Tag Archives: Cineflix

From a media release:

Cineflix Productions has begun development on a gripping new crime series based on the Vancouver-born author Sam Wiebe’s critically acclaimed Wakeland Novels—Invisible Dead, Cut You Down, and Hell and Gone.

The rain and blood-soaked mysteries feature Wakeland, a 29-year-old ex-cop turned P.I. as a modern-day Marlowe, fighting for justice, his clients, and the soul of Vancouver.

“Sam is one of the most exciting writers in Canada, and the Vancouver-noir world he’s created is an incredible foundation for an original series. I believe Wakeland and the gritty world he inhabits is primed for a global audience,” said Jeff Vanderwal, Executive Producer, Cineflix Productions.

“Sam’s fast-paced novels are cinematic in scope with complex stories driven by strong characters whose deep flaws only make them more seductive. We’ve been fans of Sam’s work for years,” said Lisa Baylin, Director of Development, Cineflix Productions.

“I’m thrilled to partner with Cineflix Productions and I’m excited to bring my characters to the screen while also shining a light on one of the most dynamic cities in the world,” said Sam Wiebe.

Cineflix Productions’ slate of scripted crime content continues to expand with the recent addition of movies Stolen By Their Father with Sarah Drew and Left for Dead: The Ashley Reeves Story starring Jennie Garth and Anwen O’Driscoll, along with the critically acclaimed, award-winning Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey and I Was Lorena Bobbitt.

Cineflix Productions brokered the TV rights deal with Michael Levine at Westwood Creative Artists for Chris Casuccio.

Coroner, Industry News

Morwyn Brebner and Andrew Akman launch Husk Media in partnership with Cineflix Media

July 7, 2021 Greg David 1 Comment

From a media release:

Cineflix Media is teaming up with award-winning showrunner Morwyn Brebner and TV executive Andrew Akman to launch Husk Media, a new television production company.

Toronto-based Husk Media will develop and produce programming for broadcasters and streamers worldwide. With Brebner spearheading creative efforts and Akman leading commercial affairs, the company will focus on projects created by Brebner, as well as projects in partnership with emerging and established writers and showrunners.

Cineflix will provide Husk Media with start-up financing and operating support, and has a first-look to distribute the shingleâ€™s content internationally. The new production company joins Cineflixâ€™s growing joint venture lineup which includes Mirage producer Connect3 Media and International EmmyÂ® Award-winning Marcella producer Buccaneer Media.

Most recently honoured as 2021 Showrunner of the Year by the Writers Guild of Canada, Morwyn Brebner has produced premium scripted television for networks and platforms around the world, and is behind some of the longest-running, most successful dramas ever produced in Canada. Brebnerâ€™s credits include creating global hit Coroner (CBC/The CW Network/NBCUniversal International Networks), as well as co-creating supernatural medical series Saving Hope (CTV/ION) and police drama Rookie Blue (ABC/Global Television).

Andrew Akman brings more than 20 years of experience in production, distribution, and broadcasting. He has held senior management positions at some of Canadaâ€™s largest media and entertainment companies and will be transitioning out of his current role as COO at Cineflix Media.

Featured, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Preview: HGTV’s Rock Solid Builds is a party on The Rock

February 16, 2021 Greg David 15 Comments

I’ve written a lot about home renovation shows over the years.

As such, I can get bored with the usual “take an old house, be surprised by shocking electrical or plumbing behind the walls, wonder if the job will come in on time and budget, and marvel at the final results” formula. It can get as tired as peeling wallpaper.

But Rock Solid Builds is like nothing I’ve seen before.

Debuting Thursday at 10 p.m. Eastern on HGTV Canada, Rock Solid Builds is as quirky as the location it’s set in: Brigus, Newfoundland. It’s there we meet up with Randy Spracklin of Newfound Builders and his team of equally entertaining folks renovating and building homes on The Rock. This third-generation builderâ€”dad Scott is also part of the crewâ€”takes on projects in one of the most beautiful places in the world. But also one of the most rugged and hard to get to; delayed shipments of supplies from the mainland are regularly faced by Newfound Builders.

Yes, the jaunty fiddle-heavy music and accents are the first thing to set Rock Solid Builds apart from, say, Backyard Builds or Save My Reno, but it adds to the charm exuded by Randy Spracklin, who tackles weather, design and construction issues with a crooked smile and quip.

In Thursday’s debut, Randy, Scott, Nikki and Paul document putting the finishing touches on one home, adding two additions to another, and beginning work on a 200-year-old home. It’s that last home, dubbed Earle House, that intrigued me. After all, adding another foot to ceilings isn’t something you see every day. The first three layers of flooring are peeled back to reveal the original, 200-year-old beams, which Randy explains were probably cut close by and squared off. Floorboards were attached with square nails forged locally.

It’s a heck of a history lesson not only in home building but building in a fabulous, unique part of the country. I can’t wait to see more.

Rock Solid Builds airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. Eastern on HGTV.

Image courtesy of Cineflix.

Featured, Pure

Pure: Creator Michael Amo on the return of Season 2 and a favourite character

June 4, 2019 Greg David 3 Comments

Spoiler alert: Do not continue reading unless you have watched the first episode of Pure, Season 2.

Pure‘s second season premiere was notable for a few reasons. It introduced Hector Estrada (Victor Gomez), the drug dealer who demanded Anna Funk re-start the Mennonite cocaine pipeline. And, just to give her the little push Anna needed to do that, took Isaak (Dylan Everett) as collateral. When we last saw Isaak, he was naked, caged and (rightfully) screaming for his mother. Last Tuesday’s return also brought a favourite character back from the grave. It turns out Noah’s (Ryan Robbins) brother, Abel (Gord Rand), suffered merely a flesh wound when Eli Voss shot him; the siblings shared an emotional reunion.

With so much going on not just with the characters but the show itself, we got Michael Amo on the phone to discuss it.

What were your thoughts when you were told by CBC that the second season of Pure wasn’t going to be happening with them?
Michael Amo: [Laughs.] I remember being surprised because I think we averaged over 700,000 viewers per episode which, for a freshman drama on CBC, is pretty good. But, I guess it wasn’t on brand for them. I did move on to other things and developed some other shows. It was really Cineflix. It was Brett Burlock and Peter Emerson, who are our Ontario production partners, were the ones who said, ‘You know what? It’s not going to die so easily.’ They’re the ones who engineered the deal between WGN America and Super Channel and put their own kind of equity into it as well.

Was there a phone call to you to say it had been greenlit?
MA: For me, it was me talking to Brett about some things I was working on and him saying, ‘Not so fast, Pure isn’t dead yet.’ But I’ve got a family to feed and said, ‘I welcome the opportunity to do more of Pure.’ I hung up the phone and went about my business. Months went by and, behind the scenes, Brett and Peter were working feverishly to make it happen. So, when you get the call and are told your baby has been brought back to life, it’s a happy day indeed.

You’ve spent at least one full episode keeping Noah away from his family. What was the thinking behind that?
MA: Actually, we keep Noah away from Anna until Episode 3 because I don’t want to make it easy. [Laughs.] The audience should be rooting for this family to get back together and they can’t do that if they’re together from the get-go. It was challenging to keep them apart for so long, but I did put them on a collision course to tie in with the law enforcement angle of the show. It was a challenge to do that. Season 1 was all about their fall from grace and expulsion from paradise and Season 2 is about them, all in their own way, trying to get back to paradise and the innocence they lose along the way.

How has being on Super Channel Fuse changed the tone of the show? What have you been able to do that you couldn’t on CBC?
MA: There were fans of the show, to begin with, so when they took it on, they said, ‘We’re a premium cable network, so feel free to play in that space.’ I didn’t go too crazy because I, personally, am not a huge fan of vulgarity and the show really never had the creative bandwidth for sex. But we could push the elements that were already in the show a little harder.

Hector Estrada is, literally, taking no prisoners. What’s it been like to create this guy?
MA: In Season 1 we had Eli Voss, who had very specific spiritual views that were in opposition to Noah’s. In Season 2, I really wanted to do something different, from a character point of view for the villain, so Hector is all about the here and now. He does not believe in an afterlife, he does not believe there are any consequences for his actions in this world whatsoever. He is all about the material pleasures, but he’s sort of lonely too. So, he bonds with Isaak and that’s his Achilles heel in a way. [Actor] Victor Gomez is both extremely charming and when he wants to be, ice cold.

I was surprised to see Gord Rand returned to Pure. In Season 1, Abel was shot by Eli and left for dead. Were you always intending to bring the character of Abel back?
MA: [Laughs.] I’m going to be honest and say perhaps not. What happens is, you fall in love with these characters, and the actors who play them, and you say, ‘Oh my goodness, I have to find a way to keep Gord in the picture.’ I’m glad I did.

PureÂ airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on Super Channel Fuse.

Images courtesy of Super Channel.

Industry News, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Class action lawsuit a big step toward fairness in factual and reality TV

October 9, 2018 Greg David

From a media release:

The Canadian Media Guild / CWA Canada is welcoming a $35-million class action lawsuitÂ [http://www.cavalluzzo.com/factual-televison-classaction]Â filed by law firm Cavalluzzo on behalf of hundreds of reality and factual TV workers who have worked at Cineflix Canada, which produces such TV shows as Property Brothers and Mayday.

The legal action follows a five-year campaign by CMG and its parent union CWA Canada to bring fair working conditions to this part of the entertainment industry.

“Reality and factual TV are the wild west of the entertainment world,” said Lise Lareau, a co-ordinator of the CMG’s Fairness in Factual TV campaign. “People working in this area of production are cut out of labour laws. They don’t have the rights of other employees, and historically they’ve been left out of union contracts enjoyed by the rest of the entertainment industry.”

Most reality and factual TVÂ production companies make their workers set up their own corporations or sign contracts saying they are “independent contractors” and then don’t provide overtime pay, vacation pay and paid holidays. The failure to pay these basic entitlements is the basis for the Cavalluzzo class action lawsuit.

The statement of claim for the suit is based on the experience of Anna Bourque, a production worker whose most recent contract at Cineflix was September 2017 to February 2018.

“Picture editors and story editors work together taking hundreds of hours of footage and sharpening it into 43 minutes or so of entertaining television, but as schedules get squeezed our hours expand and there is never compensation for that, so our pay becomes inversely proportional to the hours worked,” Bourque said.

The ‘Fairness in Factual TV’ campaign began five years ago when a group of reality and factual TV workers decided enough was enough and sought the support of the Canadian Media Guild / CWA Canada. More than 400 people have signed up as supporters since the campaign began.

“Since these workers aren’t covered byÂ union contracts, production companies often use them as a way to create less expensive but still lucrative programming,” said CMG organizer Denise O’Connell, who has spent 20 years in the industry.

Kat Lapointe, an organizer with CMG / CWA Canada, said the fact that you sign a contract that calls you an independent contractor does not mean that you are not entitled to basic minimum employment standards.

“It is not that simple. Treating people as outside of employment laws keeps people vulnerable and unable to build sustainable careers.Â It means they’re forced to deal one-on-one with the company â€” putting each individual worker at a disadvantage â€” rather than having a collective voice to win fairness and respect at work.”

The Guild is urging people in the industry to talk about this issue at work and join our campaign www.fairnessinfactualtv.ca. If you feel your work conditions have been unfair, contact the union at factualtv@cmg.ca. Write a few lines about your experience and attach a recent contract. It will be held in complete confidence.

Those who have worked at Cineflix, Boat Rocker Media, Insight Productions or other companies who want more information about class action lawsuits can visit the Cavalluzzo LLP website at [http://www.cavalluzzo.com/factual-televison-classaction] or email factual-televison-classaction@cavalluzzo.com.