Tag Archives: Enrico Colantoni

Production begins on new original drama, Rex – coming to Citytv in 2019

From a media release:

Shaftesbury, Pope Productions, and Citytv announced today that production has begun on new drama series REX (wt). Centred on the partnership between a police detective and his hardworking dog, REX is a procedural drama with a twist. Starring John Reardon (Van Helsing, Continuum), Mayko Nguyen (Killjoys, Fahrenheit 451), and Enrico Colantoni (Bad Blood, Flashpoint), the eight-episode, 60-minute series is based on the long-running, international hit series Rex, a Cop’s Best Friend. Executive produced by Christina Jennings, Scott Garvie, and Paul Pope, the series has begun shooting in St. John’s, Newfoundlandand will continue through December 2018.

Set in St. John’s, Newfoundland, REX is an action-packed police procedural drama focused on the partnership between a dedicated detective and his extraordinary former K9 dog. Rex and Charlie are a detective team that combine their individual skills to solve the most puzzling crimes. This is the first English-language adaptation of the highly successful European format that has aired in 125 countries around the world for 18 seasons.

Starring John Reardon as Detective Charlie Hudson, Rex’s partner; Mayko Nguyen as chief of forensics Sarah Truong; Enrico Colantoni as Superintendent Joseph De Luca; and Diesel (a Canadian Kennel Club Grand Champion) as Rex.

Shaftesbury and Pope Productions Ltd. produces REX in association with Citytv, a division of Rogers Media, and Beta Film GmbH. Beta Film GmbH holds worldwide distribution rights. Produced with the participation of the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation, the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit, the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit and the Rogers Documentary and Cable Network Fund.

REX is executive produced by Christina Jennings, Scott Garvie, Paul Pope, Ken Cuperus, and Avrum Jacobson, followed by Laura Harbin as Supervising Producer, Julie Lacey as Producer, and Lisa Porter as Associate Producer. Friedemann Goez and Oliver Bachert are Executive Producers from Beta Film GmbH. Episodes are written by Showrunners Ken Cuperus, Paul Aitken, John Callaghan, Jessie Gabe, Avrum Jacobson, Simon McNabb, and Celeste Parr. Episodes are directed by Felipe Rodriguez, Alison Reid, and John Vatcher.

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Link: Travelers: Enrico Colantoni on Vincent’s history and why the series is “brilliant”

From Kelly Townsend of The TV Junkies:

Link: Travelers: Enrico Colantoni on Vincent’s history and why the series is “brilliant”
“When I realized it was Vincent, it blew the whole world off key. Now we know who the first Traveler was, now we know when it all started, we have a bigger perspective of this world. Such a smart addition. He’s so creepy, so well-thought out, yet so justified in everything he does. If anybody put themselves in his shoes, they would have behaved in the same way.” Continue reading.

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Travelers: Enrico Colantoni discusses Vincent’s Season 2 journey

This season of Travelers has been crazy. It’s hard to believe we’re only in Week 2 of the second go-round because Brad Wright and his writing squad have really upped the drama. It all began with that stunning introduction to Vincent Ingram, played by Enrico Colantoni. By the end of Episode 1, we learned Vincent arrived in this time period as the September 11th terrorist attack was taking place. Now, exceedingly rich and paranoid, Vincent has been capturing and torturing travelers … including our team in Season 1.

But rather than waiting all season long for a showdown between Vincent and MacLaren, Wright does it in this Monday’s new episode, “Jacob.” Like we said, no punches are being pulled in Season 2 and the scene between MacLaren and Vincent is chilling in its intensity.

We spoke to Colantoni, who most recently appeared in the City miniseries Bad Blood, about Vincent’s Season 2 journey.

Eric McCormack told me that he thought of you immediately when they were casting Vincent, based on your role on Person of Interest.
Enrico Colantoni: He was very candid about that part of it and I’m just thrilled that he sees me that way. It’s not every day that you get a call from an actor friend with a job. It’s pretty cool. [Laughs.] I’m sure with everything that Eric has to do casting isn’t one of them. He’s the cat’s meow and I’m thrilled that he thought of me. I see the connection between Elias and him seeing me as Vincent, but I took liberties with Vincent that I never would have been allowed to with Elias, which was cool.

This is a character who was hinted at in Season 1 but wasn’t revealed until the first episode of Season 2. It was a great reveal.
Can you imagine? It all makes sense, time-wise. And to play a character who has a new lease on life. You come into this world that changed on that day. There he is, coming in with a new lease on life. What would anybody do if they knew the future and still fear for their life? How would you proceed? You’d be completely paranoid, completely cloistered, avoid all the technology that everybody else is embracing and yet have complete control of it.

Was it hard to wrap your mind around it?
I had to have a few phone calls with Brad. I’m a fan of the show so I got the whole encyclopedia of it. Brad was nice enough to tell me where Vincent was headed but it was too much information to find useful before I even had shown up. The fun of it was I got to be a spiteful, paranoid old guy who just didn’t give a f–k, which was so much fun. And to watch Eric’s eyes bug because of some of the most ridiculous takes I’d ever given to camera. They couldn’t use them but I gave Brad everything from zero to 100. It’s just so much fun to play somebody who can’t be pigeonholed.

Does not being pigeonholed the result of the genre or the script?
The script. The genre itself is so broad, but Brad has really narrowed it down. To call The Director The Director as if it were God and then realize it’s an AI and there are factions in the future that are now at odds because of what happened in the past. You come wanting to prevent a catastrophe but now what do you do because it’s a new catastrophe.

And yet, it’s about dealing with the mundane. How do I raise this child and still save the world? How do I make this marriage work and still save the world? How do I deal with this drug addiction and still save the world?

Travelers airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on Showcase.

Image courtesy of Corus.

 

 

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Travelers: Eric McCormack and Nesta Cooper preview crazy Season 2

Season 1 of Travelers wrapped with one hell of a cliffhanger. In a stressful face-off in the barn, Trevor (Jared Abrahamson) and Grace (Jennifer Spence) were both shot moments before Trevor could destroy the quantum frame.

Those final moments were preceded by some major information: Shelter 41 had collapsed and been taken over by The Faction, people unsupportive of the director and the grand plan. By the end of the instalment, Carly (Nesta Cooper), MacLaren (Eric McCormack), Marcy (MacKenzie Porter), Trevor and Philip (Reilly Dolman) had been captured by the FBI, headed by MacLaren’s partner Walt (Arnold Pinnock). Crazy, right? Episode 1 of Season 2—returning Monday, Oct. 16, at 9 p.m. ET on Showcase—blows that out of the water. Seriously. And that’s all thanks to new cast member Enrico Colantoni, who plays Vincent, a mysterious character whose back story takes up much of Monday’s return. We spoke to McCormack and Cooper about what fans can expect as Brad Wright’s creation hurtles into its sophomore season.

Enrico Colantoni … how did that casting come about? Was that a result of Brad wanting to expand the world in Season 2?
Eric McCormack: As you see in the final image in Monday’s first episode, we now know who Enrico was playing in Season 1. As for it being Enrico, I take my one producer credit: Brad showed me the script and said, ‘Who do you think should play that?’ I knew we were going to go for Canadian cast across the board, so I immediately thought of Enrico. What he did on Person of Interest reminded me of the kind of intensity and danger that he could bring. But what he does in the first five minutes of the premiere is so exciting and so heartbreaking. Somebody watching the show must have been wondering, ‘Well, when did all of this traveler business start?’ The question gets answered, and in such a cool way.

When I got the first script, I was reading it and saying, ‘Where’s the barn?’ But there is a such a good reason to set up [Monday’s return] the way that we do.

Let’s discuss the Season 1 finale in the barn. The FBI rolls in and there is Walt. The cat is out of the bag.
EM: ‘The cat is out of the bag! How can it be out? It’s only Season 1?!’ That’s what fans have been saying to me.

Nesta Cooper: There are so many questions going through our heads. Carly didn’t kill MacLaren even though the director told her to. Am I not going to get saved because I didn’t complete the mission? What’s going to happen to the quantum frame? What is it capable of?

Travelers is a very active show with lots of hand-to-hand combat. Do you do your own stunts?
NC: We’ve had the same stunt team for both seasons. In Season 1, I was a twiggy and very weak. [Laughs.] I’m still weak but I work out a lot more now. The stunt team has seen how I fight and carry myself and I’m lucky because the writing has taken this physically strong person and put her into the body of a weak, single mom. Carly is able to grow with me as I’ve learned to carry myself. This season I’m able to do a lot of my own stunts, like when I flip people and when I punch people.

What can you say about the relationship between Carly and MacLaren going forward?
EM: I hope what’s been made clear to the audience is that it’s something that should never have been brought into the past. We were clearly fraternizing in boot camp and that probably shouldn’t have happened, but who cares because it’s a dystopian, awful future. I wasn’t sure how long the relationship would go and I was surprised how it’s kind of come to a stop because of MacLaren’s feelings for [his wife] Kat [Leah Cairns]. But I hope it still comes up as a thing. It’s an unsettled score.

NC: To me, it’s still a thing for Carly. I had imagined that Carly did not open up to a lot of people ever, and MacLaren was her person. And when she felt betrayed by him, it was a big loss for her. I hope it continues to be a thing and I’ll certainly be playing it that way. When we pick up, she’ll be facing those feelings head-on.

Not only does Amanda Tapping have a role in Travelers this season, but she directed an episode as well. What was it like working with her?
NC: Literally a dream.

EM: There is a such an ease with her. Watching her run a crew is effortless. She knows what she’s doing 10 minutes before anyone else does.

Travelers airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on Showcase; Season 2 returns on Monday, Oct. 16.

Image courtesy of Corus.

 

 

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Bad Blood: Enrico Colantoni on Bruno Bonsignori and his love affair with Kim Coates

After decades playing other characters in feature films, the theatre and television, Enrico Colantoni is the closest to playing himself in City’s miniseries Bad Blood. To play Bruno Bonsignori, advisor to Vito Rizzuto (Anthony LaPaglia), Colantoni called on his Italian roots and a childhood that inspired his take on Bruno.

In our latest interview—done from the set of Bad Blood in Sudbury, Ont., last year—Colantoni outlines how he became part of the Bad Blood cast and how his past helped define the character.

How did you get involved in Bad Blood in the first place?
Enrico Colantoni: I’ve had an admiration for Kim Coates since Waterworld, and then seeing him on with George Stroumboulopoulos and realizing he was Canadian and from Saskatoon. And then, I won a Canadian Screen Award and he presented it to me. The hug I received … it was like two star-crossed lovers. I just love him and get him on so many levels and I think it’s mutual.

I was in Vancouver directing an episode of iZombie and I was having such a great time. I said, ‘If I can do this for the rest of my life I’ll never act again.’ Directing, even episodic for just two weeks, uses all my faculties. I got to act all the roles and have the final word on things. It was so exciting.

And then the phone rings and the script comes and I say, ‘Oh no, a mobster. I don’t want to do this.’ Then I read the first episode and, not only is the writing fantastic, but this character. I’ve never gotten to play an Italian mobster in my whole career. And this guy’s energy is so different from all of the other heavies. He’s sort of buffoonish, clownish. And I realize, ‘For the first time in my career, I can play me as an homage to the goofs I grew up with.’ And then when I realized this was with Kim, and Mr. LaPaglia and Mr. Sorvino … I gotta go. There hasn’t been a disappointing moment yet.

Bruno Bonsignori is a fictional character.
Kinda. He’s based on a real character, but the story I was told is that the reason they changed his name is because of the liberties that the script takes. He was based on a real guy and they share the same nickname, ‘Peacemaker.’

For Bruno, bloodshed is a last resort in this violent world.
Right. There’s gotta be that guy who is just the business-minded guy, who is good with the money. Who is good with talking. He is that guy.

I find it interesting that, when you dig down and really research some of these people, there are heroes. Not everyone is a villain.
Some of these guys just want to make a living. It’s so funny that the guys who I grew up with … their attitudes toward life walked such a fine line between legal and illegal. Objectively, I could see the difference, but they really couldn’t. If they got away with something, they were applauded for it and congratulated for it inside the family. My father would have beaten the shit out of me, but there were some Italians who thought that was appropriate behaviour and it was encouraged.

And Bad Blood is a Canadian story.
Isn’t that beautiful? I took such pride in that. We had our own version of the Cosa Nostra. I always thought that the famous names in Toronto were the Toronto version of something, never imagining that their ties to the bigger animal were so connected. And the guys in Montreal were even more so. When you hear the name Bonanno mentioned, you realize [the Canadians] were playing in the major leagues.

Bad Blood airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on City.

Look for more coverage of Bad Blood from our set visit late last year in the coming days, including exclusive interviews with director Alain Desrochers, and Business or Blood: Mafia Boss Vito Rizzuto’s Last War authors Antonio Nicaso and Peter Edwards.

Image courtesy of Rogers Media.

 

 

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