Tag Archives: Rogers Media

Vagrant Queen

Links: Vagrant Queen, Season 1

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Vagrant Queen Danishka Esterhazy on breaking down genre barriers
“It’s pretty exciting to see how many women have been hired recently. I’m just hoping that this will open up to more women directors that are passionate about telling these types of stories.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Vagrant Queen proves nothing’s gonna stop this trio
Throughout its first two episodes, SYFY’s Vagrant Queen has already made it abundantly clear that it never takes itself too seriously, is always down for a joke, and is ready to subvert whatever viewers think they know about the space genre. Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Vagrant Queen brings an all-female lens to the space opera
“We don’t have enough female voices in genre, in action, and in sci-fi. So it was very important for me, when I was put in this position of power as a showrunner, to amplify those voices.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Vagrant Queen’s Adriyan Rae on what it was like tackling the role of a badass space queen
“I was really interested in being a part of something that had a black female lead who was badass and is not defined by her sexuality. She’s just this badass character who pushes the envelope and is looking for her mom. It really resonated with me.” Continue reading.

From Josh Bell of CBR:

Link: Vagrant Queen is a fun, scrappy space adventure
The low-fi feel is part of the show’s charm, and the characters often joke about how unreliable their equipment is. The Winnipeg is constantly breaking down and losing parts, and the heroes’ blasters are always running out of batteries when they need them most. Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Vagrant Queen: Tim Rozon’s comedic skills shine in his goofiest role yet
“When Vagrant Queen came along, I was in Florida. I drove up to Orlando to do a self tape and loved the audition. If anyone has heard me talk about my first experience with Doc Holliday, it reminded me of that and just one of those parts I thought, ‘I can be this guy. I gotta get this guy. I can do this.’” Continue reading.

From Adam Buckman of MediaPost:

Link: Syfy space series boldly goes where others have gone before
There are enough shootouts, perils and narrow escapes to satisfy fans of these kinds of shows, and vex the rest of us. Continue reading. 

From Raffy Ermac of Pride.com:

Link: ‘Vagrant Queen’ is the diverse, queer show the sci-fi world needs right now
“We were excited to tell this sort of more intimate story about this former queen going on a rescue mission, and it not being a story about necessarily good and evil, monarchy versus the revolution. It was just a very kind of more intimate story about this young woman trying to find her place in the world, and reconnect with her long-lost mother.” Continue reading. 

From Eric Amaya of Rotten Tomatoes:

Link: Vagrant Queen: Your new Guardians of the Galaxy-style TV obsession
“I haven’t felt so right for a part pretty much since Doc Holliday. Doc can be pretty intense, whereas Isaac is just a bumbling fool, and I feel like I’m a little closer to that at times.” Continue reading.

From Charles Trapunski of Brief Take:

Link: Interview: Vagrant Queen’s Adriyan Rae
“It’s my dream role and I’m surrounded by amazing people, from Jem [Garrard] to my castmates, to the cameramen, to the grip, to all the cast and crew. It’s a story of how equality is equality, love is love, how it’s okay to be a free thinker, it empowers women, it’s woke without pushing it down your throat, it’s entertaining while still funny and it will still pull on your heartstrings.” Continue reading.

From Nicole Hill of Den of Geek:

Link: Vagrant Queen: A fresh take on the hero’s journey
“I really love the idea of this space opera that really focused in on a very kind of personal and intimate journey and that you don’t really get to see much in this genre.” Continue reading.

From Cynthia Vinney of CBR.com:

Link: Vagrant Queen’s Adriyan Rae celebrates her “dream role” in the sci-fi show
“I started working on her mental and how it would feel to be an orphan, how it would feel to be on the run for so many years, how it would feel to feel as though both of your parents have died and then to hear that one of them hasn’t.” Continue reading.

From Russ Burlingame of Comicbook.com:

Link: Vagrant Queen star Adriyan Rae hopes they could get a second season that goes beyond the existing comics
“They made our outfits so that they weren’t super, super tight leather, and they were materials that could move with us. The costume is department is amazing. They made it distinctly so I could do all these great things in the outfit.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Vagrant Queen’s Alex McGregor on what draws everyone to Amae
“She’s really good at heart and has a lightness about her that shines through. People often confide in her because she’s so open. She loves people and is open to any alien or being. I feel that she’s like a therapist in many ways because people that generally wouldn’t be speaking about their issues do so with her.” Continue reading. 

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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.

Images courtesy of Rogers Media.

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Hudson & Rex

Link: ‘Hudson & Rex’: Charming canine actor challenges us to look at animal labour

From Kendra Coulter of The Conversation:

Link: ‘Hudson & Rex’: Charming canine actor challenges us to look at animal labour
As the show wraps up its second season, it’s clear that Rex/Diesel has charmed audiences. His work also invites us to think more about animals’ minds, work and contributions to our shared communities. Continue reading.

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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.

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