From Kristin Brzoznowski of Worldscreen.com:
Video Interview: Bitten’s Laura Vandervoort & J.B. Sugar
Laura Vandervoort, who stars in the new supernatural thriller Bitten, and J.B. Sugar, an executive producer on the series, spoke with TV Drama about bringing this dark and complex story to life for the small screen. Continue reading.
Saturday Nights Shapeshift as Space’s New Original Series BITTEN Joins The Pack on Jan. 11
As announced last night on INNERSPACE, Saturdays are about to get dead sexy with the premiere of the highly anticipated, action-packed Space original thriller BITTEN, Jan. 11 at 9 p.m. ET. Toronto’s Laura Vandervoort (SMALLVILLE, Ted) sinks her claws into the role as the world’s only female werewolf, Elena Michaels, in this 13-episode, one-hour original dramatic series. Based on the New York Times best-selling novels by Canadian author Kelley Armstrong, BITTEN is set in a world where werewolves live undetected amongst humans. Shot on location in Toronto, Hamilton, and Hespeler, ON, the series follows Elena’s dangerous struggle between the new life she’s created and her loyalty to The Pack. BITTEN also stars Winnipeg’s Greg Bryk (A History Of Violence, ROOKIE BLUE) as The Alpha pack leader Jeremy Danvers, B.C. native Greyston Holt (ALCATRAZ, DURHAM COUNTY) as passionate Clayton Danvers, and Alberta’s Paul Greene (THE CLIENT LIST, WICKED WICKED GAMES) as Elena’s human boyfriend, Philip McAdams. The series was acquired for U.S. broadcast by Syfy and is set to premiere stateside in January 2014.
In BITTEN, werewolves are monitored by The Pack, a powerful, organized family based in the grand manor of Stonehaven, their ancestral home. In the premiere episode entitled “Summons†(Saturday, Jan. 11 at 9 p.m. ET on Space), viewers are introduced to the town of Bear Valley in upstate New York and The Pack family, to which Elena used to belong after being bitten by her boyfriend Clayton (Holt). With that one small bite, Elena was forced to live as a werewolf. Still craving the normal life she lost, Elena flees to Toronto and hides her secret from her boyfriend, Phillip (Greene). However, she is pulled back into her former world when the discovery of a mauled girl catapults an all-out war against a group of rogue Mutts (non-Pack werewolves) whose aim is to destroy The Pack.
Meet The BITTEN Pack:
Elena Michaels – The Tracker
Laura Vandervoort plays the smart, extraordinarily strong, and sexy-as-hell, Elena, a foster child who had always craved a “normal†life and thought she finally found it with her boyfriend Clayton Danvers. But the secret life he kept from her ended up changing her forever. With one small bite, all her hopes for a normal “human†future were shattered. In the ensuing three years, Elena became the tracker for The Pack – trained to hunt and find rogue Mutts who broke the highly structured rules of werewolf society.
One year ago, Elena was forced to kill a human to protect her secret, and that deed so sickened her she left The Pack and headed to Toronto to try to reclaim what was left of her human self. She quickly built a future in the city, working as freelance photographer and diving into a steamy relationship with sexy ad exec Philip McAdams. She tries hard to suppress her werewolf side, but some things can’t be denied that easily, as Elena soon finds out.
Dr. Clayton Danvers – The Enforcer
Clayton was a feral werewolf child in the New Orleans swamps until he was found by Jeremy who raised him as a son. Now a Professor of Anthropology, Clay divides his time between his scholastic research and enforcing the Pack code, while keeping errant Mutts in line. He is the most loyal member of the Pack, sworn by life oath to Jeremy. His deep burning love for Elena may be tested through the years, but it never wavers: she is the only woman he has ever loved, and will ever love.
Jeremy Danvers – The Alpha
Jeremy is a hereditary werewolf who came by “The Alpha†status after a violent clash with his father, Malcolm. The ensuing battle divided The Pack – the members who sided with Jeremy came to make up The Pack. The remaining werewolves were cast out as Mutts. Jeremy is not a typical “mob boss†– he earns his living as a painter, and though he has no desire to kill, he enforces the Pack code with an iron fist when the occasion demands.
Nick Sorrentino – The Negotiator
The cad of the bunch who is never taken too seriously, Nick’s “wolf in sheep’s clothing†approach helps him get information out of Mutts and/or humans. Nick is always quick, delivers bad news with a smile, and lives every moment to its fullest.
Dr. Logan Jonsen – The Analyst
Living with his girlfriend Rachel, a rising culinary star, Logan has been able to keep his hairier temperament a secret from her, while managing a private psychology practice in Toronto. Logan is the only Pack member Elena has kept in touch with during her year away, and is one of the few people she trusts with the details of her new life. Logan is on-call with The Pack, brought in whenever they need him to profile a Mutt or to aide Elena in tracking down people.
Philip McAdams – The Boyfriend
Elena’s human boyfriend, Philip, is lighting up the Toronto advertising scene with his new boutique agency, McAdams Creative Solutions. He won Elena over with his fierce drive and cerebral seduction. Philip is a steady, rock solid presence in Elena’s life, and the one thing she can trust.
BITTEN is based on the critically-acclaimed series of novels by Kelley Armstrong, and is executive produced by J.B. Sugar (THE COLLECTOR, JPOD) for No Equal Entertainment, John Barbisan, and Patrick Banister (WHISTLER) for Hoodwink Entertainment, and Tecca Crosby, John Morayniss, and Margaret O’Brien for Entertainment One (eOne). Daegan Fryklind and Grant Rosenberg are Executive Producers and Co-Showrunners. eOne is distributing the series internationally.
From Bell Media:
Bitten to premiere January 11 on Space
Big things revealed earlier tonight on InnerSpace! Namely that Bitten, the new Space original series, will premiere January 11 at 9e 6p. Based on the books by Kelley Armstrong, the show stars Laura Vandervoort as the world’s only female werewolf.  Continue reading.
Bitten was the focus of a panel discussion at the 2013 Canadian International Television Festival, at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. I had the opportunity to ask executive producers Daegan Fryklind and J.B. Sugar about the show. The Bitten panel included castmembers Greg Bryk, Joel Keller, Michael Xavier, Paulino Nunes, and Steve Lund, and was hosted by InnerSPACE‘s Ajay Fry and Morgan Hoffman.
Cameron Archer: This one would be for Daegan and J.B. Sugar. How closely did you work with Kelley Armstrong in adapting the [Women of the Otherworld] book series to this show?
J.B. Sugar: Kelley was involved in the early stages a lot more heavily, when Daegan delivered her first couple drafts of the first and second episode scripts, as well as the show bible. I think the best news for us, as creatives adapting her work, was to have her kind of give us her blessing and say “Daegan really got the world, and the voices, and the characters”…I Â think that was an amazing blessing to get, and let us move forward with confidence. (whispers to Daegan Fryklind) Expand.
Daegan Fryklind: And then Kelley did come to set, also, and met the writing team, and took a tour of Stonehaven, and our standing sets, and loved it. As J.B. said, to get her stamp of approval was really an honour. She was extremely busy during our production season with her newest novel, and touring a lot, so…
Steve Lund: (attempts a menacing tone) Omens. Check it out.
Fryklind: …but would throw us a lot of good feedback on Twitter, which was great.
Sugar: Random House Canada’s about to re-release Bitten in a new edition, and there’s a nice little burst on the cover, giving some props out to the show, saying “coming to Space”.
Morgan Hoffman (InnerSPACE): Cool!…[Women of the Otherworld is] such a beloved book series, and there’s numerous books within it. What would you say were the biggest challenges in adapting [the series] to a TV show?
Sugar: I’m sure Daegan has the right answer…Bitten the first season of the show follows closely to the plotline of Bitten the novel. The Otherworld series kind of jumps in time, and goes into backstory. I think the challenge was to take this wealth of mythology, and backstory, and character that needed to be crafted into a narrative that would work for the medium of TV. That’s something that Daegan and our writing team just did so brilliantly, so I’ll let her expand on that.
Fryklind: The novel itself also stays very closely to Elena [Michaels]’ P.O.V. – that’s internal monologue. In adapting the novel to a series, I had to really blow out character arcs for (refers to male cast attending CITF panel) each of these fellows, so that they had their own storylines, and so that when we were coming away from Elena to other storylines, we had B-plots and C-plots. We sorta blow out the world, blow out their valley, and create characters there, and Toronto, and Philip [Madden]’s world, and his family, and just give everyone their own throughline, and their own want and need throughout the first season.
From a media release:
Bell Media Announces Feature Programming at Inaugural Canadian International Television Festival, Nov. 16
Bell Media is pleased to be the presenting sponsor of Canada’s first and only public television festival, the Canadian International Television Festival (CITF), launching tomorrow from Toronto’s Bell TIFF Lightbox. With free screenings at the TIFF Bell Lightbox beginning Saturday, Nov. 16, the festival will showcase some of Canada’s best television series and talent.
Bell Media is proud to premiere two new Canadian original productions to fans on Saturday – CTV’s multi-cam workplace comedy SPUN OUT, starring Dave Foley (KIDS IN THE HALL, NEWSRADIO), and Bravo’s English adaption of the French-language smash hit 19-2, a richly nuanced human drama following the lives of patrol officers Ben Chartier (Jared Keeso) and Nick Barron (Adrian Holmes).
Free tickets (plus a small handling fee) for the screenings can be obtained at the Bell TIFF Lightbox box office or via the Festival website at CITV.tv.
Below is a complete list of Bell Media programs represented at the festival:
19-2 – World Premiere
Saturday, Nov. 16 at 10 a.m.
Bravo’s English adaptation of the hit Québec police drama will receive its World Premiere. MOVIE ENTERTAINMENT’s Teri Hart hosts a Q+A with Executive Producer Jocelyn Deschênes, writer Bruce Smith, and series co-star Adrian Holmes. The Festival will also screen the original French version (subtitled).
SPUN OUT – World Premiere
Saturday, Nov. 16 at 8 p.m.
CTV’s hilarious new half-hour scripted comedy series stars Dave Foley, Al Mukadam, Holly Deveaux, Rebecca Dalton, and Darcy Michael, all of whom are set to be on hand for the 8 p.m. premiere screenings and Q+A session hosted by ETALK’s Devon Soltendieck. Premiering in Winter 2014, SPUN OUT also stars Paul Campbell and J.P. Manoux.
Franchises and Formats
Saturday, Nov. 16 at 10 a.m.
Saturday also features a session with the producers and talent behind MTV’s DEGRASSI franchise, including actors Aislinn Paul, Munro Chambers, and Luke Bilyk, as well as Stefan Brogren (Director, Actor, Writer), Sarah Glinski (Executive Producer, Head Writer), and Matt Huether (Co-Executive Producer, Writer). The panel is led by AFTER DEGRASSI host, Lauren Toyota.
Additionally, INNERSPACE’s Teddy Wilson hosts a panel on successful factual formats featuring Supervising Producer Mark Lysakowski and racers Jet and Dave from CTV’s THE AMAZING RACE CANADA, as well as Executive Producer Guy O’Sullivan who talks about CTV’s upcoming MASTERCHEF CANADA.
SENSITIVE SKIN – Sneak Peek
Saturday, Nov. 16 at 4 p.m.
Co-stars Kim Cattrall and Don McKellar along with writer Bob Martin are on hand to discuss their new dramedy series for The Movie Network and Movie Central, MOVIE ENTERTAINMENT’S Teri Hart leads a discussion on the adaptation of the British series, followed by a sneak peek of the series.
THE BEST OF bravoFACT – Hosted by Richard Crouse
Saturday, Nov. 16 at 4 p.m.
CITF celebrates short-form content with a screening of some of the best bravoFACT-funded shorts including Winter Garden, an official selection at this year’s TIFF ‘Stage to Screen’ series, starring Enrico Colantoni, and Method, which has just been picked up for development into a series.
ORPHAN BLACK – Marathon
Saturday, Nov. 16 at 6 p.m.
The first five hours of Space’s critically acclaimed smash hit series ORPHAN BLACK, are presented back to back, following an introduction by co-creators Graeme Manson and John Fawcett.
BITTEN – Sneak Peek
Saturday, Nov. 16 at 10 p.m.
Cast members Greg Bryk, Greyston Holt, Joel Keller, Michael Xavier, Paulino Nunes, and Steve Lund, along with Executive Producers J.B. Sugar and Deagan Fryklind are on hand to chat up Space’s hotly anticipated new thriller. Hosted by INNERSPACE’s Ajay Fry and Morgan Hoffman, the panel also features a never-seen before sneak peek.
