Tag Archives: Michael Seater

Children's Programming, Industry News

WildBrain Television announces three more original greenlights from Canadian producers exclusive to Family Channel

From a media release:

WildBrain Television, one of Canada’s most-loved kids’ and family broadcast networks, announces that Family Channel, its flagship broadcast network, has greenlit three new content projects across live-action and animation, in partnership with independent Canadian producers. Exclusive to WildBrain Television in Canada, the new content will begin rolling out across the company’s broadcast and digital channels this September, continuing into 2023. WildBrain has also acquired global distribution rights for all three properties.

Heading up the live-action slate is Life with Luca, the 90-minute spin-off feature film of the beloved franchise, Life with Derek. Produced by Shaftesbury as an original commission by WildBrain’s Family Channel, the movie recently wrapped filming in Southern Ontario and will premiere on the network in early 2023. WildBrain is also now the exclusive worldwide distributor of the classic Life with Derek library (70×22′) and an earlier spin-off film, Vacation with Derek (1×90′).

­WildBrain Television’s animation lineup features Slugterra: Ascension, produced in partnership with Epic Story Media. The shorts will premiere exclusively on WildBrainTV in Canada in a sneak peek on September 5 at 2:50 p.m. ET, with new episodes beginning September 18 at 11:45 a.m. ET, before rolling out globally across WildBrain Spark’s Slugterra YouTube channels. Also newly greenlit is an expanded order of five half-hours to the popular new series Summer Memories, produced in partnership with A&N Productions, Aircraft Pictures and Yeti Farm Creative. Summer Memories debuted on Family Channel this summer, and the new stories will begin airing on Family Channel in 2023.

Life with Luca­ ­(1 x 90′) – coming to Family Channel early 2023

Life with Luca is the spin-off of the long-running, beloved franchise Life with Derek. The movie picks up fifteen years later and follows Derek (Michael Seater) and Casey (Ashley Leggat) as they each navigate parenthood and raise distinctly different teenagers. Derek is a successful musician in Paris and the single dad of a 14-year-old girl named Skyler (Isabel Rose Silva) who is smart, funny, and studious and who has recently been testing the boundaries set by her father. Casey is a lawyer and a married mother of three in Toronto and is quite comfortable setting limits, though her eldest, 14-year-old Luca (Marcus Cornwall)—lover of pranks, gaming, and skateboarding—is constantly crossing them. Both Derek and Casey spontaneously decide to surprise their own parents at their recently constructed ‘forever home’ in rural Ontario but encounter each other instead. Casey and Derek are happy to see each other, but the teenaged cousins—who have barely seen each other over the years (and never really liked what they saw)—don’t get along at all, uniting only to get into serious trouble.

The 90-minute live-action film is produced by Shaftesbury, with the participation of the Canada Media Fund and Shaw Rocket Fund, as an original commission by WildBrain’s Family Channel. The movie is set to debut on Family Channel in February 2023.

Life with Luca was created by Life with Derek series creator, Daphne Ballon and Life with Derek writer, Jeff Biederman. Ron Murphy (Jann, Trailer Park Boys) directs. Christina Jennings, Scott Garvie, Liz Levine, and Jennifer McCann are executive producers, and Marek Posival and Alex House are producers.

Slugterra: Ascension ­(20 x 4′) – coming to WildBrainTV and Family Channel fall 2022

The wait is over! For the first time in six years Eli Shane, Trixie Sting, and the slugs are back with more comedy, action, and exciting escapades in Slugterra: Ascension. After a rockslide leaves them trapped alone with only a few of their slugs, Eli and Trixie have to be smart and strategic to outwit and outrun villainous twins Locke and Lode and their deadly gattler blasters—that is until they find the legendary Universal Slug! At first glance “Uni” looks like any derpy little flopper. But once transformed, this powerful creature can imitate any slug’s strongest move! Too bad it comes with a price Eli and Trixie won’t be happy about paying. The twenty brand-new four-minute CG-animated shorts will join the classic library of Slugterra episodes, the fan-favourite adventure series set deep underground where fierce opponents collect, train and battle it out with their arsenals of fantastical transforming slugs.

Slugterra was created by Asaph Fipke, and Slugterra: Ascension is produced in association with Epic Story Media’s Ken Faier, acting as executive producer, along with showrunner Nancy Lees. The new series was animated at Island of Misfits (IOM) in Halifax. Additional executive producers include WildBrain’s Josh Scherba, Stephanie Betts and Anne Loi, and IOM’s Meaghan Clark. The series was directed by IOM’s Don Urquhart and produced by Epic Story Media’s Christine Cote and Marlene Schmidt.

Summer Memories ­(5 x 30′) – new episodes coming to Family Channel in 2023

Summer Memories adds five half-hours to the popular new series Summer Memories which launched this summer on Family Channel. The new stories dive further into the world and characters, following the adventures of best friends Jason and Ronnie as Jason looks back on the most pivotal summer of his life (which was just a few weeks ago). This is Jason’s summer of change…and he fears change. Lucky for him, he has charismatic, life adventurer Ronnie at his side. Summer Memories transcends time, space and memory—the good and the bad—as it chronicles Jason and Ronnie’s sweet, fun-filled relationship.

Summer Memories was created by veteran animator/producer Adam Yaniv and produced by A&N Productions, Aircraft Pictures and Yeti Farm Creative, with the financial support of the Canada Media Fund and Shaw Rocket Fund.

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Featured, The Wedding Planners

The Wedding Planners’ Michael Seater: “It speaks to themes I think everybody can get”

Frequent visitors to this site know I cover Murdoch Mysteries extensively. That means fans of the show know the name Michael Seater intimately. The veteran Canadian writer, director, producer and actor may very well be best-known for his portrayal of serial killer James Gillies on the period drama. But Murdoch isn’t his only acting gig.

Aside from Life with Derek, 18 to Life and Bomb Girls, Seater can be seen every Friday night on The Wedding Planners. There, he co-stars as James Clarkson—alongside Paige (Kimberly-Sue Murray) and Hannah (Madeline Leon), who take over their mother’s wedding planning business after she passes away suddenly.

We spoke to Michael Seater about The Wedding Planners, being an independent producer and … yes … playing James Gillies.

You’ve got a production company going. I know you’re making feature films. How did you end up playing James on The Wedding Planners?
Michael Seater: Beth Stevenson, who runs the show, was at Decode Entertainment, which did my first series back when I was a kid. She and I had a meeting earlier this year to talk about different things, sort of a general meeting and different things out there, from directing to acting. The Wedding Planners came along a couple of months later, which seems like good timing. It’s a really fun show. It speaks to themes I think everybody can get, which are loss and family and love.

James has a really interesting story. What’s the journey for him this season?
MS: Well, I think it’s interesting in that he’s left and there’s the appearance that he has figured it all out and doesn’t need this small-town life anymore, and I think the big city is more his speed. But bright lights, big city, things aren’t always as they seem. What happens to a lot of people in a big, giant metropolis like that, you quickly are living beyond your means. In how we operate today in an Instagram culture, we have this pressure, which I think has always existed but never more than now, to present like you are living a certain way that maybe you can’t afford.

I don’t think he plans on staying for long, but that might change because circumstances change. I think when you suffer such a great loss, you realize how important and valuable family is. Even if on the surface James plays sarcastic often, that he doesn’t really care that much about being there, I think that’s all a deflective veneer that he uses so people don’t see that he’s lost his mom and he’s hurting and he needs to be around his sisters right now.

Can you speak to any of the input you had into this character?
MS: There is a lot of dialogue in finding the voice, and a lot of figuring out the nuanced nature of, especially, a queer character. Making it feel that it’s honest and not put-on. I’m a queer person myself. I watch a lot of Drag Race. I want the language to be authentic. Then, there’s the story aspect of making sure that when we promise something in a story that we deliver on it.

You have a production company with Paula Brancati. Is working in somebody else’s sandbox, in your view, an exercise in not flexing producer’s muscles and getting back into the acting? 
MS: Yes and no. I give myself a talk sort of before I do a project where I am hired solely as actor. I am not shy with my opinions, and so I need to make sure that I’m not stepping on too many toes.

The three siblings are sort of the head of the department, and we are very inherently involved in stories. So, I think, from actors I’ve known throughout the years who when I was young, I kind of looked at as examples. Peter Outerbridge on ReGenesis is somebody who was a really magnificent lead on a show and how he works on how he pushed for the script to always be the best it could be. He looked out for younger or guest actors who don’t have a voice the way that he did.

But then, on the other hand, I tell myself, ‘OK, you’re not the director of this. Don’t try and get involved and say, ‘Well, what are you doing with the cameras?’ You’ve got to let somebody else do their job.’ And I hope I do that. Making a TV show, making a film is always such a collaborative endeavour anyways. Lots of people wear different hats, but even if you only ever wear one hat, your department affects another department. So, it’s always about communicating with one another and the best idea wins. That’s how I try and operate.

Murdoch Mysteries fans know you play James Gillies, perhaps the ultimate villain on that show. What was that like playing that character?
MS: I have the best time going to play on that show. I mean, a bunch of crew on that show was from shows I had done previously. I knew a lot of the cast, especially the longer I did the show. So, I would go back every summer and it was like visiting your favourite aunt and uncle for a week in the summer. It was family. We had such a good time and just got to play.

Gillies is so much fun because he’s one of those wonderfully truly classically evil characters. And by the later episodes, everyone knows he’s evil. So, it’s not like, ‘Oh, I need to hide this and play nice till the very end and we get the reveal at the end.’ I get to come in guns blazing and hold needles to babies’ necks and hairpins to women’s throats and all this fun stuff and get my face mangled. It was so good.

Also, I wouldn’t ever say that we’ve seen the last of Gillies. I’ve always said that was just his good twin and see, the evil twin used that weird brain thing that made the guy do the talking, use that on his good twin and the evil twin’s still alive and kicking. That’s just my opinion.

The Wedding Planners airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Citytv.

Images courtesy of Rogers Media.Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Featured, The Wedding Planners

The Wedding Planners brings much-needed nostalgia to primetime TV

In a world full of turmoil and seeking comfort, Beth Stevenson’s creations couldn’t be more timely.

If you’ve tuned in to a Harlequin or Hallmark holiday movie, you’ve likely seen her stuff. Stevenson’s IMDB page is chockfull of such seasonal fare as Snowbound for Christmas, A Christmas Recipe for Romance, Twinkle all the Way or Christmas with a Prince. They’ve quickly become holiday classics. Now Stevenson, Brain Power Studio founder and executive producer, jumps into primetime TV with a new series.

The Wedding Planners, debuting Friday at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Citytv, introduces us to the Clarkson Wedding Essentials, a family-run business that is a one-stop spot for wedding planning. The business is headed up by Marguerite (Michelle Nolden), who hopes her children—Paige (Kimberly-Sue Murray), James (Michael Seater) and Hannah (Madeline Leon)—will one day carry on the business. When that day comes suddenly, the siblings are forced to work together to pull off the perfect wedding.

We spoke to Beth Stevenson about The Wedding Planners, and why shows like it are the perfect salve for uncertain times.

How did The Wedding Planners come about?
Beth Stevenson: Some of Marguerite is actually a lot to do with my mom was such a big part of my life. The reason I’m in the film and television business is because she was actually studying to go into the film and television business after she had raised all of us. I come from a family with siblings and Brain Power is actually a family company and a lot of my siblings do work in the company. My stepsons work in the company. We have that familial connection together with the fact that we’re building something and we’re working on something together. There’s a lot of comparison to how Marguerite has grown the business and expropriated bedrooms. We thought, ‘This will be a really nice location to base a series out of.’

What about the partnership with Rogers?
BS: Nataline Rodrigues, who’s the director of original programming, has this beautiful timeslot that’s called Fall In Love Fridays. We were doing many Harlequin films and most were Canadian content productions that we were doing for various Canadian networks. But predominantly, we were exporting them. She found me and said, ‘Hey, I see you’re doing romcoms and things that would work really well for our network.’ And we said to her, ‘We’re working on this nice limited series that is going to be about a family of wedding planners.’ We continued to talk and then we started to quickly move it through development and she believed in the concept and we went into production.

When it comes to putting together a project like this, a limited series as opposed to a two hour TV movie, it would seem there would be more space to play around. 
BS: It’s definitely nice to build worlds and to look at maybe a dynasty of characters that are together that can continue on. It’s good to do that two-hour movie to make sure you get the chemistry right in the casting, that you’re bringing these worlds together. With The Wedding Planners, we get the best of both worlds because we have this definitive storyline which is the bride and groom that we’re following that episode. And then you have this beautiful enriching family drama that’s flowing underneath it.

The TV-movies you have made have quickly become kind of go-to programming during the holidays. What is it that we love about these so much? Is it escapism?
BS: I go towards more of the word nostalgia. The holiday season has grown to a place of we want this comfort, we want this nostalgia, we want to have these moments where it’s that Christmas tingle people get. The nice thing from our adaptations is they’re coming from Christmas novels in many instances.

A lot of our movies are on Amazon Prime where we get the analytics every week. And it is phenomenal. It doesn’t stop in January I will tell you. Because I think again, people need that in these times. I think the barrage and the digital world can be very exhausting. So if you can get that comfort to come back and to follow a family or to follow a couple and to root for them and to have a little bit of a break, that’s, I think, making a big difference right now in the world.

The Wedding Planners airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Citytv.

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Industry News, The Wedding Planners

Citytv’s new original drama series, The Wedding Planners, premieres March 27

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From a media release:

Cozy up with your love and say “I do” to an all-new original drama The Wedding Planners, available on Citytv and Citytv NOW. Produced by Brain Power Studio in association with Citytv, the romantic scripted series follows the Clarkson siblings as they plan dream weddings for new couples-to-be, but not without their own behind-the-scenes family drama, as they work through their own complicated relationships. Citytv ties the knot on Friday, March 27 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, followed by six one-hour weekly episodes.

In the two-hour premiere event, The Wedding Planners opens as the siblings face the loss of their mother and wedding-planner extraordinaire Marguerite (played by Michelle Nolden). They quickly pick up the pieces and discover that before passing away, Marguerite had planned for many years of weddings for her children to fulfill. For better or for worse, the siblings reconnect and commit themselves to the family business. With new hope and inspiration, they work to tackle one wedding at a time, no matter how challenging the couple or budget, with a goal to honour their mother’s legacy.

Featuring an all-Canadian ensemble cast, the romantic drama follows the ups-and-downs of the Clarkson siblings: Paige (Kimberly Sue-Murray), the young mom balancing work and family, pressured to be perfect under not-so-perfect circumstances; James (Michael Seater), the New York City fashion designer with a troubled past; and Hannah (Madeline Leon), the peacekeeper with a kind heart and adventurous spirit who is also looking for love.

The Wedding Planners is produced by Brain Power Studio in association with Citytv, a division of Rogers Sports & Media. From Brain Power Studio, Creator and Executive Producer is Beth Stevenson, followed by Executive Producer Nancy Yeaman, and Producer Myles Milne.Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail