TV, eh? | What's up in Canadian television | Page 195
TV,eh? What's up in Canadian television
Kim's Convenience

Thunderbird Entertainment announces start of production on Season 5 of CBC original comedy Kim’s Convenience

From a media release:

Thunderbird Entertainment Group Inc. (TSXV: TBRD) (OTC: THBRF) (“Thunderbird” or the “Company”) is thrilled to announce that production of the next season of its hit CBC original comedy series Kim’s Convenience begins today in Toronto. One of Canada’s most-watched homegrown comedies, the fifth season is set  to premiere on CBC TV and CBC Gem  in Winter 2021. As previously announced, CBC has also renewed the series for a sixth season.

In season five, the Kim family faces one of its toughest challenges yet, as they navigate a difficult medical diagnosis for Umma (Jean Yoon). With Appa (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) stepping up as the primary caregiver, and a recently graduated Janet (Andrea Bang) moving back in, boundaries are inevitably crossed. Meanwhile, Jung’s (Simu Liu) brief trip to business school tests his relationship with Shannon (Nicole Power) as Kimchee (Andrew Phung) reconnects with his family, and his high school crush.

Earlier this year, Kim’s Convenience was recognized by TV Guide as one of the best “feel good” streaming series available. It was also recently dubbed as a perfect quarantine distraction by Oprah magazine. Additional accolades include numerous Canadian Screen Awards, Leo Awards, ACTRA Awards and a Canadian Comedy Award. The series has also received nominations for awards from the Writers Guild of Canada, and the Directors Guild of Canada. In addition, the series has received international acclaim, winning a 2019 award for “Most Popular Foreign Drama” at the 2019 Seoul International Drama Awards in South Korea.

In addition to airing in Canada on CBC and CBC Gem, the series also streams on Netflix and is watched on cable and VOD platforms around the world, including in Japan and Korea.

A CBC original series, Kim’s Convenience is based on the award-winning play by Ins Choi, who also adapted it for television. The series is produced by Ivan Fecan and co-created by Ins Choi and Kevin White on behalf of Thunderbird Entertainment in association with the Soulpepper Theatre Company. Executive Producers are Ivan Fecan, Alexandra Raffé, Ins Choi and Kevin White, and Sandra Cunningham is Supervising Producer.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Corus Studios’ original series Big Timber makes its debut October 8 on History

From a media release:

Beginning Thursday, October 8 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, HISTORY® offers an inside look into the logging industry through the eyes of a rambunctious sawmill company. In Big Timber (10×60) logger Kevin Wenstob and his team, go to extremes to keep the family sawmill, and their way of life, alive. Deep in the heart of Vancouver Island, Kevin has invested $1.5 million on a remote timber claim high up the steep, rugged slopes of Klitsa Mountain. Home to some of the best lumber in the world, Kevin supplies his customers with the top-quality red and yellow cedar, fir, and rare hemlock that cannot be found anywhere else.

The team logs on rugged mountain cliffs where slopes reach angles as steep as 60 degrees. The weather is unforgiving, turning from scorching hot to torrential rain in a heartbeat, and snow comes early at this altitude. On top of everything else, Kevin’s equipment continues to get weathered by the harsh conditions and he is constantly concerned about equipment breakdowns.

With a thousand truckloads of timber waiting up top for him, he could make millions if he succeeds in getting them all down. However, it’s a huge gamble, and if he fails he could lose everything his family has worked for, he risks a hefty fine for any logs he leaves behind. It’s a constant battle to complete his mission and stay alive, but they’re up for the fight.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Industry News

Link: CFC and Netflix announce the creators and TV series concepts selected for Project Development Accelerator

From a media release:

The Canadian Film Centre (CFC) and Netflix are proud to announce the creators and TV series projects selected for the inaugural TV series portion of the CFC/Netflix Project Development Accelerator, an individually tailored development initiative, which runs from September to November 2020.

The CFC/Netflix Project Development Accelerator is a three-month accelerator designed to offer advanced project development and workshopping support for the four selected TV series projects. Tailored to their specific creative and business needs, the Accelerator will see these creators and projects benefit from international creative and marketplace expertise and feedback from Netflix executives, as well as a range of additional industry professionals, to help them elevate and amplify their original series on an international level.

MEET THE PARTICIPANTS AND THEIR TV SERIES PROJECTS:

 Alter Boys
Creator/Writer: Jonathan Lawrence; Producer: Ryan Wilson Cooper
Format/Genre: Half-hour drama

Alter Boys follows a group of young men who are thrust into furtive practices of conversion therapy in an isolated camp veiled by the woods. The new camp director’s aggressive program leaves the men struggling to navigate one summer’s haunting interplay of hope and ruin.

Jonathan Lawrence is a Winnipeg-based Indigiqueer filmmaker and actor who has produced several award-winning short and feature films and has appeared on both stage and screen. Most recently, Jonathan is working to expand his latest short film into a limited drama series. Jonathan aims to create evocative work that draws on a distillation of human vulnerability and brokenness amid visceral landscapes and the beauty therein.

#RELATIONSHIPGOALS
Creators/Writers: Jennifer Holness and Sudz Sutherland
Format/Genre: Half-hour comedy/drama

 #RELATIONSHIPGOALS follows Keisha Winters, a relationship blogger, podcast host and artsy divorced mom, who lives with her supremely capable daughter, Kelly, and her very Jamaican mother, Althea. Together, these women represent three generations of Black girl magic – all under the same roof, and all with strong opinions. About everything. Through the crazy stories that land in Keisha’s inbox, to the guests on her podcast and her own complicated personal life, #RelationshipGoals explores the funny side of friendship, family, life and love.

Jennifer Holness is an award-winning writer, producer and director. She created the TV series Shoot the Messenger and the award-winning mini-series Guns for CBC. She has produced numerous docs, including Stateless (PBS), which won the Hot Docs 2020 Special Jury Prize for Canadian Feature Documentary. Her dramatic feature, Home Again, was nominated for two CSAs and earned her a DGC nomination for Best Directing. Additionally, Jennifer produced Love, Sex and Eating the Bones, which won nine festival awards, including Best Canadian First Feature Film at TIFF 2003. Currently, she is directing the feature documentary Subjects of Desire and is developing the drama series Talk to Me with BellMedia.

Sudz Sutherland is an award-winning writer and director who has directed two award-winning features, Home Again and Love, Sex and Eating the Bones (Best Canadian First Feature Film, TIFF 2003), as well as more than 75 hours of television on shows including Batwoman, The Flash, Blindspot, Designated Survivor, Reign, Murdoch Mysteries, and many others. Additionally, Sudz co-created the series She’s the Mayor (VisionTV), Shoot the Messenger (CBC) and Guns (CBC). He has won an International Emmy for his work on The Phantoms, three CSAs for Best Direction and one CSA for Best Writing. Sudz is currently developing a drama series entitled Talk to Me with Bell Media, as well as a feature, Everything is Everything.

The Ageless
Creator/Writer: Faisal Lutchmedial
Format/Genre: One-hour sci-fi action/drama

The Ageless is a serialized one hour sci-fi action drama that follows an elderly WWII vet, who, once transformed by an age reversal experiment back into his young Nazi fighting prime, sets out to dismantle a fascist cult of the eternally young.

Faisal Lutchmedial is a screenwriter who most recently wrote on Endlings (CBC / Hulu) and Ransom (CBS / Global). He was invited to develop his latest feature screenplay The Voices Inside at TIFF Writers Studio in 2019. Faisal’s director credits include the short Useless Things, which won the Writers Guild of Canada English Script Prize at the Festival Nouveau Cinema Montreal, and the labour rights feature documentary My Cultural Divide.

girl
Creator/Writer: Pat Mills
Format/Genre: One-hour comedy/drama

Taylor gets ‘mistaken’ for a girl on the first day of high school. Instead of correcting everyone, Taylor runs with it and learns first-hand what it’s like to be a teenage girl – but is the perception of their gender more accurate than what Taylor is prepared for?

Pat Mills is a Toronto-based writer/director. His first feature, Guidance, was hailed as a “Grade A” comedy by the Los Angeles Times and was a New York Times Critics’ Pick. His sophomore feature, Don’t Talk to Irene, won Best Comedy Screenplay at the Austin Screenplay Competition, and two Canadian Comedy Awards (Best Feature; Best Writing in a Feature), among other festival awards. Pat was named one of MovieMaker Magazine’s 25 Screenwriters to Watch and was University of Toronto’s Universal Studios Screenwriter-in-Residence in 2018/19. He is currently in post on the queer thriller The Retreat (Alyson Richards Productions/Clique Pictures), and recently directed Queens, a drag queen comedy series for CBC Gem.

 

The CFC/Netflix Project Development Accelerator is one component of the larger Netflix/CFC Global Project, which supports Canada’s traditionally underserved creatives, including Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC), women, LGBTQ2S+, Francophone creators (French as a first language), and creators living with disabilities.

The two additional accelerators, the Calling Card and Marketplace Accelerators, are yearlong accelerators, which, to date, have supported more than a dozen projects, ranging from shorts to features and TV series. For more information on specific projects and participants, please visit https://bit.ly/2SwOLkA.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Lady Dicks

Additional casting confirmed for CBC’s new buddy-cop drama Lady Dicks

From a media release:

CBC and NBCUniversal International Studios, a division of Universal Studio Group, today announced additional casting for LADY DICKS (10×60, drama, Cameron Pictures) starring Meredith MacNeill (Baroness von Sketch Show) and Adrienne C. Moore (Orange Is The New Black). The fun, irreverent buddy-cop series, featuring two radically different female detectives in their early 40s, has commenced shooting in Ontario, Canada.

Joining the cast are Tara Strong (Teen Titans), Karen Robinson (Schitt’s Creek), Dean McDermott (Slasher), Al Mukadam (Miss Sloane), Percy Hynes White (The Gifted), Katie Douglas (Mary Kills People), and Ronnie Rowe (Star Trek: Discovery).

Co-created by Tassie Cameron (Mary Kills People, Ten Days in the Valley, Rookie Blue, The Robber Bride) and Sherry White (Little Dog, Frontier, Ten Days in the Valley, Rookie Blue), LADY DICKS follows Guns and Gangs detective, Samantha (MacNeill) and Drug Squad detective, Kelly (Moore).  By day, they are heroes in their particular way: skilled, tough, determined, and entertaining, fighting to do good in a broken system. But by night, they’re both grappling with loneliness, dysfunctional families, screwed-up love lives, and a sense that their professional ambitions may not be totally in line with their personal needs. Their friendship could help to balance each other out if only they didn’t drive one another utterly insane. Critically-acclaimed director, David Wellington (Vikings, Orphan Black, Rookie Blue) directs the premiere episode.

A CBC original series, LADY DICKS is produced by Cameron Pictures in association with CBC and NBCUniversal International Studios. The series is created by Sherry White and Tassie Cameron, who also serve as Co-Showrunners. Sherry White, Tassie Cameron, Amy Cameron and Alex Patrick are Executive Producers. For CBC, Sally Catto is General Manager, Entertainment, Factual & Sports; Trish Williams is Executive Director, Scripted Content; Helen Asimakis is Senior Director, Scripted Content; and Nicole Mendes is Executive in Charge of Production. For NBCUniversal International Studios, Jeff Wachtel is President. The series will be distributed by NBCUniversal Global Distribution.

Writers include Tassie Cameron, Sherry White, Adriana Maggs, Ley Lukins, Andrew De Angelis, Jillian Locke, Jennifer Whalen, Lisa Codrington, Jennifer Irons, and Keavy Lynch. Carina Samuels is Junior Story Editor. Directors are David Wellington, Sherry White, Bosede Williams, Cory Bowles, Jordan Canning, Penelope Buitenhuis, and Winnifred Jong.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail
Jann

Season 2 of CTV Original comedy JANN premieres Monday, Sept. 21

From a media release:

Following a successful first season run, hit CTV Original Comedy series JANN returns for its second season Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV and everywhere CTV content can be found beginning Sept. 21. Featuring co-creator and star Jann Arden, Season 2 consists of eight half-hour episodes – up from its six-episode first season –with special guest star Sarah McLachlan appearing in the premiere episode.

Set and filmed in Calgary, Season 1 of the critically acclaimed comedy is the most-watched new Canadian comedy series of the 2018-19 broadcast season, and garnered three Canadian Screen Awards nominations, including Best Comedy Series and Best Lead Actress, Comedy for Arden, and won Best Comedy Series at the 2020 WGC Screenwriting Awards.

This season, Jann sets out to win her family and ex-girlfriend Cynthia (Sharon Taylor) back, as tensions arise between Jann and her new manager Cale (Elena Juatco), who lines up music gigs that are outside of Jann’s comfort zone. Throughout the season, Jann also faces a number of musical rivals, both old and new.

Guest stars for Season 2 include singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan as herself; Canadian singer-songwriter, k.d. lang as herself; actress Elisha Cuthbert (THE RANCH, HAPPY ENDINGS) as school board parent Liz; singer, host, and actress Keshia Chanté (SOUL, PRIVATE EYES), as up-and-coming singer Nia Taylor; as well as Miguel Rivas (THE BEAVERTON, BARONESS VON SKETCH SHOW) as Jann mega-fan Nigel; Cynthia Loyst, co-host of CTV’s THE SOCIAL, as a local talk show host; and more.

Returning cast starring alongside Arden in JANN are Zoie Palmer (PURE, DARK MATTER) as Jann’s sister Max; Deborah Grover (ANNE WITH AN “E”) as Jann’s mom Nora; Patrick Gilmore (TRAVELERS; YOU, ME, HER) as Jann’s brother-in-law Dave; Elena Juatco (OPEN HEART, SCHITT’S CREEK) as Jann’s manager Cale; Jason Blicker (F/X: THE SERIES, STATE OF GRACE) as Jann’s former manager Todd; Sharon Taylor (BAD BLOOD) as Jann’s ex-girlfriend Cynthia; Alexa Rose Steele (DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION) as Jann’s eldest niece Charley; Ceilidh MacDonald as Jann’s niece Sammie; and Keaira Pliva (TIN STAR) as Jann’s niece Frankie.

On the Season 2 premiere of JANN, titled “What Did Jann Do?” (Monday, Sept. 21 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV), Jann cuts her Burning Woman Tour short to be there for the birth of her sister Max and brother-in-law Dave’s baby, and is surprised when nobody is happy to see her. She becomes determined to patch things up with her family and her on-again, off-again girlfriend, Cynthia. Meanwhile, a musical rival (guest star Sarah McLachlan) tracks Jann down, and she’s pissed. Episodes of JANN are directed by Ron Murphy (WYNONNA EARP, TRAILER PARK BOYS).

Season 1 of JANN is also available to stream on CTV.ca and the CTV app for fans who want to revisit the inaugural season or catch-up.

JANN was co-developed by Bell Media and Project 10 Productions and is produced by Project 10 Productions and SEVEN24 Films in association with CTV.

JANN is executive produced by Andrew Barnsley and Ben Murray for Project 10 Productions, Tom Cox and Jordy Randall for SEVEN24 Films, and Randy Lennox for Bell Media. Jann Arden, Leah Gauthier, and Jennica Harper created the series and also serve as Executive Producers with Jennica Harper showrunning.

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail