? Who committed the crime? It’s a show that delves into hidden stories and—most of all—secrets.
Turns out Motive‘s lead, Kristin Lehman, has been keeping a little secret of her own.
“I cut my hair and I wear a wig on the show,” Lehman divulges during an in-person interview, sporting a closely-shorn ‘do. The Vancouver-based actress is doing press for Motive, returning Sunday, March 8, on CTV. Â The drama series that introduces the victim and the killer within each episode’s opening minutes and then spends the ensuing instalment linking the two, bows with the same core characters, though two find themselves in different places.
Sunday’s return, “Six Months Later,” finds Det. Angie Flynn (Lehman) out of the homicide department and interviewing cop wannabes. She’s stuck in a small office with high windows far away from Det. Vega (Louis Ferreira), Sgt. Mark Cross (Warren Christie), coroner Dr. Betty Rogers (Lauren Holly) and Det. Brian Lucas (Brendan Penny), who is the lead in Sunday’s case.
Motive‘s unique storytelling technique, coined “whydunit,” enables the Vancouver-shot project to feature notable actors and actresses as witnesses, victims and murderers, and Season 3 is no different. “Six Months Later” boasts Victor Garber, Jessica Lowndes, Tony Plana and Luisa D’Oliveira with Alexis Bledel, C. Thomas Howell, Ally Sheedy, Chris Klein and Dylan Walsh all participating in future storylines. Lehman loves the opportunity to have guest cast to interact with because it ups the game of the regulars on the call sheet.
Though the victims and criminals rotate every week, some things never change. Vega and Angie, for instance, will never become romantically linked like so many characters do on long-running series. Lehman says it’s something she and Ferreira have talked about at length.
“These two people are so aware of their limitations in their personal lives that they’re conscious the degree of intimacy they have with each other is the most valuable relationship they have,” she explains. “We’re both playing characters that are in their 40s and there is a strong codependence between them. We’re taking out the sexuality, but we’re enhancing the intimacy.”
That intimacy and familiarity between Vega and Angie will likely be tested this season. Lehman teases Sunday’s storyline becomes a story arch that echoes through the 13 episodes and keeps veteran thespian Garber around.
“In the course of doing so, it provides for a little bit of space for Angie and Vega to continue exploring how they are with each other personally,” she says.
Motive returns Sunday, March 8, at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CTV.
From The Writers Guild of Canada:
The next Writers Talking TV event features Sunnyside co-showrunner, Gary Pearson, and head writer, Jan Caruana. Fellow writer Simon Racioppa will host the evening, which includes a screening of an episode of Sunnyside, followed by a Q&A with audience members. You are invited to be one of those audience members! The event is free, and open to the public, but RSVP to Elaine Jacob, e.jacob@wgc.ca to secure a seat.
When:Â March 12, 7 p.m. at TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 King St. West, Toronto
“Sunnyside is an all-new original sketch-comedy series from award-winning creators Gary Pearson (This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Ron James Show) and Dan Redican (The Kids in the Hall, The Jenny McCarthy Show). From hipsters and yoga moms to meth addicts and romantic crooks, Sunnyside is a quirky neighbourhood in transition, where residents aren’t always what they seem and surprises lurk around every slightly dingy corner. Book clubs and coffee shops are just steps away from speakeasies and an underground baby-fighting ring.
Plus, this odd little world has just a touch of magic in it, including an occult store that can alter reality, a superhero shopping cart that comes to the rescue, and a mysterious manhole that can answer residents’ burning questions. Life might have a dark side, but we never lose sight of the Sunnyside.” -Description provided by Counterfeit Pictures
