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marblemedia and Omnifilm Entertainment partner to remake 90’s favourite THE ODYSSEY

From a media release:

International award-winning producer marblemedia and long established television powerhouse Omnifilm Entertainment today announced they are joining forces to develop their newest scripted series, The Odyssey.

The Odyssey — a fun and suspenseful adventure with a tone reminiscent of the classic adventure comedy The Goonies — will be adapted by the award-winning showrunners Simon Racioppa and Richard Elliott (Fangbone, My Babysitter’s a Vampire), who are also currently creating and writing an original one-hour pilot for Robert Kirkman’s Skybound Entertainment (The Walking Dead).

The Odyssey is an adventure comedy series about a group of kids who wake up to find themselves in a mysterious forest called Downworld — without knowing why they are there or how to get home. With no adults to guide them, the kids quickly learn how to take care of themselves as well as each other and to enjoy this curious and exciting world while they continue to search for a way home.

With an ensemble cast, featuring characters from around the world, some kids will find their way home while new kids will arrive in Downworld — creating an evolving cast of characters. Downworld is a wondrous place with traffic lights in a forest, an awesome hideout, a swimming pond and a monster, Mr. Mask, whose powers are derived from the kids’ own fears.

marblemedia’s Carrie Paupst Shaughnessy, Vice President of Scripted, will be working together with Brian Hamilton, Partner and Executive Producer, Omnifilm Entertainment, to bring this project to life. A robust digital presence will also be created to support the adventures of The Odyssey which will be produced by marblemedia’s award-winning interactive team.

International sales will be handled by Distribution360, a marblemedia company.

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Link: Canadian TV is not dead, it boasts about being alive

From John Doyle of The Globe and Mail:

Link: Canadian TV is not dead, it boasts about being alive
In the Canadian TV racket, everybody is No. 1 at something.

Either the broadcaster has more hits in the Top 10 or it reaches more women viewers or it has more specialty channels that reach twentysomethings or it has Don Cherry or it offers better coffee to TV critics. It’s a bewildering, boastful business, the Canadian commercial TV arena. What it needs, though, are hits, and mostly those are bought in Los Angeles and then trumpeted as must-see shows to advertisers back in Canada. This is done with fingers crossed and silent prayers behind the boasting. Continue reading.

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Link: Pick-and-pay will be a shocker to some

From Jim Slotek of Postmedia Network:

Pick-and-pay will be a shocker to some
But the real shock to the Canadian TV industry — and some viewers — will come with the second part of the CRTC’s new regs: The long-awaited “pick-and-pay” cable option that is to be available nationwide by December.

Many are predicting that pick-and-pay, every TV watcher’s wish-dream for decades, will usher in an era where it isn’t people’s favourite programs — but their favourite channels — that get cancelled for low ratings. Continue reading.

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Link: Canada Media Fund CEO fires back at CanCon critics

From Sean Craig of the Financial Post:

Canada Media Fund CEO fires back at CanCon critics, says it’s given ‘a pride of place at home’

Last week was not the best week for the Canadian Content regime. A report from the non-partisan C. D. Howe Institute argued that CanCon quotas should be abolished, foreign ownership restrictions lifted and that regulations which require cable providers to spend fixed amounts on content should be replaced with direct subsidies from the government. Continue reading.

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