Tag Archives: Tom Cox

Global greenlights Season 3 of original scripted series Family Law

From a media release:

The verdict is in! Today, Global announced that Season 3 of hit Canadian legal drama Family Law has been greenlit for an all-new 10-episode season. Produced by SEVEN24 Films and Lark Productions, and created by Canadian award-winning author Susin Nielsen, Season 3 is set to begin filming in Vancouver on May 24. The principal cast including Jewel Staite, Victor Garber, Zach Smadu, Genelle Williams and Lauren Holly all return for the new season. This renewal comes ahead of the show’s Season 2 premiere, which will be announced at a later date.

Family Law is a witty, heartfelt look at the trials and tribulations of an imperfect family. The one-hour legal drama follows Abigail ‘Abby’ Bianchi (Jewel Staite) as she navigates her new life with her family including Abby’s father Harry Svensson (Victor Garber), her half-brother Daniel Svensson (Zach Smadu), and half-sister Lucy Svensson (Genelle Williams). Season 3 will follow Abby and her dysfunctional family as they help other dysfunctional families – all while navigating their own personal dramas. Guest stars for the new season will be announced soon.

Lauded as “the unexpected drama worth bingeing right now,” viewers can catch up on Season 1 of Family Law with STACKTV and the Global TV App.

Family Law is produced by SEVEN24 Films (HeartlandJANN) and Lark Productions (MotiveFortunate Son). 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, Corey Liu and Jordan Hall, and directors include Andy Mikita, Jordan Canning, David Frazee and Alysse Leite-Rogers.

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CBC’s Fortunate Son recalls a history that fits in the present

Being born in 1971, I didn’t know much about the Vietnam War. I learned about it through music and the movies, from First Blood to Platoon, Apocalypse Now to The Deer Hunter and countless others. But all of those films dealt largely with the U.S. angle. It turns out Canada had a role in that conflict as well.

I learned about it through Fortunate Son. Bowing on Wednesday at 9 p.m. on CBC, the eight-part drama is based on the life of Tom Cox, a Canadian TV producer most recently known for his work on Heartland and Wynonna Earp.

Created and written by Andrew Wreggitt, Fortunate Son stars Kari Matchett as Ruby Howard, an American activist in Canada who isn’t merely happy with vocally protesting the Vietnam War; she does something about it. Also starring Stephen Moyer, Darren Mann, Rick Roberts, Patrick Gallagher, Ty Olsson and Kacey Rohl, Fortunate Son is as much a history lesson as it is an examination into what the world is going through today.

We spoke to writer, showrunner and executive producer Andrew Wreggitt about the project.

When Fortunate Son was first announced, the thing that jumped out at me was Tom Cox’s name because it’s based on his life. Did you know Tom before you were attached to this? 
Andrew Wreggitt: Tom and I have been colleagues for, oh, I want to say 30 years. I actually first met Tom in Calgary. We happened to be neighbours and I didn’t have any idea he was in the same business as me. We were neighbours and we got to be friends and he and I worked together on North of 60 and so we go back a long way together.

I always knew Tom’s background and he had this very interesting family and Seven24 got in touch and said that they were interested in developing a show that had to do with Tom’s background. Tom grew up in a household where his mother was an activist and she brought up the kids to make protest signs and be out there every Saturday morning protesting something or other. And they were involved in bringing draft dodgers and deserters across and helping them settle in Canada.

They were definitely a kind of a halfway house and so they were involved in that and that’s kind of how Tom grew up, in this household where they were being watched by the police and they were very active in many causes. I’ve always loved that era and that story and so we kind of took it from there and developed the idea of this show around that idea.

I can’t believe that it’s taken this long to be made.
AW: Ten years ago I don’t think you could have made this show, the way the television industry was. People were looking at different things. A period piece would have been extremely difficult to make. So in a way, it’s a story that it really required the times to be the way they are for it to, for one thing, to resonate the way it does with what’s actually going on in the world.

Some of the things that are happening politically in the world are starting to feel pretty darn familiar to things that were happening 50 years ago.

I knew virtually nothing about draft dodgers being smuggled into Canada and the danger involved.
AW: Yeah, it was a big deal. You know, the anti-war movement in the U.S. was a huge, huge political deal and there were over 30,000 draft dodgers, which is incredible when you think of it across the country. I remember in university there were … I had a teacher in high school who was a draft dodger.

There were university professors who came up. There were people that brought a whole perspective to Canada in a lot of different ways who wouldn’t have been in Canada under any other circumstances. So yeah, it was a big cultural shift in the U.S. and it had a big impact on Canada.

How much is Tom’s story and how much has been adapted? Are there characters that are a combination of people in this time period? 
AW: Well, yeah, for sure. Tom’s actual family was a bit of a jumping-off point, so I kind of made up a lot of the people around it, but it was based on, they were composites of course of what was really going on at the time. The Catholic church was obviously very involved in the U.S. in the anti-war movement and so we had our church and our priest was very, very involved in the community. It was pretty common that people came through the churches and they were very involved in as they are now bringing refugees from Syria, for example.

Did Kari Matchett audition for the role? She’s the perfect fit to be playing Ruby.
AW: She really is. When we first saw her audition, we were just blown away. She was just Ruby. She totally embodied that role and so for me, as soon as I saw her, I felt like, ‘Yeah, this was Ruby.’ And you can feel her, she’s a mom, she’s committed politically, she’s trying to hold all these things together and it’s not easy. It’s hard to be politically committed and doing stuff, especially as a woman in 1968 there were expectations of you that she certainly didn’t fit.

The music of this time period is great and really helps with the storytelling. How did you decide what songs you were going to use? I imagine maybe licensing had something to do with your choices.
AW: We knew music was going to be a big, big part of the show. You can’t say the 1960s without music coming up, so we knew that from the beginning and luckily we had a reasonable budget to bring to the table so we were able to license some songs and get some stuff. I have to admit, as I’m writing, I’m looking at these scenes thinking, ‘Oh, wouldn’t it be amazing if we could have Magic Carpet Ride. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could have In A Gadda Da Vida’ … and of course you can’t have everything you want because there are certain limitations on music and what we can afford and can’t afford and so on. But I’m absolutely over the moon about some of the songs that we’ve gotten for the show throughout.

What type of writer are you? Are you the type that needs to shut yourself in a room? Can you do writing in a coffee shop with a cacophony of noise around you? How does it work for you?
AW: I can write just about anywhere. I made a 1968 playlist and I’ve played it a thousand times and I’ve got lots of Jimmy Hendrix, lots of my favourite tunes and so I’ll put that on and blast it away and start working, so I’m totally cool writing to music. I’m totally cool with writing in a coffee shop or. I’ve even driven across the country, my wife driving and she’ll put on a radio mystery station or something. And I’ll get in the back with my headphones on and I’ll write in the back of the car, so I’ll write anywhere.

Fortunate Son airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

Casting announced as CBC original series Fortunate Son begins production

From a media release:

With production now underway in Calgary, SEVEN24 Films and Lark Productions today revealed casting for new CBC original drama FORTUNATE SON, set to premiere in winter 2020 on CBC and the free CBC Gem streaming service. NBCUniversal has international distribution rights. Inspired by a true story and created by showrunner Andrew Wreggitt (Pure, Borealis), FORTUNATE SON is a spy drama set in the social and political chaos of the late 1960s.

Kari Matchett (Covert Affairs, 2 Hearts) plays Ruby Howard, an American who fled to Canada as a fugitive from the law. Set in the chaos of the late 1960s, the Vietnam War and the anti-war protest movement, Ruby helps smuggle Vietnam War deserters and draft dodgers across the Canadian border. What she doesn’t know is how these actions will unfold and who is watching her. Rising star Darren Mann plays Travis Hunter, a Vietnam war deserter whose troubled past follows him into Canada and the lives of the Howard family. Mann is known for the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina series and the critically acclaimed film Giant Little Ones. Stephen Moyer stars as Vern Lang, a CIA agent. Moyer is well-known for his roles in True Blood and most recently, The Gifted. Additional lead cast includes Kacey Rohl (Arrow, Hannibal), Rick Roberts (This Life, Designated Survivor), Patrick Gallagher (Night at the Museum, Glee), Ty Olsson (War for the Planet of the Apes, Supernatural), Alex Nachi (1991, Clash) and Zoé de Grand’Maison (Riverdale, Orphan Black).

FORTUNATE SON is filming in Calgary and the surrounding areas including Drumheller, Tsuu T’ina First Nation Reserve, and High River in Alberta, Canada.

Executive Producers are Andrew Wreggitt, Tom Cox, Jordy Randall and Erin Haskett. The series is produced by Brian Dennis. Stefan Schwartz is Co-Executive Producer, while Jessalyn Dennis is a Consulting Producer. Stefan Schwartz (The Americans, Dexter) and Ken Girotti (Vikings, Orphan Black) are the show’s directors.

A CBC original series, FORTUNATE SON is produced by SEVEN24 Films and Lark Productions in association with CBC and NBCUniversal International Studios with the financial participation of the Canada Media Fund, Government of Alberta – Alberta Media Fund, the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit, the Ontario Film and Television Tax Credit and the British Columbia Production Services Credit. For CBC, Sally Catto is General Manager, Programming; Trish Williams is Executive Director, Scripted Content; Helen Asimakis is Senior Director, Scripted Content; and Deborah Nathan is Executive in Charge of Production.Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail