From Nico Franks of C21 Media:
Warner Bros heats up food format
Warner Bros International Television Production (WBITVP) has picked up worldwide TV rights, excluding Asia, to a top-rating Food Network Canada show.
Chef In Your Ear is a 26-part primetime series in which two professional chefs must deliver a restaurant-quality dish by proxy. Continue reading.
From Denis Grignon of the Toronto Star:
Jonny Harris juggles acting and standup in CBC shows
Possibly inspired by well-mannered theatre audiences, Harris went the polite route for his standup self and parlays that almost quiet persona in Still Standing. The show features him in a lot of heartfelt, one-on-one chats with the towns’ locals. It’s Harris’s ability to listen intently rather than jump in and make jokes that shines as brightly as his standup in the show. Continue reading.
Writing Kids TV: A Bold New World of Opportunities features Amy Benham, Nicole Demerse, Doug Hadders, Kyle Muir, with Ben Joseph as moderator.
From a media release:
− Emmy®-nominated writer Semi Chellas consults on Season 4 –
− New directors include Peter Stebbings and David Wellington –
– Joel Thomas Hynes joins cast as Jordan Gavaris, Kristian Bruun, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Kevin Hanchard, Ari Millen, Josh Vokey, and Skyler Wexler return –
Space, Temple Street Productions, and BBC America announced today that production has begun on Season 4 of the critically acclaimed original Canadian series, ORPHAN BLACK. Season 4 sees the return of the phenomenal Tatiana Maslany to her Golden Globe® and Emmy®-nominated role as multiple characters on the CSA and Peabody Award-winning series ORPHAN BLACK. The third season of this mind-bending thriller plunged into the clone sisterhood, as they came together to combat the new line of male “Castor†clones and their journey towards the truth of who, and what they are. In Season 4, Sarah returns home from Iceland to track down an elusive new ally tied to Beth’s past. Sarah follows Beth’s footsteps into a dangerous relationship with a potent new enemy, and uncovers a horrifying new facet of the conspiracy. The 10-episode fourth season shoots in Toronto on location and in studio until March 2016, and is set to premiere in Spring 2016.
This season on ORPHAN BLACK, the near constant terror pushes everyone to their limit, particularly Sarah’s daughter, Kira. Under pressure, Sarah’s old habits begin to resurface. The clones are pulled in disparate directions and Sarah finds herself estranged from the loving relationships that changed her for the better.
Returning to ORPHAN BLACK this season are fan-favourites Jordan Gavaris as Sarah’s battle worn foster brother Felix; Kristian Bruun as Alison’s incredibly devoted husband Donnie; Maria Doyle Kennedy as Sarah and Felix’s fiercely loyal and stouthearted foster mother Mrs. S; Kevin Hanchard as Art, a detective torn between being a good cop and his loyalty to the clones; Ari Millen as a new type of clone; Josh Vokey as Scott, science geek and confidante to Cosima; and Skyler Wexler as Sarah’s daughter Kira. Also returning this season is James Frain as Ferdinand, an intimidating and scheming executive; Alison Steadman as Kendall Malone, “the original†for both Leda and Castor clones; and Rosemary Dunsmore as Susan Duncan, Rachel’s adoptive mother and one of the leading scientists of Project Leda. Joining the ORPHAN BLACK cast this season is Joel Thomas Hynes(REPUBLIC OF DOYLE) in the role of “Dizzyâ€, an edgy, self-reliant hacker who doesn’t conform to group mentality.
Spearheaded by co-creator Graeme Manson, the writing team includes Russ Cochrane, (ROOKIE BLUE); Alex Levine (FLASHPOINT); Aubrey Nealon (SAVING HOPE); Kate Melville (DEGRASSI); Chris Roberts and Niko Troubetzkoy (THE LISTENER). Returning to direct is co-creator John Fawcett, along with David Frazee (FLASHPOINT); Aaron Morton(SPARTACUS: WAR OF THE DAMNED); Ken Girotti (VIKINGS, RESCUE ME); and Grant Harvey (BITTEN). New to the series to direct is Peter Stebbings (KILLJOYS) and David Wellington (SAVING HOPE, QUEER AS FOLK). At the start of the season, Emmy®-nominated Canadian writer Semi Chellas (MAD MEN) consulted.
It’s one thing to be told Opie is a smash with kids, but it’s entirely another to see it up close and personal.
That was the case Sunday at Toronto’s Word on the Street Festival celebrating literacy and the printed word. TVOKids’ superstar Opie was on hand alongside Gisele to encourage imagination through storytelling—Opie starred in his own bedtime story as Opie-naut, where he encountered aliens called Purple Lurples—and the kids in attendance ate it up. While some preschool aged kids bopped, bounced and bellowed, others stood in rapt attention as Opie, sporting a helmet constructed of aluminum pie plates, told of his otherworldly adventures.
Those adventures extend to Season 2 of Hi Opie! Currently airing on TVO, City Saskatchewan and The Knowledge Network (see airtimes below), Hi Opie! continues to educate and entertain as he helps children transition from home to school. A creation of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, the orange-skinned kindergartner is voiced and operated by Jordan Lockhart. It’s quite a kick to hear Opie’s voice come out of the mouth of the lanky, sunglass-wearing Lockhart; he says it took time for him to figure out how Opie would sound and act.
“There was a lot of sweat, blood and tears put into finding the voice and the character,” Lockhart admits. “I think we started shooting [Season 1] before we really landed on what it is now. I’m really happy with the way the character has developed over these last two years and I’m excited to see where he goes from here.” Lockhart landed the plum gig after meeting with legendary puppeteer Rob Mills at an event. Mills told Lockhart to introduce himself to longtime Henson show producer Lawrence Mirkin; the two connected and struck up a relationship. A year later, Mirkin contacted Lockhart to send in an audition tape, followed by reading a script and then a callback for his latest production: Hi Opie!
Lockhart is constantly amazed not only by the quality of scripts he encounters on the set—the series expands to multiple classrooms this year—but by the child actors he interacts with on-set. Unlike most actors, he’s quite happy crouched down and out of a camera’s line of site and takes pride in an odd circumstance unique to puppeteers.
“It’s incredible to see these little people but into the illusion and it’s enormously gratifying to me,” Lockhart explains. “They are completely unaware of my presence and are locked into Opie. You have to really be present and listen to these people, and what you end up seeing is a complete abandonment of reality.”
Hi Opie! airs weekdays at 6:15 a.m. ET, 10:30 a.m. ET and 1:50 p.m. ET on TVO, weekdays at 9 a.m. CST and 11 a.m. CST on City Saskatchewan and weekdays at 11:50 a.m. PT on The Knowledge Network.
