Tag Archives: Lark Productions

Production underway in British Columbia on Season 2 of CBC’s Allegiance

From a media release:

Lark Productions and CBC today announced that Season 2 of police drama ALLEGIANCE (10×60) is currently shooting across BC’s Lower Mainland through December 5, 2024. 

Premiering in winter 2024, ALLEGIANCE was CBC’s most-watched new series of the 2023-24 season.* The high-octane police drama uniquely set in Surrey, BC, is a CBC Original series from Lark Productions in association with Universal International Studios, starring Supinder Wraich (Sort Of) as Sabrina Sohal and Enrico Colantoni (English Teacher) as Vince Brambilla. Season 2 welcomes Samer Salem (The Expanse, The Boys) to the ensemble cast as a series regular, portraying Detective Corporal Zak Kalaini. Plus, showrunners Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern (Flashpoint, X Company) are back at the helm of ALLEGIANCE, a series created by Anar Ali (Transplant).

The series focuses on identity and belonging, policing and politics, and finding truth within the heart of a flawed justice system. Season 2 will be rooted in a powerful set of engaging and topical storylines including online gambling, tech janitors and international schools. Lead character Sabrina Sohal (Wraich) joins the Serious Crimes Unit of the CFPC and has six months to prove she’s got what it takes to be a detective. She’s paired with a newly transferred partner who has a decade more of experience compared to her and a very different approach to the job. While navigating a complex love life and an equally complicated family life, Sabrina is determined to take down the man responsible for framing her father.

“Audiences embraced Allegiance, and we are excited for viewers to see the next instalment on CBC this winter. Our creative team continues to raise the bar this season and we are grateful for the opportunity to continue to explore the lives of our characters and tell these important stories,” said Erin Haskett, President, Lark Productions. 

Returning series regulars include Stephen Lobo, Adolyn H. Dar, David Cubitt, Crystal Balint, Toby Levins, Melanie Papalia, and Andres Joseph.

A CBC Original series, ALLEGIANCE is produced by Lark Productions in association with Universal International Studios, a division of Universal Studio Group, with NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution handling global sales. Stephanie Morgenstern, Mark Ellis and Anar Ali serve as Executive Producers alongside Lark Productions’ Erin Haskett, Nicole Mandes, David Valleau, Tex Antonucci and Season 2 director, Nimisha Mukerji.

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Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent is a killer homegrown addition to the storied franchise

It was about time that the Law & Order franchise headed north of the border. With four international versions airing around the world, Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent debuts Thursday at 8 p.m. Eastern on Citytv.

You may have seen the massive billboards in Toronto, the teasers on Citytv, the cast appearances at a recent Toronto Maple Leafs tilt and the social media posts. Rogers/Citytv is expecting big things from Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent. Judging from the first episode I screened, the show will deliver.

Starring  Aden Young (Rectify, The Disappearance) as Detective Sergeant Henry Graff, Kathleen Munroe (Chicago Med, Call Me Fitz) as Detective Sergeant Frankie Bateman, Karen Robinson (Schitt’s Creek, Pretty Hard Cases) as Inspector Vivienne Holness and K.C. Collins (Pretty Hard Cases, Shoot the Messenger) as Deputy Crown Attorney Theo Forrester, the first episode of Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent hits the ground running and never looks back. Mixing the wry humour of the Law & Order franchise with crimes and a killer guest cast, I can’t believe it’s taken this long for a Canadian take to air.

We spoke to executive producer Amy Cameron about how the series came about, “being Canadian,” and how the iconic “dun-dun” can and can’t be used.

Walk me through the process of how Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent came to be.
Amy Cameron: Well, it came through Erin Haskett at Lark Productions. Erin has Lark Productions, which is based in Vancouver. Universal Studio Group are minority shareholders and they hold the format license for Law & Order. They’re always looking for different places to bring Law & Order and what would make sense and what’s the right fit.

I think this conversation started a couple of years ago now with Erin and Rogers about whether or not they could do a Law & Order Canada. And when push came to shove, ultimately people felt that Law & Order Toronto was the sort of city where they wanted to have this start in Canada rather than Vancouver. They’re a Vancouver production company.

I used to be an exec on a project of Erin’s when I was at CBC, but other than that, we hadn’t worked together, but we are friends and enjoy each other’s company and similarly think about the industry. Last Christmas, she came to us and said, just after Christmas, ‘Would you guys be willing to take something on with me and produce it in Toronto and be our co-producer on the show?’ Sure.

Aden Young and Kathleen Munroe

And then it turned out it was Law & Order, which honestly, I spent the winter and the spring kind of feeling like it was all a bit of a surreal joke. I’m not actually checking out studio space for Law & Order Toronto. I’m not actually looking at crew for Law & Order. I mean, I was such a super fan

Tassie [Cameron] ended up writing a pilot that was presented and that was accepted, and we found out that it was green-lit on a Thursday. I should look at the dates, but it was the Thursday, a Thursday night, we found out that we were going to go ahead and it was announced to the world on the Monday.

Were still reeling with the information that we were green-lit, and we were going to produce Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent when the rest of the world found out too. That was the end of May, the beginning of June, and we started filming at the end of August. So it was insanely quick to turn around, locking down a studio space, getting our key creatives in place, having our designer design a set, and finding directors. The casting process was so wild, how do you define what’s Canadian? There’s the idea of trying to define how Canada is different from the U.S. What is Canadian versus what is American? No one thing can, there’s no one way to answer that question. It feels like it’s a million little decisions,

We wanted to make sure that this version of Law & Order was imbued with Canadian creatives, Canadian decisions, very much embedded in the Canadian culture and mindset and way of doing and creating. It was pretty wild. We were on the road for the first two weeks because our sets weren’t ready. It was wild. So much fun though. No time to stop and second-guess things. You’re just going.

This being a Dick Wolf creation, is there kind of a checklist that you had to meet? Did he see episodes and have to approve anything?
AC: With the format agreement, you have access to Wolf executives for consultation purposes. We had a wonderful conversation with their post-producer, and we were able to sort of dig into, ‘OK, how do you do this? What’s this with those location cards, with the use of dun-dun? It was so incredibly valuable to have someone just say it out loud, which is the dun-dun sound is never used as an exclamation mark on a scene or music. If you have a score going, you can never count on the dun-dun as the thing that takes you. It’s a small nuance, but it’s its own entity, and it’s not meant for emphasis.

There are certain guidelines, when it came to writing the scripts. For Criminal Intent, you’re aiming for about 10% of the episode from the criminal’s perspective. It is much more an intellectual pursuit of a criminal rather than a physical one.

But for the most part, Wolf and Dick Wolf were hands-off. That said, he did watch the first episode, and he really liked it. The feedback we got was the Canadians did good work.

Karen Robinson

The cast is so strong. Aden Young, Kathleen Munroe, Karen Robinson and K.C. Collins really hit the ground running and are wonderful. Was there chemistry with the cast right away?
AC: The only character that Tassie wrote with the actor in mind was Holness, Karen’s character. We had worked with Karen, and we knew that she would be able to bring it, that she would be able to bring in that humanity and humour when needed.

Working with K.C. on Pretty Hard Cases, we knew how strong an actor he was and really loved working with him again. Aden and Kathleen have worked together in the past. They get along very well.

Rogers and Citytv couldn’t have given you a better time slot on Thursday. You’re right after the mothership. Are you cautiously optimistic for a second season?
AC: We don’t know about the second season, but I feel we have done everything we can to get a second season. If this season is the only season that we get to share with fans, I would be disappointed. And yet I’m incredibly proud. I’m so proud of our crew, they knocked it out of the park. The sets are spectacular. Oleg Savytski is our production designer. Unbelievable. The performances from our actors, the commitment of the writers to cracking the formula, cracking the format, just even our post team, the editors, and the attention to detail in terms of the edit and understanding that … I don’t think there’s anything else we could have done. It is up to Canadian audiences to show up if they want a second season.

Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. Eastern on Citytv.

Featured cast image courtesy of Steve Wilkie. Images courtesy of Rogers Media.

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Global greenlights Season 4 of original scripted series Family Law

From a media release:

All rise! Today, Global announced that hit Canadian legal drama Family Law has been greenlit for a fourth season with 10 all-new episodes. Produced by SEVEN24 Films and Lark Productions, and created by Canadian award-winning author Susin Nielsen, Season 4 starts production in Vancouver this March. Jewel Staite, Victor Garber, Zach Smadu, Genelle Williams and Lauren Holly are all set to return for the new season. This renewal comes ahead of the show’s highly anticipated Season 3 Canadian premiere, set to be announced later this year.

Season 4 of the hit Canadian legal drama Family Law finds Abigail Bianchi (Jewel Staite) tackling intriguing new cases as she juggles work, family, and her love life. Abigail’s father Harry (Victor Garber), and her half-siblings Daniel (Zach Smadu) and Lucy (Genelle Williams) face their own unique challenges, balancing their ever-complicated professional and personal lives. The team continues to grapple with unconventional cases this season including surrogacy, parental liability and “rental families” – all while managing their own fraught family dynamics.

Viewers can catch up on Seasons 1 and 2 of Family Law only on STACKTV and the Global TV App.

Family Law is produced by SEVEN24 Films (HeartlandJANN) and Lark Productions (Allegiance, Law and Order Toronto: Criminal Intent). It was created by Susin Nielsen (Robson ArmsCedar Cove), who also serves as executive producer and showrunner. The series is executive produced by Jordy Randall, Tom Cox, Erin Haskett and Andy Mikita. This season’s writers include Sarah Dodd, Ken Craw, Sonja Bennett and Corey Liu. Directors include Andy Mikita, David Frazee, Alysse Leite-Rogers, Siobhan Devine and Damon Vignale.eOne distributes the series internationally.

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Supinder Wraich and Enrico Colantoni to star in the new CBC original drama Allegiance

From a media release:

CBC and Lark Productions today announced casting and production details for Anar Ali’s (Transplant) character-driven police procedural ALLEGIANCE (10×60), now in production in Vancouver and BC’s lower mainland. A CBC Original series from the award-winning team at Lark Productions in association with Universal International Studios, a division of Universal Studio Group, the series features an ensemble cast led by Supinder Wraich (Sort Of), Enrico Colantoni (Station Eleven), Stephen Lobo (Continuum), Adolyn H. Dar (Superman & Lois), Brian Markinson (A Million Little Things) and David Cubitt (Virgin River); with showrunners Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern (Flashpoint, X Company) at the helm. Greenlit by CBC in early 2023, ALLEGIANCE will premiere on the free CBC Gem streaming service and CBC TV in winter 2024.

ALLEGIANCE focuses on identity and belonging, policing and politics, and finding truth within the heart of a flawed justice system. The drama stars Wraich as Sabrina Sohal, a star rookie police officer who must grapple with the limits of the justice system as she fights to exonerate her politician father Ajeet Sohal (Lobo). Sohal serves her diverse hometown of Surrey alongside Vince Brambilla (Colantoni), a veteran training officer who sees her potential but doesn’t always agree with her forward-thinking methods. ALLEGIANCE is the story of a young woman caught between her allegiance to her flag, to her badge, and to her family.

A CBC Original Series ALLEGIANCE is produced by Lark Productions in association with CBC, with NBCUniversal Global Distribution handling the distribution of the series globally. Showrunners Stephanie Morgenstern and Mark Ellis also serve as Executive Producers with Series Creator Anar Ali, alongside Lark Productions’ Erin Haskett, Nicole Mendes, David Valleau and Tex Antonucci.

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Casting announced for Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent coming to Citytv Spring 2024

From a media release:

Lark Productions and Cameron Pictures Inc., in association with Citytv, announce casting for the highly-anticipated crime drama Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent. The Canadian iteration of the longest-running scripted drama brand in TV history features an all-Canadian ensemble cast that includes Aden Young (Rectify, Black Robe) as Detective Sergeant Henry Graff, Kathleen Munroe (City on Fire, Patriot) as Detective Sergeant Frankie Bateman, Karen Robinson (Schitt’s Creek, Echoes) as Inspector Vivienne Holness, K.C. Collins (The Cleaning Lady, White Dog) as Deputy Crown Attorney Theo Forrester, Nicola Correia-Damude (Shadowhunters, Resident Alien) as Forensic Pathologist Dr. Lucy Da Silva, and Araya Mengesha (Nobody, Anne with an E) as tech expert Mark Yohannes.

A psychological thriller wrapped in a criminal investigation, the Canadian adaptation follows two elite detectives from the Specialized Criminal Investigations unit as they investigate high-profile crimes and homicides in metro Toronto. Production on the 10 one-hour original episodes is underway in Toronto and is slated to air on Citytv in Spring 2024.

Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent, based on the classic series created by Dick Wolf for Universal Television, follows the Criminal Intent format the international brand is known for, showcasing original Canadian stories written, produced by and starring Canadians.

Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent is produced by Lark Productions and Cameron Pictures Inc. in association with Citytv and distributed by Universal Television. Tassie Cameron (Pretty Hard Cases, Mary Kills People, Rookie Blue) is the series Showrunner. Tassie, Erin Haskett, Amy Cameron, David Valleau, Alex Patrick and Holly Dale serve as Executive Producers. Tex Antonucci and Jillian Locke are Co-Executive Producers, Wanda Chaffey is Producer and Caledonia Brown is Co-Producer.

Award-winning filmmaker Holly Dale (Transplant, Mary Kills People, Law & Order SVU) directs the premiere episode, episode 103, and the finale. Additional directors tapped for this season are Peter Stebbings (102), David Wellington (104), Sudz Sutherland (105), Rachel Leiterman (106), Winnifred Jong (107), Sharon Lewis (108), and David Straiton (109).

Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent is produced under the jurisdiction of ACTRA and the WGC in Canada.

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