Tag Archives: Shaftesbury

Slasher

Super Channel original series, SLASHER, set to tear up Canadian television screens on Friday, April 1

From a media release:

Super Channel, Canada’s only national English pay television network, is pleased to announce that SLASHER, an eight-episode psychological thriller from Shaftesbury, will tear up Canadian television screens, on Friday, April 1 at 9 p.m. ET (SC4).

Each episode of the Super Channel original series will also be available on Super Channel On Demand the day following its initial broadcast.

Katie McGrath (Jurassic World, Dracula, Merlin) stars as Sarah Bennett, a young woman who returns to the small town where she was born, only to find herself the centrepiece in a series of horrifying copycat murders based on the widely known, grisly killings of her parents. As the murders escalate, long-buried secrets are revealed, making everyone around her a suspect…or a victim. Sarah finds herself questioning everything and everyone around her, including her husband, Dylan (Brandon Jay McLaren, Graceland, The Killing), her grandmother Brenda Merritt (Wendy Crewson, Saving Hope, Revenge), family friend Cam Henry (Steve Byers, The Man in the High Castle) and the town’s police chief, Iain Vaughn (Dean McDermott, Ecstasy, CSI).

Additional cast includes Mary Walsh (This Hour Has 22 Minutes), Enuka Okuma (Rookie Blue), Erin Karpluk (Being Erica), Patrick Garrow (Hannibal, Bitten), Christopher Jacot (Rogue), Mayko Nguyen (Killjoys, Rookie Blue), Rob Stewart (Killjoys, Suits), Hannah Endicott-Douglas (Good Witch), Shawn Ahmed (MsLabelled, Paranormal Investigators), Jessica Sipos (Dark Matter, Ascension), Jefferson Brown (Rookie Blue, Being Erica), Mark Ghanimé (Reign, Helix), Dylan Taylor (What Would Sal Do?, Rogue, Covert Affairs), Booth Savage (Mr. D.), Victoria Snow (Cra$h & Burn), Sabrina Grdevich (Skins) and Rainbow Sun Francks (The Listener).

Developed and produced by Shaftesbury in association with Super Channel and Chiller, SLASHER is written and created by Aaron Martin (Killjoys, Being Erica) and directed by Craig David Wallace (Todd and the Book of Pure Evil). Aaron Martin, Christina Jennings and Scott Garvie are executive producers. SLASHER is funded with the participation of the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation, the COGECO Program Development Fund, the Bell Fund, Music and Film in Motion/Federal Government of Canada, the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit and the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit.

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Houdini & Doyle

New Supernatural Original Drama Houdini & Doyle Premieres Monday May 2 at 9pm ET/PT on Global

From a media release:

Houdini and Doyle leave no stone unturned in Global’s thrilling new original drama series Houdini & Doyle premiering Monday, May 2 at 9 pm ET/PT. Starring Michael Weston, Stephen Mangan, and Canadian Rebecca Liddiard, the Canada/UK Co-Production will air in simulcast with FOX in the US. Co-created and executive produced by Canadians David Hoselton (House, Chicago P.D.), and David Titcher (The Librarians), with Canadian acclaimed Executive Producer David Shore (House), the 10-episode mystery adventure series unites skeptical illusionist Harry Houdini and supernatural believer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to investigate unsolved and seemingly paranormal crimes. Inspired by true events, the two men of the 20th Century grudgingly join forces with New Scotland Yard to investigate these inexplicable cases.

Shot on location in the UK and Canada, Houdini & Doyle follows Harry Houdini (Michael Weston) – master magician, escape artist and paranormal debunker – and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Stephen Mangan) – prolific writer, creator of “Sherlock Holmes” and paranormal aficionado. The pair join forces in 1901 London and Canada to investigate unsolved and inexplicable crimes with a supernatural slant in collaboration with New Scotland Yard Constable Adelaide Stratton (Rebecca Liddiard).

In the series, Houdini, Doyle, and Stratton are tasked with the cases that nobody else can solve. It challenges their sense of what is real and what is not. Houdini is a skeptic, while Doyle believes in the unseen. Their diverse viewpoints make solving crime a challenge and often Stratton is put in the middle. The trio face cases that appear to involve vampires, ghosts, monsters, and poltergeists…or are they a ruse to conceal murder?

Houdini & Doyle is also complemented by an original digital series, Houdini & Doyle: World of Wonders. Hosted by Houdini & Doyle star Rebecca Liddiard, the 10-part mini-documentary series explores the real lives and times of Houdini and Doyle through contemporary magic and mind-bending illusions, delivering a fresh and modern take on a time when the worlds of science and spiritualism collided. Houdini & Doyle: World of Wonders premieres on Monday, April 11 exclusively on GlobalTV.com and Global Go. The digital series is produced by Shaftesbury’s digital arm, Smokebomb Entertainment, in association with Shaw Media and the Canada Media Fund.

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Houdini & Doyle

Production begins in Toronto on Global’s Houdini & Doyle

From a media release:

Shaw Media announced today that production has begun on Houdini & Doyle in the Toronto area. Starring Michael Weston (Six Feet Under, House) and Stephen Mangan (Episodes) along with Canadian actress Rebecca Liddiard (Between, MsLabelled), the mystery adventure drama series, scheduled to premiere on Global in 2016, is shooting the final two episodes of the 10-episode drama on location in Toronto and Southern Ontario until mid December. A Canada/UK treaty co-production from Shaftesbury and Big Talk Productions, the first eight episodes of the series were filmed in Manchester, UK from July to November 2015.

In Houdini & Doyle, Harry Houdini (Michael Weston) – master magician, escape artist and paranormal debunker – and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Stephen Mangan) – prolific writer, creator of “Sherlock Holmes” and paranormal aficionado – grudgingly join forces in 1901 London and Canada to investigate unsolved and inexplicable crimes with a supernatural slant in collaboration with New Scotland Yard Constable Adelaide Stratton (Rebecca Liddiard). Inspired by true events, the series will draw heavily on the rich history of the period.

The 10-episode drama was ordered straight to series for ITV Encore in the UK and Global in Canada and licensed in the US on FOX. Jeff Renfroe (Remedy, Haven, Beauty and the Beast) is serving as director of the final two episodes filmed in Canada.

Related: Our sneak peek at Houdini & Doyle

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Houdini & Doyle

Link: ‘House’ Creator David Shore Explains Why TV Writing Is a “Magic Trick”

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From Etan Vlessing of The Hollywood Reporter:

‘House’ Creator David Shore Explains Why TV Writing Is a “Magic Trick”
That illusion appeals to Shore, who sees TV writing as its own “magic trick” to distract and hold audiences. “You go ‘look here, look here.’ And that’s your ‘A story.’ That has to be interesting. But really the sleight of hand comes from sliding in all this character stuff. This is what the show is about,” he explained. Continue reading.

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Featured, Houdini & Doyle

Houdini & Doyle invades Canada

Why hasn’t a television show about Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s friendship been made already? That was the question David Hoselton asked himself when he learned the American master magician/escape artist and Sherlock Holmes author were buddies in the early 20th century.

“[Writer and producer] David Titcher was the one who discovered this friendship, that there was the real relationship between these two icons who were interested in the paranormal,” Hoselton says during a press junket in Toronto. “It’s one of those ideas where you say, ‘Yes, of course, great!'” A self-professed sci-fi geek, Hoselton was eager to re-team with longtime friend David Shore (House) when Shaftesbury acquired the rights to create Houdini & Doyle.

Debuting in 2016 on Global, Fox in the U.S. and ITV in the UK, the Canadian co-production stars Stephen Mangan as Doyle, Michael Weston as Harry Houdini and London, Ont., native Rebecca Liddiard as Constable Adelaide Stratton. The 10-part one-hour drama filmed its first eight episodes in Manchester and Liverpool—the locations stood in for turn-of-the-century London—before jetting across the Atlantic to film the last two storylines in Southern Ontario.

Houdini & Doyle is as much about the friendship of the unlikely men—an uncouth American and an upper-crust gent—as it is about the crimes of the week. With Adelaide—the first-ever female constable on the Metropolitan Police Force—as their companion, the duo investigate supernatural goings-on (think ghosts, vampires and other beasts that go bump in the night) in England’s sprawling capital. Those paranormal tales drive the character interaction between two icons of society; who believes in the existence of a space alien, who refutes it … and what side of the fence does Adelaide fall on?

Hoselton admits that, despite the accuracy surrounding the friendship of these two men, history was fudged in favour of story: Houdini and Doyle didn’t meet until 1920, long after the show’s setting of 1901.

“We’re trying to stay true to the nature of the characters,” Shore says. “We take liberties with the timing of Doyle’s wife’s illness but she was sick. The big thing is creating a show that says something and is entertaining.”

Houdini & Doyle will air on Global in 2016.

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