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CBC’s hit original drama Coroner begins production on Season 4

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From a media release:

Muse Entertainment, Cineflix Studios, and Back Alley Films are thrilled to announce that production has started in Toronto and Ontario on season four (12×60) of the CBC original series and audience favourite CORONER, starring Serinda Swan (Inhumans, Ballers) as coroner Dr. Jenny Cooper with Roger Cross (Dark Matter, Caught) as Detective Donovan McAvoy. Inspired by the best-selling series of books by M.R. Hall and created for television by Morwyn Brebner (Saving Hope, Rookie Blue), the new season will debut on CBC and the CBC Gem streaming service in Winter 2022. 

This season, Serinda Swan will feature her talents behind the camera for her television series directorial debut. Swan joins a dynamic and acclaimed group of directors including Adrienne Mitchell (Durham County, Bellevue), Ruba Nadda (Frankie Drake Mysteries), Farhad Mann (Murdoch Mysteries), Samir Rehem (Tiny Pretty Things), Cory Bowles (Pretty Hard Cases) and Liz Farrer (Coroner). Award-winning writer/producer Adriana Maggs (Caught, Grown Up Movie Star) will lead the series as Showrunner with a celebrated and illustrious writing team including Noelle Carbone (Wynonna Earp), Shannon Masters (Cardinal), Laura Good (Burden of Truth), Nathalie Younglai (Super Zee), Seneca Aaron (Nurses), Wendy ‘Motion’ Brathwaite (Akilla’s Escape), JP Larocque (Another Life), Mazi Khalighi (Foraldraskap) and Lindsey Addawoo (Promise Me). 

CORONER stars Serinda Swan as Dr. Jenny Cooper with Roger Cross as Detective Donovan McAvoy; Ehren Kassam (Degrassi, Next Class) as Ross; Nicholas Campbell (Da Vinci’s Inquest, Bad Blood) as Gordon Cooper; Jennifer Dale (SurrealEstate) as Margaret ‘Peggy’; Andy McQueen (Station Eleven) as Malik Abed; Kiley May (It Chapter Two) as River Baitz; Shawn Ahmed (Awake) as Alphonse; and Jon de Leon (Downsizing) as Dennis Garcia. Thom Allison (Killjoys) joins the cast this season in the recurring role as the highly competitive and commanding Dr. Elijah Thompson. 

CORONER was the highest-rated new drama series premiere on CBC in 2019. Following that, NBCUniversal International Networks (NBCUIN) acquired the rights to all three seasons of the series for multiple territories from global distributor Cineflix Rights. The third season premiered across NBCUIN’s channel portfolio in Sub-Saharan Africa, France, Spain, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Latin America and Brazil. In Germany, season three premiered on 13TH Street. CORONER airs in the U.S. on The CW network and is available on their digital platforms including the CW app. Season three will premiere on Thursday, August 19th at 8pm. CORONER premiered on Sky Witness in the UK, with season three currently on air. Cineflix Rights has also sold the series to the UK’s Channel 4 for its More 4 channel. Most recently CORONER is slated to air on Nine Network (Australia), Sky (UK), Paramount+ (Nordics), SBS (Belgium), Sky Italia, Globoplay (Brazil), and Stöð 2 (Iceland). The series also launched on Netflix Canada in 2020.

A CBC original series, CORONER is produced by Muse Entertainment, Cineflix Studios, and Back Alley Films with the financial participation of the Canada Media Fund, the Bell Fund, the IPF’s COGECO Television Production Fund, TVA, the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit, and the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit. Adrienne Mitchell is executive producer for Back Alley Films, Aren Prupas and Jonas Prupas are executive producers for Muse Entertainment with Peter Emerson and Brett Burlock as executive producers for Cineflix Studios. Serinda Swan is also Executive Producer with Showrunner Adriana Maggs, writer Noelle Carbone as well as Morwyn Brebner and Suzanne Colvin-Goulding.

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Industry News, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Jesse Fawcett launches independent production company, Fireworks Media Group

From a media release:

Prolific award-winning television producer Jesse Fawcett has launched Fireworks Media Group, a North American-based production company to develop and produce premium unscripted and scripted content.

Fawcett is well known in the entertainment business as a co-founding partner of global content company Essential Media Group where he helmed North American operations until the company was successfully sold to Kew Media in 2018. In 2020, Fawcett and Greg Quail re-acquired the assets of Essential from Kew and relaunched as EQ Media Group. Now, Fawcett is poised to inaugurate his own venture, Fireworks Media Group, together with a cross-border team of veteran production professionals.

Under the new banner, the company is producing the new original series Pamela Anderson’s Home Reno Project (working title) for HGTV Canada with iconic Baywatch star Pamela Anderson returning to her Canadian roots to rebuild the family home of her dreams. The series is executive produced by Brandon Lee, Fawcett and Firework’s new President of Canada, Robert Hardy. Corus Studios will distribute the series internationally. Pamela Anderson is represented by Chris Smith at ICM Partners. Fireworks Media Group has also secured an exclusive first-look scripted development deal with social media sensation Kris Collins, who has amassed over 32 million followers and 1.4 billion likes.

In addition, Fireworks Media Group is currently in production on sophomore seasons of the real estate unscripted series Selling the Big Easy for HGTV in the US as well as Corus Studios’ Big Timber which airs on HISTORY in Canada and Netflix in the US and internationally. A top performer on HISTORY and Netflix, Big Timber. follows the high-stakes work of logger and sawmill owner Kevin Wenstob as he and his crew go to extremes to keep the family sawmill, and their way of life, alive.

Some of the other successful shows completed during Fawcett’s tenure at EQ Media Group include No Demo Reno which recently launched on HGTV as the #1 cable premiere in the Thursday 8-9pm timeslot, multi-season hit series Restored airing on Discovery+, the paranormal reality series Ghost Loop for Travel Channel and 165 episodes of Texas Flip N’ Move, perennial #1 series on DIY Network.

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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.

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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.

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