Tag Archives: CTV Two

CTV picks up series by Canadian showrunners Tassie Cameron, David Shore and Martin Gero

From a media release:

Following a season in which CTV delivered the Top 2 most-watched new programs of the year with A25-54, and six of the Top 10 most-watched programs overall, CTV announced today it has landed 13 big, buzzy, new series from this year’s Los Angeles Screenings.

TEN DAYS IN THE VALLEY
Logline: In TEN DAYS IN THE VALLEY, Kyra Sedgwick is Jane Sadler, an overworked television producer and single mother in the middle of a fractious separation. When her young daughter goes missing in the middle of the night, Jane’s world – and her controversial police series – implodes. Life imitates art, everything is a mystery, everyone has a secret, and no one can be trusted.

Synopsis:
TEN DAYS IN THE VALLEY stars Kyra Sedgwick (BROOKLYN NINE-NINE) as Jane Sadler, an overworked television producer and single mother in the middle of a separation whose life is turned upside down when her young daughter goes missing in the middle of the night. Just like her controversial police TV show, everything is a mystery, everyone has a secret, and no one can be trusted. TEN DAYS IN THE VALLEY stars Kyra Sedgwick (BROOKLYN NINE-NINE) as Jane Sadler, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (MAJOR LAZER) as John Bird, Kick Gurry (SENSE8) as Pete Greene, Erika Christensen (ADOPTED) as Ali Petrovich, Felix Solis (ONE DAY AT A TIME) as David Gomez, Josh Randall (PITCH) as Tom Petrovich, Malcolm-Jamal Warner (SUITS) as Matt, Abigail Pniowsky (CHANNEL ZERO) as Lake, and Francois Battiste (THE FAMILY) as Gus.

Created and written by Canadian award-winning screenwriter Tassie Cameron (Rookie Blue) TEN DAYS IN THE VALLEY is produced by Skydance Television. Sedgwick is also on board to executive produce.

THE GOOD DOCTOR
Logline: In THE GOOD DOCTOR, Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore, BATES MOTEL), a young surgeon diagnosed as autistic with savant syndrome is recruited into the pediatric surgical unit of a prestigious hospital. Doubts are raised about whether someone who doesn’t have the ability to relate to people can actually save their lives.

Synopsis:
THE GOOD DOCTOR centres on Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore, BATES MOTEL), a young surgeon diagnosed as autistic with savant syndrome who relocates from a quiet country life to join a prestigious hospital’s surgical unit. Alone in the world and unable to personally connect with those around him, Shaun uses his extraordinary medical gifts to save lives and challenge the skepticism of his colleagues. The series is from Canadian David Shore (HOUSE) and LOST star Daniel Dae Kim. The series stars Freddie Highmore as Dr. Shaun Murphy, Antonia Thomas (MISFITS) as Dr. Claire Brown, Nicholas Gonzalez (RESURRECTION BLVD) as Dr. Neal Melendez, Chuku Modu (GAME OF THRONES) as Dr. Jared Kalu, Beau Garrett (GIRLFRIENDS’ GUIDE TO DIVORCE) as Jessica Preston, Hill Harper (CSI: NY) as Dr. Marcus Andrews, and Richard Schiff (THE WEST WING) as Dr. Aaron Glassman.

The series is produced by Shore Z Productions and 3 AD in association with Sony Pictures Television. David Shore is writer and executive producer. Daniel Dae Kim (HAWAII FIVE-0), Erin Gunn (BATTLE CREEK), David Kim (DRAMAWORLD) and Sebastian Lee (DRAMAWORLD) are also executive producers. Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses, THE GOLDBERGS) directed the pilot and is also an executive producer.

DECEPTION
Synopsis:
When his career is ruined by scandal, superstar magician Cameron Black (Jack Cutmore-Scott, DRINKING WITH THE STARS) has only one place to turn to practice his art of deception, influence and illusion — the FBI. Using every trick in the book and inventing new ones, he will help the government catch the world’s most elusive criminals while staging the biggest illusions of his career. DECEPTION stars Jack Cutmore-Scott (DRINKING WITH THE STARS) as Cameron Black/Jonathan Black, Ilfenesh Hadera (MASTER OF NONE) as Kay Daniels, Lenora Crichlow (FLAKED) as Dina Clark, Amaury Nolasco (PRISON BREAK) as Mike Alvarez, Justin Chon (DR. KEN) as Jordan Kwon, Laila Robins (QUANTICO) as Special Agent Deakins, and Vinnie Jones (ARROW) as Gunter Gustafsen.

DECEPTION is from Berlanti Productions and Quinn’s House in association with Warner Bros. Television and is directed by David Nutter, who is also executive producer. The series is from writer/executive producer Chris Fedak (CHUCK) and executive producers Greg Berlanti, Canadian Martin Gero and Sarah Schechter. Illusionist David Kwong (NOW YOU SEE ME) will co-produce.

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Comedy is hard, says Corner Gas: The Movie star

After an extended stay in movie theatres, Corner Gas: The Movie lands on CTV and CTV Two tonight. Stripped of the pre-show and feature film credits, the two-hour flick takes on the structure fans of the series are more accustomed to, a super-sized episode of a project they loved dearly.

For those who didn’t venture out to the movie theatre, here’s a short refresher on what to expect: Dog River, Sask., has hit on hard economic times and is in danger of ceasing to be a town. Everyone has crazy ideas on how to make ends meet, from entering Dog River in a contest to win the cash to pay off debts to prepping for the end of the world. Coming up with a script for a 90-minute movie was a tough task according to creator/executive producer Brent Butt, executive producer Virginia Thompson, writers Andrew Carr and Andrew Wreggitt and executive producer/director David Storey, who took over two years to come up with something everyone was happy with.

Comedies are just harder to make says Butt’s co-star, Nancy Robertson.

“You laugh or you don’t,” she says during a press junket in support of the project. “In comedy, you don’t have the help of mood lighting or music. Those all help to set up a drama, but they screw up a comedy because they get in the way of the timing. It’s far more delicate.”

“I think when people see a comedy and they burst out laughing they think it’s a surprise,” the gal who played Wanda Dollard for six seasons continues. “There is nothing further than the truth. They have no idea of the work that has led up to that laugh, that smile. Because the laugh is impulsive, I think people think what led up to it was impulsive.”

All of that work has paid off. Corner Gas: The Movie is a wonderful salute to the fans who wanted more of Oscar (Eric Peterson), Emma (Janet Wright), Davis (Lorne Cardinal), Wanda, Lacey (Gabrielle Miller), Karen (Tara Spencer-Nairn) and Hank (Fred Ewanuick). The feature film structure allows for an expansion of a couple of characters, most notably Oscar and Davis. The former attempts to go full commando and live off the land (when he’s not calling people “jackass”), leading to several laugh-out loud moments. Davis, meanwhile, tries his hand at being a private investigator; the resulting scenes make me wish CTV, Butt and everyone else involved had the time and cash to pull of a Davis spinoff where he’s a small-town P.I. working in a big city like Calgary or Vancouver.

For now we’ll have to be content with Corner Gas: The Movie, a loving return to those odd folks in that little town where there’s not a lot going on, knowing that there was in fact a lot going on behind the scenes to make it happen.

Corner Gas: The Movie airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV and CTV Two; and Monday, Dec. 22, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The Comedy Network.

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Corner Gas jumps to the big (and small) screen

For six seasons on CTV, the tagline for Corner Gas was always that there “wasn’t a lot going on,” but the making of Corner Gas: The Movie couldn’t have been further from the truth.

It consumed the lives of creator/executive producer Brent Butt, executive producer Virginia Thompson, writers Andrew Carr and Andrew Wreggitt and executive producer/director David Storey for a couple of years as they tried to fashion a script that, unlike a television episode, had to have big stakes for the citizens of Dog River, Sask. Something had to be going on.

“If we couldn’t come up with a script that turned a 30-minute show into a 90-minute movie without wrecking it, then let’s not do it,” Butt says during a press day in Toronto. “We wrote this script for probably two years.”

“We wrote the script once, and it was really funny and the core was there, but what was really missing was the stakes,” Thompson explains. “We brought in Andrew Wreggitt, who is a wonderful long-form writer, and he sat down with us all. We all said, ‘We have a really funny beginning to the film, but it’s not deep enough.’ We all recognized that.”

The result? Dog River is bankrupt and everyone is desperate to make ends meet. In typical off-beat fashion, the townsfolk come up with several outlandish ideas, including entering a contest that to win the town the money it needs to keep going. And while the main storyline may be a little more dramatic and bigger in scope, Dog River’s characters have remained the same, though there have been a few minor tweaks. Oscar (Eric Peterson) goes into survival mode,  Emma (Janet Wright) pines for grandchildren, Davis (Lorne Cardinal) dips his toe into private investigating, Wanda (Nancy Robertson) looks for a way to make a quick buck, Lacey (Gabrielle Miller) heads up the plan to bring Dog River back from bankruptcy, Karen (Tara Spencer-Nairn) is pregnant and Hank (Fred Ewanuick) is, well … Hank.

There have been hurdles along the way, including the aforementioned rewrite, a fast turnaround time with regard to post-production and acquiring funding from Telefilm Canada. Add to that the unprecedented move of having the movie in Cineplex theatres for one week before jumping to TVs for the rest of the month and Corner Gas: The Movie is a rare beast in this country.

Those going to the theatre to see Corner Gas: The Movie are in for a special treat. Not only will members of the cast pop up unannounced in several cities this week, but Butt shot a special 20-minute pre-movie show especially for Cineplex that involves Corner Gas trivia, quizzes and a sing-along. And stick around for the end credits: not only are fans featured singing the show’s iconic theme song, but everyone who contributed to the Kickstarter campaign–that hit its goal in just 24 hours on the way to over $285,000 pledged–has their name listed.

“I was worried whether people would care about the movie,” Robertson admits. “I didn’t want it to have that sad tone, so when the Kickstarter campaign came in I said, ‘All right, this is reassuring and a nice shot in the arm.’ People still love it, but you don’t know whether they’re done with it.”

“And I was relieved it just wasn’t one rich dude in the Kickstarter!”

Corner Gas: The Movie is in Cineplex movie theatres from Dec. 3 to 7 before debuting Sunday, Dec. 8, at 9 p.m. ET on The Movie Network; Wednesday, Dec. 17, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on CTV and CTV Two; and Monday, Dec. 22, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The Comedy Network.

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