Tag Archives: Industry News

From a media release:

Today, at the Prime Video Presents Canada showcase event, Prime Video revealed the premiere date and official trailer for the new Canadian Amazon Original series The Kids in the Hall, produced by Broadway Video. The iconic Canadian comedy troupe—Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch, Kevin McDonald, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson—is back with a new season of their groundbreaking sketch series, featuring a fresh batch of fun offbeat characters and beloved favourites, with sketches that pack a satirical punch, laced with the hilarious, edgy, and fearless comedy The Kids are famous for. The Canadian Amazon Original series The Kids in the Hall will be available exclusively on Prime Video on May 13 in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

First premiering in 1989, the original Emmy-nominated The Kids in the Hall was an alternative comedy sensation that developed a die-hard fanbase while influencing countless comedians and performers. The new season marks the return of The Kids, with eight new episodes featuring all-new sketches from the beloved comedy troupe. The season’s guest stars include Paul Bellini, Pete Davidson, Catherine O’Hara, Kenan Thompson, Brandon Ash-Mohammed, Will Forte, Catherine Reitman, Samantha Bee, Fred Armisen, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Jay Baruchel, Eddie Izzard, Tracee Ellis Ross, Mark Hamill, and Colin Mochrie.

The Kids in the Hall is produced by Lorne Michaels’ Broadway Video and Canadian production company Project 10. The Kids in the Hall is created, written, and executive produced by Foley, McCulloch, McDonald, McKinney, and Thompson, with executive producers also including Michaels, Britta von Schoeler, and Andy Garland for Broadway Video, Andrew Barnsley and Ben Murray for Project 10, and Garry Campbell. Kelly Makin and Julie Klausner are co-executive producers. Mark Valdez serves as producer for Broadway Video. Other producers include Jen Goodhue, Colin Brunton, Jen Kirkman, Matt Watts, and Norm Hiscock.

Joining the revival series on Prime Video will be the previously announced The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks, a two-part documentary produced by Blue Ant Studios, which recently premiered at SXSW and will screen at the Hot Docs Festival in May. The Canadian Amazon Original The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks will launch on May 20 in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

Bellevue, Bomb Girls, Coroner, Industry News

Cineflix Media partners with Adrienne Mitchell’s BentFrame Film & TV

April 12, 2022 Greg David

From a media release:

Cineflix Media Inc. has announced it is partnering with celebrated showrunner, director, and producer Adrienne Mitchell and her newly launched production company BentFrame Film & TV.

The partnership gives Cineflix Media the first option to co-produce original content developed by Mitchell, while providing BentFrame with access to development support from Cineflix Studios. In addition, Cineflix Rights will retain exclusive first-look rights to distribute the shingle’s content internationally.

Based in Toronto, BentFrame will develop and produce ambitious, provocative, female-driven dramatic series and feature films for global audiences. The company already has several projects in development with broadcasters and international co-producers. Zach Marcovici, also previously of Back Alley Films, joins BentFrame as Director of Development and Production. The announcement follows Cineflix Media’s recent acquisition of Back Alley Film Productions Ltd.—co-founded by Adrienne Mitchell—along with its library of content IP.

“Adrienne has a powerful vision that aligns with Cineflix Media’s content strategy. We’re delighted to continue our support for Adrienne and Zach through a development and distribution agreement with Adrienne’s new company BentFrame,” said Peter Emerson, President, Cineflix Media.

“I’m thrilled to be working with Cineflix Media to tap into today’s exciting and thought-provoking story landscape. I’m inspired to tell stories with diverse and unique perspectives that shine a light on untold narratives. I look forward to a fruitful collaboration with Cineflix Media in creating landmark television and film that will resonate with Canadian and global audiences,” said Adrienne Mitchell, BentFrame Film &TV.

Adrienne Mitchell is an award-winning film and television director and showrunner who has been creating auteur-driven drama series, and helming them as lead director, for more than three decades. Mitchell’s many achievements include the critically acclaimed series Durham County; the mystery-thriller series Bellevue, starring Oscar®-winner Anna Paquin; and, the WWII-era series Bomb Girls, and the MOW Bomb Girls: Facing the Enemy. Mitchell is currently the Executive Producer and a Director on the fourth season of global hit series Coroner. In 2017, she was honoured with the Nell Shipman Award for directorial achievement and for advancing gender equity in the entertainment industry. Mitchell is also the recipient of the prestigious Excellence in Production Award from WIFT Toronto.

BentFrame Film & TV joins Cineflix Media’s growing community of talented creative partners including a recently launched joint venture with Morwyn Brebner and Andrew Akman’s Husk Media.

BentFrame Film & TV is represented by Great North Artists Management Inc.

Industry News

Producer Vince Buda and actor/writer Matt Wells launch Greater Hood Productions focusing on stories of truth, resilience and the perseverance of the human spirit

March 18, 2022 Greg David

From a media release:

Canadian film and television producer Vince Buda (Brown Girl Begins, Crown and Anchor, The New Normal) and actor, writer and musician Matt Wells (Crown and Anchor, MuchMusic, Schitt’s Creek) are pleased to announce the launch of new production company, Greater Hood Productions.

The first slate of original content includes podcast Good Things with Matt Wells, travel/motivational docuseries Moving On, and an untitled feature film based on the best-selling basketball memoir Chasing A Dream by Carl English.

Good Things with Matt Wells (Podcast)
Premiering on March 21, Good Things with Matt Wells (available on all major podcast platforms) revisits Wells’ passion from his past career as an acclaimed interviewer for Bravo, MTV, MuchMusic and MuchMore. Wells explores the ups and downs of life, love and career through inspiring conversations with incredible people who remind us that sometimes it has to get bad before it gets better and that good things are around the corner. In each episode, Wells gets intimate to explore how those we admire faced professional and personal setbacks, found the light through the darkness and learned about life and themselves in the process.

The first season features conversations with:

Canadian Politician and NDP Leader, Jagmeet Singh,
Six-time Olympic Medalist Clara Hughes,
Platinum-selling artist Serena Ryder,
Canada’s Drag Race winner Priyanka,
Renowned American musician Walter Schreifels (Quicksand, Rival Schools),
Musician and best-selling author Séan McCann (Great Big Sea),
Big Brother Canada Host and Executive Producer Arisa Cox,
Writer and director Sharon Lewis (Brown Girl Begins, Hudson and Rex, Murdoch Mysteries),
Co-Host of The Social Cynthia Loyst,
Sportsnet Host and musician Tara Slone,
Acclaimed actor Michael Rowe (Arrow, Ninjak vs. The Valiant Universe)

More guests will be announced throughout the season.

Moving On (Docuseries – Travel/Motivational)
This inspiring and therapeutic travelogue docuseries sees decorated Olympian Clara Hughes and acclaimed musician Séan McCann (Great Big Sea) push themselves physically and mentally as they explore some of the world’s most iconic, breathtaking and extreme hiking trails. Despite the duo’s iconic careers, Hughes and McCann have experienced rock bottom moments and struggled with addiction and mental health. Their fight for themselves and others now bring them together as renowned mental health advocates and friends. On the trails, they will battle the elements and embrace the healing powers of Mother Earth, movement and music.

Chasing a Dream (Feature Film)
Based on the best-selling basketball memoir Chasing a Dream by Carl English, this film follows the story of five-year-old English who loses his parents in a tragic fire in 1986. After being separated from his brothers and taken in by relatives, English eventually finds an obsessive love of basketball to mask the trauma and grief of his loss. This passion for the sport takes him out of his small town and to the brink of the NBA. From a makeshift hoop on the side of a highway to the NCAA, to European basketball stardom and ultimately going head-to-head with Kobe Bryant, basketball not only changed his life….it saved it.

About Vince Buda
Vince Buda is a producer, director and production executive with almost 20 years of experience and over 65 credits in live event programming, scripted and unscripted television, documentary, feature-length and short films. His career began as a production assistant on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and visual effects coordinator on TRON: Legacy. His recent projects include the world-renowned Scotiabank Giller Prize (CBC); New Year’s Eve special, From Ontario With Love (TVO); the critically acclaimed docuseries, Anyone’s Game (CBC); the docuseries While the Rest of Us Die: Secrets of the American Government with Jeffrey Wright (VICE-TV); and the multiple award-winning short film, The New Normal.

About Matt Wells
Actor, writer and musician Matt Wells is best known for creating, producing and starring in the critically acclaimed film Crown and Anchor. His entertainment journey began as frontman for the notorious Newfoundland hardcore-punk band Bucket Truck. It led him to become a respected journalist for MuchMusic, Bravo and MTV, where he interviewed everyone from The Police, Quentin Tarantino and Lee Daniels to Mariah Carey, Sir Ben Kingsley, and Lady Gaga. Since shifting his focus to acting and filmmaking, he’s appeared in Schitt’s Creek, Designated Survivor, Murdoch Mysteries, and the multiple award-winning short films The New Normal, as well as Poison in the Water, which he co-wrote with his daughter. Wells is represented by Carolyn Sterling at Grand Wave Entertainment.

About Greater Hood Productions
Greater Hood Productions is the brainchild of Vince Buda and Matt Wells born out of long conversations on even longer socially distanced walks during the pandemic. The full-service production house is dedicated to creating, developing and producing film, television, documentaries, podcasts and more that explore the ideas that fall through the cracks — stories of truth, resilience and the perseverance of the human spirit. www.greaterhood.ca

Industry News

Blink49 Studios plans TV adaptation of internationally bestselling author Marissa Stapley’s sophomore novel ‘Things To Do When It’s Raining’

March 15, 2022 Greg David

From a media release:

BLINK49 STUDIOS, the recently launched content venture-backed by global film and TV studio Endeavor Content, has pre-empted rights to New York Times bestselling author Marissa Stapley’s second novel, Things To Do When It’s Raining, a Canadian epic romantic drama.

Things To Do When It’s Raining, which will be set in Canada’s 1,000 Islands, centers around a woman who is driven by deception and despair to return home from the city to her grandparent’s inn. There, she encounters Gabe, the island-dwelling boy who was her companion as a child and her first love as a teenage girl, but then disappeared from her life without a trace. The ultimately life affirming story unravels the past and braids together three generations of love affairs. Things To Do When It’s Raining published with Simon & Schuster Canada and Graydon House US in 2018 and has since sold in Germany, Norway, the Czech Republic, Italy, Turkey, France, and Slovakia. Interest in the property renewed after Stapley’s 2021 novel Lucky became the first Canadian novel to be selected for Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine Book Club.

BLINK49 STUDIOS will serve as the studio for the television adaption. Newman and Rankin will Executive Produce the series on behalf of BLINK49.

Marissa Stapley is the internationally bestselling author of four novels, most recently the New York Times bestselling Lucky (S&S Canada), which was selected as a Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick in December 2021. Her first novel was Mating for Life (published by S&S Canada, Atria US, Rowohlt Germany); then Things to Do When It’s Raining (S&S Canada, Graydon House US, multiple translation territories); followed by The Last Resort (S&S Canada, Graydon House, Allen & Unwin ANZ, and multiple translation territories). The Last Resort was named one of 2019’s Best Beach Reads by Oprah Magazine, New York Post and The Globe and Mail, and shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award (Best Crime Fiction Novel). Stapley recently teamed up with bestselling author Karma Brown (Recipe for a Perfect Wife), as the writing duo Maggie Knox to publish holiday romances, launching with The Holiday Swap, which was an instant bestseller and is already under option for TV (Putnam US/Penguin Canada/Hodder Books).

BLINK49 STUDIOS is a newly launched content venture with Endeavor Content as its anchor investor and lead strategic partner. Focusing heavily on a creative-first approach, BLINK49 STUDIOS is dedicated to partnering with best-in-class writers, creators and producers, as well as aggressively pursuing IP in Canada and throughout the world. Committed to applying significant resources to support new and diverse Canadian voices, the indie studio recently acquired the rights to “Hold My Girl”, the upcoming novel from emerging Canadian author Charlene Carr.

Industry News

New company, Melki Films Inc., launches with busy slate of documentary television

March 11, 2022 Greg David

From a media release:

Viveka Melki is proud to announce the launch of her new film, television and visual arts company, Melki Films Inc. The company, of which Viveka Melki is Founder and President, is based in Montreal.

“I’m thrilled to announce the birth of Melki Films Inc.”, said Melki. “As I have done previously while an independent filmmaker, my new company, Melki Films Inc., will create high-quality documentary and drama programming for Canadian and worldwide audiences, as well as curatorial work for art galleries and museums worldwide. Our projects will focus on the powerful human, emotional stories that emerge from dramatic social, economic, political and historical events and situations.”

Viveka Melki was born in The Gambia, West Africa, to a Lebanese and Indigenous Brazilian family, before completing her education in the UK and then immigrating to Canada, her adopted homeland. Melki identifies as a racialized settler to Turtle Island. She brings her experience of having lived, and worked, in repressive regimes to her storytelling, often incorporating feminist themes and perspectives. She is multilingual, speaking English, French, Spanish, Arabic and Wolof (one of the languages of West Africa).

Melki Films Inc.’s initial slate of productions include:

“Branded” (working title) – for CBC The Passionate Eye. TV-hour & Festival/Theatrical versions. A powerful, candid documentary about the domestic sexual trafficking across Canada. Currently in production, for release in 2023.

“Butterfly Hunters” (working title) – for Telus in British Columbia and Alberta. TV-hour & Festival/Theatrical versions. An inside look at the shadowy world of sexual trafficking in Western Canada. In production in 2022 for release in 2023.

“The Eric Brunt Collection” (working title) – in partnership with the Canadian War Museum, this project is a collection of compelling one-on-one conversations by filmmaker Eric Brunt with some of the few surviving Canadian veterans of World War II. The collection, comprised on 416 filmed interviews already completed and another 68 being filmed in 2022, will be a highlight of the CWM’s major new database called “In Their Voices”, to launch in 2024.

“Alouette” – docu-animation. An 11-minute film funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, New Chapters Program, featuring WW2 Hong Kong POW camp veteran Douglas Rees. In production, for completion in 2024.

“The Himalayan Blue Poppy/ SākrƏd” – Melki is creating, curating and producing this major international touring visual arts exhibition, launching in 2024. The exhibition, presented by Les Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens in partnership with the Montreal Botanical Garden, will innovatively celebrate the stunningly beautiful, magical flower of legend, the Himalayan Blue Poppy, known as Meconopsis, on the centenary of its cultivation by gardeners worldwide.

Melki Films Inc. also has numerous other projects in active development, including:

“Roadside Heroes” – Eric Brunt & Viveka Melki will co-directing this feature-length documentary. In search of purpose and identity, an LGBTQ+ filmmaker crisscrosses Canada, recording the untold stories of other outsiders: marginalized BIPOC Canadian veterans who served in World War Two.

“Gene d’Espoir (Gene of Hope)”, a French-language original, based on the life of Audrey-Ann Bélanger. It tells a remarkable tale of hope and determination.

Melki has assembled a talented production team at her new company, including Pierre P. Cardinal, CPA, Finance Director; Inga Sibiga, Production Coordinator; Emma Frattasio, Researcher & Digital Media; Roupen Markian, Production & Technical Assistant; Debra Kouri (Producer for Melki Films: Branded and Butterfly Hunters); Eric Brunt, Director & Editor, EB Collection and Roadside Heroes; and Jeremy Katz, Communications & Publicity Consultant.

Melki and the late Adam Pajot Gendron founded Rimouski-based Tortuga Films in 2006. Melki sold her interest in 2014 but continued to make films for Tortuga until 2020 as an independent filmmaker. For Tortuga, her films, some of which were made as English-language originals and others in French, include After Circus; Carricks, dans le sillage des Irlandais (Carricks, In the Wake of the Irish); and the FENCE.

Melki also created, curated and produced the highly acclaimed WAR Flowers: A Touring Art Exhibition/ Fleurs D’ARMES: une exposition d’art itinérante, an innovative, multi-sensorial exhibition exploring human nature in the landscape of war, through ‘floriography’, sculpture and scent. The exhibition moved audiences at every stop on its three-year tour, from its opening at Les Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens in Grand-Métis, Quebec, to the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, Campbell House Museum in Toronto, the Visitor Education Centre of the Canada National Vimy Memorial in Vimy, France, Château Ramezay Historic Site and Museum in Montreal, the Borealis Gallery in the Alberta Legislative Assembly Visitor Centre in Edmonton, and the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga.

Viveka Melki belongs to ARRQ, DOC Quebec, DOC Canada, and The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.

Melki Films is a supporter of, and contributor to, the organizations Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders and Not Just Tourists/Plus que touristes.

Melki Films has also just launched its own website, www.melkifilms.com, with information about the company and its projects, as well as regularly updated news about Melki Films Inc. and its activities.