All posts by Greg David

Prior to becoming a television critic and owner of TV, Eh?, Greg David was a critic for TV Guide Canada, the country's most trusted source for TV news. He has interviewed television actors, actresses and behind-the-scenes folks from hundreds of television series from Canada, the U.S. and internationally. He is a podcaster, public speaker, weekly radio guest and educator, and past member of the Television Critics Association.
Industry News, The North Water

CBC/Radio-Canada and Super Channel partner with the BBC on UK/Canada co-production The North Water, from See-Saw Films and Rhombus Media

From a media release:

CBC/Radio-Canada and Super Channel are partnering with the BBC to bring five-part Arctic nautical adventure THE NORTH WATER to Canadian audiences across the country. Commissioned by the BBC and CBC/Radio-Canada in association with Super Channel, THE NORTH WATER is a UK/Canada treaty co-production from Canada’s Rhombus Media and the UK’s See-Saw Films. Based on the critically acclaimed, best-selling novel by Ian McGuire, the immersive drama is adapted and directed by Andrew Haigh (45 Years, Looking) and stars BAFTA-winner Jack O’Connell (Unbroken, Godless), Golden Globe®-winning actor Colin Farrell (In Bruges, True Detective), and SAG Award-winner Stephen Graham (Line of Duty, Boardwalk Empire), together with an incredible ensemble cast that includes renowned Inuit actor Natar Ungalaaq (Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner).

THE NORTH WATER will make its first Canadian debut on Super Channel Fuse on Sunday, September 19 at 9 p.m. ET with each episode available on Super Channel On Demand the day following its weekly linear broadcast, followed by wide release on CBC TV, CBC Gem, ICI TÉLÉ and ICI TOU.TV in fall 2022. Super Channel is available via most cable providers across the country, as well as Amazon Prime Video channels and the Apple TV app. THE NORTH WATER will premiere in the UK on BBC Two this fall, and is streaming on AMC+ in the U.S. this summer.

Set in the UK and the ice floes of the Arctic in the late 1850s, the series tells the story of Patrick Sumner (O’Connell), a disgraced ex-army surgeon who signs up as the ship’s doctor on a whaling expedition to the Arctic. But the ferocity of the elements is matched by the violence of his crew mates, including Drax (Farrell), a harpooner and distinctly brutal force of nature. As the true purpose of the expedition becomes clear, confrontation between the two men erupts, taking them on a journey far from solid ground and way beyond the safe moorings of civilization.

THE NORTH WATER was filmed primarily in Budapest and on the frozen seas north of the Svalbard Archipelago. The cast and production team sailed as far as 81 degrees north to film sequences in the pack ice, which is believed to be the furthest north a scripted drama series has ever filmed. While plans to shoot in Nunavut had to be curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a smaller local unit in Iqaluit stepped in to properly represent and authentically capture the vastness of the Canadian Arctic.

In July 2019, the BBC and CBC/Radio-Canada announced a commitment to collaborate across a range of different areas.

A BBC and CBC/Radio-Canada original series in association with Super Channel, THE NORTH WATER is produced by See-Saw Films and Rhombus Media and distributed internationally by BBC Studios.

Executive producers on the series are Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta, Iain Canning and Emile Sherman for See-Saw Films, Niv Fichman for Rhombus Media, Jo McClellan for the BBC and writer/director Andrew Haigh. In addition, Rhombus Media’s Fraser Ash and Kevin Krikst are co-executive producers and Claude Paiement is co-producer on behalf of Montreal’s N63 Films. THE NORTH WATER is produced in association with the Canada Media Fund.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

T+E explores the unexplained as new original series Encounter: UFO premieres Tuesday, August 10

From a media release:

A national survey, commissioned by Canada’s leading paranormal television broadcaster T+E and conducted by market research firm Ipsos, reveals one in 10 Canadians claim to have seen an unidentified flying object. Among the 1,000 Canadians polled, more than half (56%) believe in UFOs, while a majority 65% believe intelligent extraterrestrial life exists. The belief that aliens exist is more prevalent among men (70%) than women (61%), and among Millennials (69%) and Gen X’ers (71%) than Boomers (58%).

The survey was commissioned by T+E ahead of the premiere of the broadcaster’s new original series Encounter: UFO. The eight-part docuseries weaves together powerful and credible first-hand accounts of UFO encounters and abductions, authentic video evidence and dramatic paranormal reenactments, while expert contributors explore the world-shattering realities of the witnessed events. The world broadcast premiere of Encounter: UFO airs Tuesday, August 10 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, exclusively on T+E.

According to the survey results, close encounters of the alien kind are most likely to happen in the Prairies: 16% of Saskatchewan and Manitoba residents claim to have seen a UFO, compared to 10% of Quebecers, 9% of Ontarians, 8% of Albertans, 7% of British Columbians, and just 5% of Atlantic Canadians. Men (64%) are significantly more likely than women (48%) to believe in UFOs and to claim they have seen one (11% vs. 7%).

Acclaimed Canadian science writer, ufologist and expert contributor in T+E’s new series Encounter: UFO, Chris Rutkowski says the survey results are in line with his own research. Rutkowski has collected and analyzed Canadian UFO report data since the 1970s and published the Canadian UFO Survey since 1989. “Canada has a long history of UFO sightings; they are more common than we think. About 1,000 UFO reports are filed in Canada every year, and there were more reports during the pandemic,” says Rutkowski. “When it comes to speculating about aliens visiting earth, most Canadians expect interstellar visitors to be friendly like E.T., and unlike the villainous aliens you see in films like Independence Day.”

Audiences who watch T+E’s all-new original series Encounter: UFO will hear from over 24 eyewitnesses from across the globe who swear they’ve seen unidentified flying objects, high-speed saucers and flashing bright lights in the night sky. One episode explores one of Canada’s most infamous UFO encounters, the case of Stefan Michalak, who reported being burned by a UFO in the wilderness of Falcon Lake, Manitoba, and features an in-depth interview with Stefan’s son, Stan Michalak. Encounter: UFO also delves into Canada’s best-documented UFO sighting in Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia. This paranormal event involves a UFO crash landing in the waters off Shag Harbour that was witnessed by several onlookers and resulted in a series of RCMP reports. UFO researcher and author Chris Styles, who played an integral role in the investigation, speaks about this mysterious incident in the docuseries.

Encounter: UFO is produced by Saloon Media, a Blue Ant Studios company. Michael Kot, Betty Orr, Nick Crowe, Pam McNair and Paul Kilback serve as Executive Producers. Brian Rice is the Director and Series Producer.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
The Porter

Award-Winning ​Alfre Woodard joins ‘The Porter’ cast and serves as executive producer

From a media release:

BET+ and CBC series THE PORTER (8×60), from Inferno Pictures and Sienna Films (a Sphere Media company) announces the addition of multiple award-winning actor Alfre Woodard to their first season as part of the cast and as executive producer. THE PORTER is currently shooting in Winnipeg, Canada.

Woodard will play the role of ‘Fay’, who runs the local brothel in St. Antoine – she’s sexy, direct and takes great pride in living life on her own terms. She joins Aml Ameen (I May Destroy You, Yardie), Ronnie Rowe Jr. (Star Trek: Discovery, Pretty Hard Cases), Mouna Traoré (Self Made, The Umbrella Academy), Oluniké Adeliyi (Titans, American Gods) and Loren Lott (American Idol, Tag).

Recently listed in a NY Times article featuring ‘The Greatest 25 Actors of the 21st Century’, Woodard has been nominated for 17 Emmy Awards (winning four), seven SAG Awards (winning three), three Golden Globe Awards (winning one), 21 NAACP awards (winning nine) and two Independent Spirit Awards (winning one). Her Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress was for her performance in Martin Ritt’s Cross Creek.

Woodard recently starred in the feature film Clemency. Among the critical praise she received for her lead role in the film, she received a BAFTA Award nomination and a Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead.

Other recent film appearances include the blockbusters Captain America: Civil War for Marvel and AnnaBelle for New Line. On the small screen, she most recently starred as the fierce ‘Mariah Dillard’ in Marvel’s Luke Cage and as the title character in the Netflix Original film Juanita, which she also developed and produced. Woodard next appears in another Netflix Original film titled Fatherhood alongside Kevin Hart, and she also stars opposite Jason Mamoa in the Apple TV+ series See, created by Steven Knight. Woodard recently wrapped on the Joe and Anthony Russo directed film The Gray Man with Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans.

Acclaimed dramatic performances include her roles in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave, John Sayles’ Passion Fish, Maya Angelou’s Down In The Delta, Peter Bratt’s Follow Me Home, Gina Prince-Blythwood’s Love And Basketball, Spike Lee’s Crooklyn, Lawrence Kasdan’s Grand Canyon and Mumford, Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys, Billie Woodruff’s Beauty Shop with Queen Latifah, Richard Donner’s Scrooged opposite Bill Murray, as well as Mandela and Miss Evers’ Boys (both for HBO Films).

Set in the early 1920s, THE PORTER offers a dramatic and compelling look at the Black community in St. Antoine, Montreal — known, at the time, as the “Harlem of the North”. The story is told through the eyes of two Black train porters taking very different paths to liberation. One pushes to create the first Black union in existence, the other chases power on the wrong side of the law, but both have the same goal: to free themselves and their families from oppression. They’re young, gifted and Black, from Canada, the Caribbean, and the U.S., and over the course of the series they find themselves thrown together north and south of the color line. In an era that boasts anything is possible, if change isn’t coming for them, they will come for it.

From Montreal to Chicago and at every stop in between, in a time of extraordinary social and political change, THE PORTER tells the story of the people who fought to ignite the civil rights movement in North America.

A CBC and BET+ original series, THE PORTER is originated and created by Arnold Pinnock (Altered Carbon, Travelers) and Bruce Ramsay (19-2, Cardinal), with Annmarie Morais (Killjoys, Ransom, American Soul), Marsha Greene (Ten Days In The Valley, Mary Kills People) and Aubrey Nealon (Snowpiercer, Cardinal), and produced by Winnipeg-based Inferno Pictures Inc. and Sphere Media’s Sienna Films. Morais and Greene are showrunners and executive producers. Charles Officer (Akilla’s Escape, Coroner) and R.T. Thorne (Blindspot, Utopia Falls) will direct the series, and are executive producers. Pinnock also serves as an executive producer, and Ramsay a co-executive producer. Jennifer Kawaja serves as Executive Producer for Sienna Films and Ian Dimerman as Executive Producer for Inferno Pictures. The series is written by Morais, Greene, Andrew Burrows-Trotman, Priscilla White, Pinnock and Ramsay, with Thorne participating in the writers’ room. The series is funded with the support of the Canada Media Fund and Manitoba Film & Music and is distributed internationally by Abacus Media Rights (AMR) and Sphere Distribution.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Schitt's Creek, SurrealEstate, Wynonna Earp

Links: SurrealEstate, Season 1

From Heather M. of TV Goodness:

Link: George R. Olson and Tim Rozon talk SurrealEstate director and guest star Melanie Scrofano
“She had a feel for that goofy, weird, elusive tone that we had kind of created. She just stepped into it with such grace and such confidence.” Continue reading.

From Heather M. of TV Goodness:

Link: SurrealEstate creator George R. Olson talks world-building, characters, and more
“This felt like something that really had some legs because your only limitations are the number of houses and properties. [For each of those], there are hauntings with entities and demons and everything that you could think of.” Continue reading.

From Heather M. of TV Goodness:

Link: Tim Rozon talks characters and found family in SurrealEstate
“It’s been almost a decade since I’ve played a role without facial hair. I went to my first wardrobe fitting and they gave me Luke’s suit and I just started feeling the character immediately.” Continue reading.

From Victoria Ahearn of the Canadian Press:

Link: ‘Schitt’s Creek’ actors Tim Rozon, Sarah Levy reunite as co-stars on ‘SurrealEstate’
When the CBC sitcom “Schitt’s Creek” finished its run in April of last year just as the pandemic ramped up, cast member Sarah Levy anticipated a dry spell on the work front. Continue reading.

From CBC:

Link: New supernatural TV show shot in N.L. continuing to push production in province
The housing market in St. John’s has seen a boom over the past year and a half, but what if the houses for sale were haunted? That’s the premise of the latest TV show to be filmed in Newfoundland and Labrador, which will hit the airwaves later this month. Continue reading.

From Stephanie Webber of Us Weekly:

Link: Sarah Levy Reunites With ‘Schitt’s Creek’ Costar Tim Rozon in ‘SurrealEstate’: He’s a ‘Great Actor and Human Being’
Twyla and Mutt together again! Sarah Levy couldn’t put the “pilot script down” for SYFY’s SurrealEstate — and wanted to join the show even more once she learned her former Schitt’s Creek costar Tim Rozon was already attached as the star. Continue reading.

From Meredith Jacobs of TV Insider:

Link: ‘SurrealEstate’ Stars Tim Rozon & Sarah Levy on Why Their Characters Work Well Together
If you’re having problems selling your house because it’s haunted or possessed, you need look no further than the Roman Agency on SurrealEstate. Real estate agent Luke Roman (Tim Rozon) and his team of specialists handle the problem houses, the ones that scare would-be buyers (and sellers). Continue reading.

From Jeff Pfeiffer of Main Street Nashvile:

Link: Tim Rozon and Sarah Levy reteam for Syfy’s fun and frightening ‘SurrealEstate’
It’s been said to be a “seller’s market” for real estate lately. But even under such favorable conditions, the owners of the places featured in Syfy’s fun and frightening new scripted series SurrealEstate, premiering Friday, would find it impossible to unload their properties. A leaky roof or a crack in a foundation may not be deal breakers for motivated home buyers; poltergeists, demon dogs and portals to hell in a cellar, on the other hand, certainly are. Continue reading.

From Debra Yeo of the Toronto Star:

Link: From gunslinger on ‘Wynonna Earp’ to paranormal real estate agent in new series, it’s all surreal
Doc Holliday’s moustache almost came between Tim Rozon and Luke Roman. Rozon, the Montreal-born actor who played immortal gunslinger Doc for four seasons on supernatural dramedy “Wynonna Earp,” was on the phone earlier this week describing how he got the part of Luke, a realtor who specializes in haunted houses in “SurrealEstate,” which debuts Friday on Syfy and CTV Sci-Fi Channel. Continue reading.

From Alix Kingray of Horror Buzz:

Link: Interview with composer Spencer Creaghan
“SurrealEstate is what one might call a dream gig. George and Danishka were collaborators in the very nature of the word.” Continue reading.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Big Brother Canada

Global Announces Casting Details For Big Brother Canada Season 10

From a media release:

The search for Canada’s next batch of houseguests starts now! Today, Global and Insight Productions announced that casting is open across the country for Season 10 of Big Brother Canada. Coming to Global in 2022, Big Brother Canada is calling Canadians far and wide to apply at BigBrotherCanada.ca for their chance to win big on Canada’s award-winning reality show.

Beginning today, Canadians can apply online at BigBrotherCanada.ca for their chance to become a #BBCAN10 houseguest, competing in a series of extreme challenges in one of the most high-stakes social experiments ever. Fans can also nominate friends on social media by tagging @bigbrotherca and using #FutureHOH for a chance to get noticed by Big Brother Canada’s casting team.

Apply in three simple steps:

  • Record a short video of yourself explaining why you have what it takes to be one of the next houseguests on Big Brother Canada
  • Visit the official casting site at BigBrotherCanada.ca
  • Upload a photo of yourself, along with your video and some basic information

To qualify, houseguest hopefuls must be 19 years of age by February 1, 2022 and submit their applications by November 19, 2021. For more information, including a full list of rules and eligibility, head to BigBrotherCanada.ca.

Commissioned by Corus Entertainment, Season 10 of Big Brother Canada is produced by Insight Productions Ltd. (a Boat Rocker company) in association with Corus Entertainment and Banijay. Executive Producers are John Brunton, Erin Brock, Eric Abboud, and Arisa Cox.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail