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.
Saving Hope

New Doctors. New Drama. Saving Hope returns Sept. 24 on CTV

From a media release:

Following last season’s shocking finale, it’s a time of new beginnings for the doctors at Hope Zion Hospital. CTV’s original series SAVING HOPEreturns for its fourth season as part of the network’s hit Thursday night lineup, airingThursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT beginning Sept. 24 on CTV and CTV GO. Paired with a new season of fan favourite GREY’S ANATOMY (8 p.m. ET/PT), and Canada’s #3 new series last fall HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER (10 p.m. ET/PT), SAVING HOPE’s fourth season picks up 11 months after the third season finale which saw life and death collide when Dr. Alex Reid (Erica Durance) became a new mom, while a devastating accident at an army base led to the death of Dr. Joel Goran (Daniel Gillies). Currently filming in Toronto until December 2015, Season 4 episodes of the 2015 Golden Screen Award Nominee SAVING HOPE will continue to receive a Canadian First Look on CraveTV, available to viewers the day before their broadcast premieres, with the first three seasons streaming now.

As the Hope Zion Hospital staff continue to deal with the aftermath of the death of their colleague and friend, Alex is back at work following her maternity leave as she works to balance motherhood and a busy OR, while Dr. Charlie Harris (Michael Shanks) continues to be haunted by his ghost-seeing abilities and the question of whether or not he is baby Luke’s biological father. Dr. Zach Miller (Benjamin Ayres) is still struggling to cope with the traumatic death of his close friend, and Dr. Maggie Lin (Julia Taylor Ross) ponders where she stands in the new landscape of Hope Zion Hospital. Chief of Surgery Dr. Dawn Bell (Michelle Nolden) struggles to keep a lid on the hospital, Dr. Shahir Hamza (Huse Madhavji) develops a surprising new partnership, and Dr. Dana Kinney (Wendy Crewson) discovers a higher calling in a traumatizing case that hits a little too close to home. This season sets the stage for a journey into an ever-evolving Hope Zion Hospital that will continue to challenge its doctors, and in some cases, shake their foundations down to their core.

Joining the cast this season in recurring roles are three new Junior Residents including the eager to please Dr. Cassie Williams (Kim Shaw, THE GOOD WIFE), class clown Dr. Dev Sekara (Dejan Loyola, THE TOMORROW PEOPLE), and the competitive Dr. Asha Mirani (Parveen Kaur, THE STRAIN). The team also has to adjust to the arrival of two new General Surgeons, Dr. Patrick Curtis (Max Bennett, Anna Karenina) and Dr. Jeremy Bishop (Peter Mooney, ROOKIE BLUE), an old friend of Charlie’s. Travis Milne (ROOKIE BLUE) will also appear in a four-episode arc, and guest stars this season include Tara Spencer-Nairn (CORNER GAS) and Charlotte Sullivan (ROOKIE BLUE).

SAVING HOPE ranked in the Top 30 of Canada’s most-watched programs in the key A18-49 and A25-54 demos last fall, and ended its third season in February as the #1 Canadian drama series in the key adult demos, with 1.7 million total viewers watching the shocking Season 3 finale.

In the first episode of Season 4 entitled “Sympathy for the Devil” (Thursday, Sept. 24 at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CTV), Dr. Alex Reid (Erica Durance) returns to work, arriving at Hope Zion Hospital with a car crash victim she encountered en route, and she’s forced to play nice with new General Surgeon on call, Dr. Patrick Curtis (Max Bennett, Anna Karenina). The day gets even more chaotic when Alex is called away to treat Ted Crenshaw (Travis Milne, ROOKIE BLUE), a convicted murderer brought in for emergency treatment. Meanwhile, Dr. Charlie Harris (Michael Shanks) begins to confront his feelings about the paternity of Alex’s child, all while juggling an insistent Dr. Shahir Hamza (Huse Madhavji) who is looking for backup on his proposal for a new Alzheimer’s study. In the ER, Dr. Zach Miller’s (Benjamin Ayres) patient is admitted with symptoms mirroring those of Ebola – putting himself and Dr. Maggie Lin (Julia Taylor Ross) at risk of exposure to the deadly virus.

 

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Industry News

D360 and CBC strike documentary distribution deal

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From a media release:

Distribution360 has announced it will represent over 50 documentary and factual titles from Canada’s national public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada. Launching in the international marketplace at MIPCOM this October, the deal will see D360 sell titles from acclaimed CBC brands including the International Emmy® Award winning the fifth estate and The Nature of Things. 

The new slate brings exciting growth to D360’s library, adding programming that will resonate globally with viewers in the categories of Current and World Affairs, Science and Technology, Crime and Investigation, and Wildlife and Nature. Titles include Return to Ukraine, Jellyfish Rule!, The Sextortion of Amanda Todd and Safe Haven For Chimps. 

CBC TITLES

Return to Ukraine (1×60’) – Current and World Affairs
Canadian-Ukraine immigrant Alex Shprintsen returns to his place of birth to explore how the country’s past is defining its current conflicts.

Jellyfish Rule! (1×60’) – Science and Technology
No brains, no backbone, no problem! 600 million years ago jellyfish ruled the oceans and now these mysterious and magnificent creatures may be taking them over once again, only this time, they’re doing it with our help. Discover how overfishing and other man made changes — like global warming, pollution and coastal development — are transforming our oceans in ways that allow “jellies” to thrive.

The Sextortion of Amanda Todd (1×60’) – Crime and Investigation
Haunted by a revealing photo on the Internet, Amanda Todd became a victim of blackmail and sexual extortion that ultimately drove her to her death. With never-before-seen video and online chats, this documentary looks at the real story of this young girl and how a new breed of online predators threaten youth.

Safe Haven for Chimps (1×60’) – Wildlife and Nature
The touching story of how some very special chimpanzees find sanctuary and a new family when they retire from life in a lab. Featuring an interview with world-renowned primatologist Jane Goodall.

A complete list of titles can be found on the newly relaunched Distribution360 website at Distribution360.com.Make sure to visit us at MIPCOM booth P-1.A51.

Distribution360, a marblemedia company, is a dynamic and innovative rights management business positioned to monetize content across all existing and emerging platforms around the World. With a focus on kids and factual programming, our mandate is to take maximum advantage of all opportunities in the digital economy and to achieve the best possible returns for the programs and properties that we represent.

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Uncategorized

Link: The hottest Canadian film and TV talent you’ve never heard of – but will

From Manori Ravindran of The Globe and Mail:

The hottest Canadian film and TV talent you’ve never heard of – but will
Canadians may have some incomprehensible beef with supporting homegrown cinema, but if there is one pastime that unites the country’s filmgoers – and we don’t mean Timeplay – it’s nudging one’s neighbour in a darkened theatre and proudly identifying a fellow compatriot who’s made their big break south of the border. Here, with TIFF in full swing and all eyes on Canadian talent, The Globe and Mail presents a group of exceptionally nudge-worthy Canadians drawing buzz stateside. Continue reading.

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Featured, Slasher

Dean McDermott gets back to basics with Slasher

Dean McDermott wears his family on his sleeve. Literally.

The Toronto native’s entire right arm is a story in tattoo ink, from the top of his shoulder and the McDermott family crest to the tiger representing himself and brightly-coloured fish standing in for wife Tori and each of their four children. The ink is a constant reminder of where he came from and who he is: father, protector and husband.

But McDermott is an actor too, and he’s returning to those roots in Super Channel’s horror series Slasher. Set to debut in 2016 on Canada’s pay cable station and Chiller in the U.S., Aaron Martin’s twist on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None stars McDermott as Iain Vaughn, police chief of Waterbury, a small town where bad things are happening. How bad? How about grisly murders every few days and a mounting list of suspects?

“I’m starting over again and I’m going to show you stuff that I think will blow you away.”

“I read a lot of scripts and some of them are hard to get through,” McDermott says during a break in filming on location in Parry Sound, Ont. “This was just a page-turner. I just couldn’t put it down. It’s so funny having someone like Aaron, who worked on Degrassi, create this. I thought, ‘Wow, this guy can really write.” Though McDermott and Slasher‘s production company, Shaftesbury, want to keep much of the show’s secrets hidden until the debut, we can reveal the series’ killer cast. As previously announced, Merlin‘s Katie McGrath stars as Sarah Bennett, who returns to her childhood home years after her parents were murdered. Upon her arrival, copycat killings begin and everyone is a suspect … or a casualty. Among them are Katie’s husband Dylan (Brandon Jay McLaren), her grandmother Brenda Merritt (Wendy Crewson), and family friend Cam Henry (Steve Byers). Co-stars include Mary Walsh, Enuka Okuma, Erin Karpluk, Christopher Jacot, Jefferson Brown, Mark Ghanimé and Rainbow Sun Francks.

Slasher represents an important step in McDermott’s career, a return to acting that has rejuvenated him creatively. After regular roles in Due South, Power Play, Tracker and 1-800-Missing, and guest gigs on Kojak, NCIS, CSI, Without a Trace and The Closer, McDermott became more known for opening up his private life via Tori & Dean: Storibook Weddings, Tori & Dean: Inn Love and True Tori. He’s in the midst of Slasher‘s eight episodes, but McDermott sent out tapes in hopes of landing roles in CTV’s Saving Hope and Discovery’s first scripted series, Frontier; being on set has gotten him pumped for more varied roles.

“I’ve gotten my life in order and I realized that I am an actor,” he says, sitting forward. “That’s what I want to do and it’s what I’ll always do. I’m starting over again and I’m going to show you stuff that I think will blow you away.”

Slasher will air in 2016 on Super Channel.

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Industry News

Super Channel renews Tiny Plastic Men for Season 4

From a media release:

Super Channel, Canada’s only national English pay television network, is pleased to announce the funding of 15 new feature films, documentaries and series,supported through the Super Channel Development Fund.

The diverse list of projects includes 11 feature films, 3 documentaries and one returning series.

Among the feature films is horror thriller, Jacqueline Ess, produced by Raven Banner Entertainment’s James Fler, Andrew T Hunt, and Michael Paszt, and executive producers Clive Barker and Mark Miller.  Based on the short story by Clive Barker, the film is written and directed by Jovanka Vuckovic and stars Lena Heady (Game of Thrones). Jacqueline Ess tells the story of a beautiful woman with the ability to horrifically change people’s body shapes simply with her mind. Her ability gives her the power to grant men the ultimate sexual experience, albeit one that always proves fatal. It’s a captivating tale of sex, power, and the extremes that await us at the limits of desire.

Also included among the features is Goalie, produced by Daniel Iron at Foundry Films. Directed by Adriana Maggs and written by Jane Maggs and Adriana Maggs, the story revolves around Terry Sawchuk who is left to fend for himself in a rocky childhood, after his brother dies. He takes on his brother’s mantle of goalie – and later finds a new family with his first NHL team, the Detroit Red Wings. Although he is the best the league has ever seen, his insecurity and alcoholism ultimately drive away the only family he has ever had.

Indian Horse produced by Christine Haebler and Trish Dolman of Screen Siren Pictures, with Roger Frappier of Max Films, is a wise and moving story based on the novel by Richard Wagamese. Written by Dennis Foon and directed by Stephen Campanelli, the film tells the story of Saul Indian Horse as he struggles to break free of the horrors of the Canadian residential school system and redeem his dignity as an Aboriginal man, by immersing himself into the unlikely world of semi-professional hockey.

The Keeper, also from Screen Siren Pictures, written by Graeme Manson (Orphan Black) and directed by Zach Lipovsky, is a taut psychological thriller set in 1920 on a remote island off the stormy Pacific coast that focuses on the tumultuous and tangled relationship between two men — one an experienced but cloistered lighthouse keeper, the other a former soldier with a haunted past — and a beautiful woman who is the sole survivor of a shipwreck.

Super Channel is also proud to support the documentary features Manic and Healer Heal from Bob Moore at EyeSteelFilm. In Manic, screenwriter and director, Kalina Bertin, looks back at her own father – a man known alternately as a cult leader, a scam artist, a prophet, and a father of 15 children around the world. His manic state lives on through his kids after his untimely murder, but as the filmmaker begins to ask- is he even dead? Healer Heal, written and directed by Mia Donovan, is an exceptional story about the critical journey being taken by a doctor facing his own mortality. Once known as “The Pied Piper of Acupuncture in America”, Dr. Mario Wexu was an eccentric genius who dedicated his life to creating innovative therapies for the very thing that almost destroyed him: drug addiction.

Receiving funding for a hilarious fourth season is the Canadian Screen Award nominated comedy series, Tiny Plastic Men produced by Mosaic Entertainment’s Camille Beaudoin, Jesse Lipscombe and Eric Rebalkin. From screenwriters and stars Chris Craddock, Mark Meer and Matt Alden, the series follows three nerdy man-boys working as prototype testers at an off-beat toy company that makes anything but conventional toys. Testing these weird and often dangerous toys is the easy part. It’s the eccentric bosses, hostile co-workers, and odd-ball guests that make the job… interesting.

For a list of the funded projects, as well as information on criteria, eligibility and the submission process for the next round of funding, please visit: http://www.superchannel.ca/producers/development-fund/

The next deadline for the Super Channel Development Fund is October 9, 2015.

 

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