Saving Hope, CTV – “Contactâ€
Dr. Alex Reid (Erica Durance) treats a young boy with mysterious symptoms while dealing with the arrival of Charlie’s (Michael Shanks) ex-wife. Elsewhere in the hospital, Joel (Daniel Gillies) and Maggie (Julia TaylorRoss) try to help a patient who refuses life-saving treatment on religious grounds. Plus, Dr. Dana Kinney (Wendy Crewson) scrubs in as interim Chief of Surgery and challenges Alex on her ability to be a doctor.
From a media release:
TRANSPORTER- THE SERIES SHIFTS INTO ACTION. HIGH-PERFORMANCE SERIES RESUMES FILMING IN CANADA & FRANCE.
QVF Inc. announced today that the 12-part action series, Transporter-The Series, is back in gear and filming in Toronto as of May 28, 2012. The series will shoot in Canada until July 13, 2012 and continue in France until August 10,2012.
Director and producer Brad Turner (Hawaii Five-0, 24) and producer Tim Lea (FlashForward, Lie to Me) join the series as showrunners, with remaining episodes to be directed by Turner, TJ Scott (Spartacus: Blood and Sand) and George Mihalka (King, The Firm).
Chris Vance (Prison Break) returns to the driver seat of his Audi and is joined by Andrea Osvart (Duplicity), Francois Berléand (The Transporter 1, 2, 3), Delphine Chanéac (Splice) and Charly Hübner (The Lives of Others).
Series Description:
Frank Martin is The Transporter. You want something moved, moved fast, and moved right, you getFrank Martin. He carries anything, anywhere, no questions asked. Ex-Special Forces, he’s acquired the driving, fighting and survival skills to make the delivery on schedule, and he neverquits until the package is where it’s supposed to be.
From Paris and Berlin to Geneva, New York and points beyond – dropoffs and pickups, freight yards and luxury hotels, chalets, warehouses, nightclubs and finally to his beautifulhome on the shores of the Mediterranean: this is the life of The Transporter.
Transporter- The Series is produced by Canadian Susan Murdoch (Dan for Mayor) for QVF Inc. and Klaus Zimmermann (Borgias) for Atlantique Productions. Showrunners Tim Lea (FlashForward, Lie to Me), and Brad Turner (24, Homeland, Hawaii Five-0) are joined by Executive Producers Fred Fuchs (Camelot) and Takis Candilis alongside franchise co-creator Luc Besson.
Transporter-The Series is a France/Canada international treaty co-production produced by Atlantique Productions SA and QVF Inc. in association with broadcast partners The Movie Network and MovieCentral as well as M6 (France), RTL (Germany), and HBO/Cinemax (US).
From a media release:
BIOPICS ON GORDIE HOWE AND JACK LAYTON PLUS AWARD-WINNING FICTION COMING TO CBC
The life stories of heroes of Canadian hockey and politics plus a tale of murder in small-town Quebec from the pen of an award-winning Canadian author are coming to CBC Television, with the commissioning of three new films announced today at the Banff World Media Festival.MR. HOCKEY: THE GORDIE HOWE STORY, SMILIN’ JACK: THE JACK LAYTON STORY and STILL LIFE, based on the novel by internationally best-selling author Louise Penny, have been green-lighted by the public broadcaster at the annual showcase event in Alberta, underscoring CBC’s commitment to Canadian film and TV production.
MR. HOCKEY: THE GORDIE HOWE STORY (Brightlight Pictures/Nutmeg Entertainment) is the story of the greatest comeback in sports history. At age 45, Gordie Howe, reluctantly retired from the NHL, comes back to play professional hockey with his two sons, 18- and 19-years old. Howe’s comeback was labelled the biggest publicity stunt in hockey history and critics doubted his skills, given his deteriorating health. But for a father, it was merely the opportunity to play hockey with his boys. Keeping them all together was Colleen Howe: wife, mother of four children and manager to Gordie and her sons—a role virtually unheard of for women at that time. Hockey fanatics across the continent will unite for this inspiring story of one man’s quest to prove he still had the skill to live up to the name “Mr. Hockeyâ€.
Set against the backdrop of the 2011 federal election and the weeks that followed, SMILIN’ JACK: THE JACK LAYTON STORY (Pier 21 Films/Eagle Vision Inc.) is the inspiring story of Jack Layton, a man who came from privilege yet rejected his family’s politics in order to follow his own path. The movie will chronicle the journey of the guitar-playing, theory junkie who emerged as a student activist, eventually becoming one of this country’s most treasured federal politicians in his later years. “SMILIN’ JACK†is also the love story between Layton and Olivia Chow, a beloved political power couple. But above all, “SMILIN’ JACK†is the touching story of a man who reached the hearts of many Canadians, and fought for rights that would ultimately change the face of this country.
STILL LIFE (Three Pines Productions): Based on the award-winning novels by international best-selling author Louise Penny, comes an event TV movie about murder in a small town. The village of Three Pines, Quebec may seem tranquil, but all is not as it appears. In this psychological thriller that combines Hitchcock with Christie, death comes to this peaceful Eden, and brings with it Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, the head of Homicide for the Surete du Quebec. Here he discovers that nature, both human and otherwise, is capable of great beauty, and great cruelty. Beneath the exterior of the pretty little village, dark secrets lie hidden. Behind cheerful smiles, hurtful thoughts swirl. As he digs deeper, Chief Inspector Gamache finds old sins, buried alive. Rancid and stinking. And now, one of those secrets has surfaced, and created a corpse. C.I. Gamache must follow the trail of smiles and lies, of courtesy and cruelty. To the killer. In a rare starred review, Kirkus Reviews in the US said, ‘If you don’t give your heart to Gamache, you may have no heart to give.’ Charming, urbane, intelligent and kind, Armand Gamache has been hailed internationally as a cop like no other.
By Dexter Brown
For our first look back at TV, it only makes sense to look at a TV show about TV. So grab a box of Frooty O’s, turn off Rex Reilly and snuggle up with your favourite cat as we present Twitch City in the first of our Rewind series.
Twitch City (CBC 1998-2000) may have been off the air for just about 12 years now, but already it feels like a relic of television’s past. While the satirical sitcom’s sharp writing, quick wit and laugh track-free scenes are commonplace for most modern-day network sitcoms, Twitch City does feel ancient in some regards. The show’s numerous references to some long-forgotten television shows, along with the old-school graphics for the opening title sequence, do more than enough to prevent Twitch City from holding as much of a timeless quality as much of the other memorable shows from the same era.
Twitch City nearly instantly comes across to viewers as the anti-Friends, anti-Seinfeld and anti-Caroline in the City, a play off of the single young friends in the city type sitcoms that were popular throughout the 90s. Gone are the bright apartments in a sprawling metropolis and the carefree 20- or 30-somethings. They are replaced by a grungy, dark dwelling somewhere in Toronto and a television-obsessed slacker.
Choosing to make television a centrepiece of the show, it only seems fitting that it is portrayed as an insipid wasteland. Surprisingly, some real-life television personalities make cameos in the show. They seem to unwittingly allow Twitch City to poke fun at them as vapid and vacant, like noise lost among itself.
One of the more memorable episode of Twitch City, the particularly surreal “The Planet of the Cats” — a spoof of Planet of the Apes — consisted of making light of the sci-fi genre, choosing to satirize the over-the-top acting and dialog and the tense drama by merely replacing the invading life forms with cats.
Strangely enough some of the scenes in “The Planet of the Cats” are eerily reminiscent of ABC’s remake of NBC’s 80s sci-fi show V. So strange in fact, it almost felt as if Twitch City got ahold of the scripts of ABC’s V some ten years before it aired, replaced the alien overlords with cats and filmed it in a townhouse in downtown Toronto.
The show, and particularly “The Planet of the Cats,” could be argued to share the humour of the recently canceled surreal sketch show Picnicface from The Comedy Network. Both built their foundation on low-budget absurdist humour but being developed several years later, Picnicface was willing to take absurdist humour to a whole other level.
With only a dozen or so episodes aired, you can’t help but wonder if Twitch City was on the wrong network at the wrong time as the show’s dark, surreal and absurdist humour seems to fit much of what aired on The Comedy Network in the past decade. Perhaps it may have lived a longer life there in the 2000s, as opposed to sharing time on the same schedule with shows such as The Fifth Estate and The Nature of Things.
Today, the CBC has decided to move away from more niche programs such as Twitch City despite a recent shot at a cable-like program, Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays. While that show was critically acclaimed, it suffered greatly in the ratings. More mainstream shows such as Mr. D proved popular with the public and the network has since come off of one of its highest rated seasons ever.
Want to relive Twitch City or try it out for the first time yourself? Check out Twitch City episode “The Planet of the Cats” on YouTube right now.
From a media release:
W Network’s Top Rated Series Love It or List It Expands to Vancouver: Designer Jillian Harris to Co-Host
Corus Entertainment’s W Network announced today that interior designer and TV personality, Jillian Harris (The Bachelorette Season V, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition) will co-host Love It or List It Vancouver. Harris’ co-host will be announced at a later date. Produced by Big Coat Productions in association with W Network, the west coast spin-off of W Network’s hit series Love It or List It starring Hilary Farr and David Visentin has been greenlit and is scheduled to launch in winter 2013.
Love It or List It Vancouver will showcase families in B.C.’s largest metropolitan city who are struggling with homes that no longer suit their needs. It’s up to Jillian to put a stop to the wandering eyes of our homeowners, armed with a list of “must-haves†and a design she hopes will persuade them to stay. Meanwhile, the realtor is determined to get homeowners to relocate by taking the homeowners list of “must-haves†and finding them new digs.
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Set in one of Canada’s largest real estate markets, the beautiful Pacific west coast, every episode will take viewers on an emotional rollercoaster as Jillian and her soon–to-be announced co-host implement their plans to battle it out for the homeowners’ allegiance. With renovation there are always setbacks and sometimes it means the homeowners must lose one of their “must- haves†on their list to stay. On the realtor’s end, finding everything the homeowners want in their dream home can be more difficult than originally anticipated. The stakes are high as the homeowners weigh in on the financial and emotional decisions of buying a new home or staying in the renovated one.