Tag Archives: Rookie Blue

Lea Thompson and Stacey Farber cast as dynamic mother and daughter duo in CTV original series, The Spencer Sisters

From a media release:

CTV and Entertainment One (eOne), together with Buffalo Gal Pictures, today announced that award-winning television and film actress, director, and producer Lea Thompson (Back To The Future, CAROLINE IN THE CITY) and acclaimed Canadian actress Stacey Farber (VIRGIN RIVER, SCHITT’S CREEK) will headline the upcoming CTV Original procedural series, THE SPENCER SISTERS.

Created by Alan McCullough (PRIVATE EYES, ROOKIE BLUE) and executive produced and co-showrun by McCullough and Jenn Engels (SORT OF), the lighthearted 10-episode, one-hour series centres on a hot-headed former police officer Darby Spencer (Farber) and her estranged, internationally renowned, mystery novelist mother, Victoria Spencer (Thompson). Despite opposite personalities, differing sensibilities, and a complicated history, they embark on the unlikeliest of ventures: becoming partners in a private detective agency. THE SPENCER SISTERS is set to begin production next month in Winnipeg, with broadcast slated for 2023. Additional details are to be announced at a later date.

As one of the titular characters, Victoria Spencer (Thompson) is an intelligent, charismatic, and renowned best-selling author of mystery novels, who is suffering from crippling writer’s block. When her estranged daughter Darby returns home, Victoria seizes the opportunity to reconnect with her. After the two work to solve a crime together, Victoria is inspired by the experience – and the possibility of a mended relationship with her daughter – to sit behind the keyboard once more.

Darby Spencer (Farber) is a smart, opinionated, and passionate woman who follows in her late father’s footsteps and becomes a police officer – much to Victoria’s stark disapproval. Carrying an innate intellect and the natural intuition of an experienced detective, Darby’s career aspirations come to a halt when she impetuously quits her job as a police constable after an unjust reprimand. About to turn 30 and in a dead-end relationship with a cheating boyfriend, she returns home, where to her surprise, she finds she may have more in common with her mother than she thought.

Talent biographies for the leading actresses are as follows:

Lea Thompson
Lea Thompson is actress, singer, and director, continuously honing her craft for over 40 years. She is best known for starring in the iconic Back To The Future films. Thompson has also starred in All The Right Moves with Tom Cruise, George Lucas’s Howard The Duck, John Hughes Some Kind Of Wonderful, and Red Dawn. Thompson won the People’s Choice award for the title role in the NBC sitcom CAROLINE IN THE CITY. Her acting credits are many, including Sally Bowles in Cabaret on Broadway, THE JANE DOE MYSTERIES, 102 episodes of the Peabody award-winning series SWITCHED AT BIRTH, and many telefilms and Sundance indies. Some of her directing credits include THE GOLDBERGS, Chuck Lorre’s CBS comedy MOM and YOUNG SHELDON, RESIDENT ALIEN, Greg Berlanti’s, STARGIRL, and STAR TREK: PICARD. Lea is perhaps most proud of her feature directorial debut The Year Of Spectacular Men, which her daughter Madelyn Deutch wrote, scored, and starred in, along with Lea and her other talented daughter Zoey Deutch. She has been married to their father, director Howard Deutch for 33 years. She is represented by Gilbertson Entertainment, Innovative Artists and Yorn, Levine, Barnes, Krintzman, Rubenstein, Kohner, Endlich & Gellman.

Stacey Farber
Stacey Farber is known for her compelling performances in numerous hit TV series— both dramatic and comedic. She recurs as grief-stricken Tara in the Netflix chart-topper VIRGIN RIVER and played villainous Leslie Larr in The CW’s breakout SUPERMAN & LOIS. She can also be seen in the award-winning comedies SCHITT’S CREEK (CBC/Pop TV), GRACE AND FRANKIE (Netflix), and 18 TO LIFE (CBC) as well as UnREAL (Lifetime), THE BRAVE (NBC), DIGGSTOWN (BET+), CHICAGO JUSTICE (NBC), SAVING HOPE (CTV/Ion TV), and ROOKIE BLUE (GLOBAL/ABC). For seven years, Stacey portrayed the fan-favourite character Ellie Nash in DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION (CTV). She is represented by The Characters Talent Agency, Manager Christina Gualazzi and A3 Artists Agency.

A CTV Original series, THE SPENCER SISTERS is produced by eOne together with Buffalo Gal Pictures with the participation of the Canada Media Fund and the Bell Fund, and is distributed internationally by eOne. The series is executive produced by McCullough and Jenn Engels, who are both co-showrunners. Jocelyn Hamilton serves as Executive Producer for eOne. Phyllis Laing and Jennifer Beasley are executive producers for Buffalo Gal Pictures.

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Morwyn Brebner and Andrew Akman launch Husk Media in partnership with Cineflix Media

From a media release:

Cineflix Media is teaming up with award-winning showrunner Morwyn Brebner and TV executive Andrew Akman to launch Husk Media, a new television production company.

Toronto-based Husk Media will develop and produce programming for broadcasters and streamers worldwide. With Brebner spearheading creative efforts and Akman leading commercial affairs, the company will focus on projects created by Brebner, as well as projects in partnership with emerging and established writers and showrunners.

Cineflix will provide Husk Media with start-up financing and operating support, and has a first-look to distribute the shingle’s content internationally. The new production company joins Cineflix’s growing joint venture lineup which includes Mirage producer Connect3 Media and International Emmy® Award-winning Marcella producer Buccaneer Media.

Most recently honoured as 2021 Showrunner of the Year by the Writers Guild of Canada, Morwyn Brebner has produced premium scripted television for networks and platforms around the world, and is behind some of the longest-running, most successful dramas ever produced in Canada. Brebner’s credits include creating global hit Coroner (CBC/The CW Network/NBCUniversal International Networks), as well as co-creating supernatural medical series Saving Hope (CTV/ION) and police drama Rookie Blue (ABC/Global Television).

Andrew Akman brings more than 20 years of experience in production, distribution, and broadcasting. He has held senior management positions at some of Canada’s largest media and entertainment companies and will be transitioning out of his current role as COO at Cineflix Media.

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Pretty Hard Cases: Sherry White and Meredith MacNeill preview Season 1

Sherry White and Meredith MacNeill are no strangers to CBC. White’s most recent project for the network was as director, executive producer and writer for Little Dog. MacNeill, meanwhile, has just come off five seasons as co-creator, writer, producer and star of Baroness Von Sketch Show. Now the two have paired for one of the most entertaining new series on the network, Pretty Hard Cases.

Debuting Wednesday at 9 p.m. on CBC, MacNeill stars as Sam Waszowski, a guns and gangs detective—and single mom—who finds herself teamed with drug squad detective Kelly Duff, played by Adrienne C. Moore (Orange Is the New Black). Together, the pair are trying to take down a neighbourhood gang dealing drugs and weapons. Co-created by White and Tassie Cameron—who previously worked together on Rookie Blue—Pretty Hard Cases is notable not only for its tone but its focus: telling the stories of two women in their 40s.

We spoke to Sherry White and Meredith MacNeill about the first season of Pretty Hard Cases.

Sherry, can you give me the background on how the show came about? Did you and Tassie Cameron keep in touch over the years and say ‘Let’s try and find something together’?
Sherry White: Tassie and I worked on Rookie Blue together and I was on that from the first season until the end. We got really close during the making of that. We moved on to do other things and there was a couple of times when people approached me with, ‘Could I take on some young writer’s cop show and try and help elevate it.’ Somebody came to Tassie and said it, and I’m like, ‘If there’s a demand for this, why don’t we do this ourselves?’ and really reflect more where we are now in our career. Rookie Blue is more about the early days of these characters and their careers.

This show is more about women who are in their 40s, who had given it all to their career and are finding themselves a little wanting for a full life. They’ve sacrificed a lot of their own personal goals in order to have their career, which is totally where Tassie and I were. We wanted to reflect our friendship and we wanted to reflect where we were in our careers and that sort of, what next? How else do we get a full life? We also wanted to have fun. We wanted it to be more in this sort of Paul Feig kind of… the ways he can celebrate women and be really raw and honest and funny about whatever situation they’re in, and I think we accomplished that with the show.

Meredith, did Sherry or Tassie come forward and say, ‘Hey, listen, we’ve got this character for you.’ How did you end up playing the role of Sam?
Meredith MacNeill: I was approached by Sherry and Tassie for the role, so I didn’t have to audition. When I was talking to Sherry about the role, I remember the absolute shock and pleasure and being completely thrilled.

How did you decide how you were going to play Sam? Did you have to learn how to rein her in a little bit?
MM: I was really fortunate to have Sherry and Tassie, who knew my work from Baroness. Actually, there was a lot of freedom on the floor. When I got the part, we talked a lot about, in terms of the physicality and the part, and the part was really on the page. I didn’t have to deviate much from that. In terms of feeling free to do whatever I wanted to bring to it, Sherry and Tassie, I would say, they were my rein-ers. Sherry directed some episodes and because she knew my work so well and we had such a great trust I’d be like, ‘I’m going to do this.’ And she’s like, ‘Great. Do it.’ In terms of reining in my physicality, Baroness and Pretty Hard Cases are such different shows, so the way it used my physicality was a bit different.

Sherry, how tightly scripted is Pretty Hard Cases?
SW: That was one of the major questions we had going into this because we knew we wanted them to find their way and all that stuff but as everyone knows, improv can get unwieldy and we didn’t want to have 65-minute episodes. We found a really good system where we mostly stuck to the text and certainly, for all the procedural stuff, there’s not a lot of improv room in that. You need just the facts, you need what that content was. In the more personal scenes, there was a lot more play and we would always allow for [Meredith] to, once we nailed it, just go. Just do something else if you wanted to play. I would say it was mostly not improvised, but definitely, enough to bring a special flavour that Meredith and Adrienne would bring themselves.

The relationship between Sam and her son is fascinating. Can you talk about how complicated this relationship is going to be as we see this first season roll out?
MM: It’s going to be extremely complicated. Sam is desperate for attention and the love and respect of her son. I’m a single mom and my daughter’s only 10 and I’m starting to feel like she would rather be with her friends. So imagine that amplified. And then Percy [Hynes White] is incredible to play opposite of. We had good chemistry as well, so we were finding a lot about the relationship as it was going. One of Sam’s big storylines for the show is her relationship with her son. It gets pretty exciting.

SW: And again, because loneliness is a theme in this show, there is nothing more lonely than being a single mother about to be an empty nester.

MM: I was so grateful because it’s been my therapy because it’s going to happen to me. I used to call Sherry and sometimes I’d just start crying at the thought of it.

Sherry, what can we expect to see in Season 1?
SW: The core of the series is Sam and Kelly building a friendship, finding a friendship despite their differences and relying on each other, and finding this common ground as they are working together. They’re dealing with the main neighbourhood gang. But then, through that, they have personal stories that develop and challenge their professional life and vice versa. It’s a lot of fun. I think every episode brings a lot of laughs and also it can get pretty sad sometimes.

Pretty Hard Cases airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.

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Detention Adventure brings action, adventure, science and fun to young viewers

Four schoolkids get in trouble on purpose so they can explore the tunnels under their school in search of a secret laboratory that holds mysterious treasure. That’s the premise behind Detention Adventure, one of dozens of projects seeking Independent Production Fund assistance to bring Season 1 to life.

Co-created by Joe Kicak and Carmen Albano, written by Kicak, Albano and Karen Moore, executive-produced by Moore, Lauren Corber and produced by Ryan West, Detention Adventure summons Goonies, Stand By Me and the Harry Potter franchise in its tone. Legend says inventor Alexander Graham Bell built a secret lab under a school attended by three nerds. Raign (Simone Miller), Joy (Alina Prijono) and Hulk (Jack Fulton) are determined to find the entrance, which is supposed to be located somewhere in the old library that now serves as a detention room. The trio’s plan? Get into trouble, go to detention and find that entrance. The problem? Raign, Joy and Hulk have to include the school bully, Brett (Tomaso Sanelli), in their plans.

“We really tried to get at something that was more cinematic and dynamic than a studio school show,” Moore says. “The series is full of adventures in these tunnels and the scientific experiments that are part of it. This shows how exciting science can be and the adventures the kids can take.” Each 11-minute instalment of the potential 10-episode first season finds the sixth-grade students calling upon their scientific and problem-solving skills to tackle and break through a series of puzzles, traps and riddles to find the elusive lab.

Detention Adventure is a departure for Moore. Most recently a writer on decidedly adult projects like Workin’ Moms, Rookie Blue and What Would Sal Do?, she’s written and produced two BravoFACT short films in Must Kill Karl (alongside Kicak) and Your Place Or Mine, and Frozen Marbles. Moore was looking for a progression from writing shorts and felt this was a natural move. Her time in the writing room under showrunners in Catherine Reitman and Tassie Cameron has given Moore the experience to write the serialized episodes Detention Adventure boasts; she, Kicak and Albano made up the writer’s room.

“It was me telling Joe and Carmen what to do,” Moore says with a laugh. Every episode of Detention Adventure contains themes of overcoming differences, empathy, cliffhangers and a lot of fun. The potential series is aimed at 6-12-year-olds, the pre-teen audience where stories of friendship and insecurity are relatable.

“This is the time when kids are still up for more wholesome fun,” Moore says. “But they also have the tools and the independence to have some life skills to draw on and be at the level of these science experiments and problem-solving.”

Support Detention Adventure by clicking through to the show’s YouTube page and liking it! And check out more projects seeking IPF funding.

Images courtesy of Broken Compass Films.

 

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Caught: Enuka Okuma discusses the “very modern character” of K.C.

K.C. Williams (Enuka Okuma) is a take no guff kind of gal. A successful DEA agent tired of not getting the credit for taking down bad guys, she teamed with RCMP officer Roy Patterson to chase down Slaney (Allan Hawco) and Hearn (Eric Johnson) on Caught.

Okuma, who most recently starred in the web series Spiral, Season 1 of Slasher and almost 80 episodes of Rookie Blue, sat down with us last year during a break in filming Caught in downtown Hamilton, Ont., to discuss her K.C. and what it was like to play the only character who was not in the source material.

Allan told me that K.C. Williams is a character he created specifically for the TV series.
Enuka Okuma: Yes, and that’s something I was unaware of when I bought the book! [Laughs.] I was three-quarters of the way through the book and I was like, ‘There is no such woman!’ For me, this is actually really exciting because I feel like this character is speaking to something that we’re talking about in the world today: female equality and diversity. She is a very modern character. I feel very lucky that they included her.

Looking at the characters in the book from my perspective and getting to know what the other characters were thinking, going after and what their desires are … it felt like a little bit of cheating because I had more information than I would visually.

What’s her background?
She’s the DEA agent in the mix and, I think, is the only American in the story. She is coming at this case differently than the RCMP and how they are trying to catch the bad guys.

What is their relationship like? Do they get along?
Paul and I have been trying to figure out who these two people are to each other. Roy is a little curmudgeonly and I am a little acerbic, so together it could be combustion, or if we decide to work together there can be a little magic.

What did you take away from reading Caught?
With a book, you always get the layers no matter what the project is. Being immersed in the world was really interesting. And, theatrically, they needed to do some things to move the story along. It works. I feel like everything that they changed makes perfect sense. But the book really lets you know, for Slaney and especially for Patterson, what is going on in these guys’ heads. Plus, for me, just delving into what they were going through at the time just puts you in that headspace.

The wardrobe on Caught is fantastic.
Michael Ground has really knocked it out of the park with this stuff because a lot of it has been built for us. You want to get vintage stuff to make it look realistic, but if you’re doing stunts and you have doubles you need more clothing. These boys have been rocking their looks. Eric and Allan, in their flashback scenes … it’s a little Hall & Oates inspired. Eric sent me a picture of the two of them in the makeup trailer and they literally looked like Hall & Oates.

Caught airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Image courtesy of CBC.

 

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