The Toronto Screenwriting Conference (TSC) announced today that veteran award-winning screenwriter, producer and director, Paul Haggis, will join the roster of speakers for this year’s event taking place on April 22 – 23 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
Haggis, an Ontario native, has had a prolific career writing, directing and producing an array of award-winning television and film productions. In 2006, he became the first screenwriter to pen two Oscar-winning feature films back-to-back for Million Dollar Baby (directed by Clint Eastwood) and Crash, a film that he wrote and directed and one that also earned several nominations and awards from other prestigious associations including IFP Spirit Awards, The Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA. Throughout his illustrious career, he has collaborated with some of Hollywood’s leading actors including Oscar Isaac, Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon and Russell Crowe just to name a few. Television credits include Thirtysomething, The Tracey Ullman Show and Due South among others.
The Toronto Screenwriting Conference runs April 22-23, 2017. Get the latest information—including events and how to register—on the official website.
There will be more Workin’ Moms at CBC. Show creator, writer, executive producer and showrunner Catherine Reitman made the announcement via Facebook Live following the first season finale.
“Um, we did not get a second season,” Reitman began. “I feel like it’s such a triumph to get a first season as we did … JUST KIDDING! Â CBC has officially approved a second season. It’s because of you that we got a second season. Thank you for tuning in.”
The finale kept up the pace and personal storytelling of the episodes before it. Kate and Nathan’s son, Charlie, fell ill with the measles and she scrambled to be there with him and questioned whether she was a good mother or not. Meanwhile, Anne and Lionel dealt with the decision to have an abortion, Jenny and Ian’s marriage was at its breaking point and Frankie admitted to Giselle that she’s “broken” and is going to seek professional help; they get to keep their home.
What did you think of the season finale? Are you excited about Season 2 of Workin’ Moms? Let me know in the comments below!
To say we were excited to hear about CBC’s newest drama, Frankie Drake, would be an understatement. An original series about a spirited woman working outside of the law in the 1920s as Toronto’s first detective? We were in. Add to that This Life‘s Lauren Lee Smith in the lead role and Murdoch Mysteries‘ writers-producers Carol Hay and Michelle Ricci the creators of it all? Giddy is more like it.
In fact, we were so jazzed to hear about Frankie Drake, we got Hay and Ricci on the phone to talk about the project, which will be in production this summer in and around Toronto.
Congratulations on Frankie Drake. Has it been hard keeping this under wraps?
Both: Yes!
I’m sad you’ve left Murdoch Mysteries but I’m excited about this series. Tell me how the idea came about.
Carol Hay: Back in Season 5 [of Murdoch Mysteries], Michelle and I shared an office and we would be developing Murdoch stories and would say to each other, ‘Well if we ever had a female detective show, we could do that story.’ It was sort of a running joke between us. Two years later we thought, ‘Why don’t we actually do this?’ When it came to our first development pitch, we realized we wanted to jump forward in time. We loved the idea of the 1920s, which was really the first time in modern history where women could live on their own and not go straight from their parents’ house to their husband’s house. We thought this was a fantastic era for the idea of a female detective agency.
It was a bubble of time between two wars and, really, only 10 years between the end of the First World War and The Great Depression. There was this bubble in time when there was this huge optimism and a sense of relief that the war was over. We thought there was this great time for women.
Michelle, can you talk about the female angle?
Michelle Ricci: It’s an opportunity for us to tell a historical story from the female perspective and show what it was like for a woman to live in that time, and a female professional to operate in that time. That gives us the opportunity to go into some different worlds and story angles and really show a new perspective of a historical detective in a fun, mystery-driven adventure tone in a time of great upheaval. There was an immigration ban in 1923 of the Chinese in Canada … there are parallels we can draw in a new, fresh perspective and we’re really excited about it.
Frankie Drake star Lauren Lee Smith
When this news came out, I was reminded of the Australian series Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. Have you heard of that show?
MR: Actually, we came up with our show before that show. I want that on the record. Our original pitch was a year before that show came out. That’s how long it’s been. We’re aware of that show and have seen it. We think our show is very different. It’s set in the 1920s and that’s about the only similarity and Canada has very different issues from Australia. And our main character is a very different woman.
What is the tone of Frankie Drake?
CH: Murdoch Mysteries is very much about a policeman working to solve cases. Frankie Drake is a detective, so she can do things completely differently. There is a slightly more irreverent tone. It’s certainly not going to be heavy and dark; it’s going to be fun because that’s more of our style and the show we want to write. It’s got more adventure, and because she can work outside of the law Frankie might find herself on the other side of a jail cell a lot more than William Murdoch. She’ll have a different relationship … in a way the police are the antagonists. We’re still developing our stories and aren’t sure how all that will play out.
MR: Irreverent is a good word. And the key thing for her is her moral code, and that will resonate with the audience. That doesn’t mean it aligns with the law. It’s girls getting into trouble and the fun of them trying to get out of it.
Talk about the casting of Lauren Lee Smith. I can picture her in the role already.
MR: We haven’t worked with her a lot so far. We’re really still at early script stage but we’re really looking forward to getting into that. She really loves the scripts and we love her enthusiasm.
CH: The casting of Frankie’s partner, Trudy, will be next.
Frankie Drake will be on CBC’s primetime schedule this fall. What do you think of Frankie Drake based on what we’ve been told? Comment below!
Link: Workin’ Moms’ Dani Kind reflects on Anne’s major life decision
“I really hope that the majority of the show opens up a lot of conversations about people. It is funny, but the topics that they decided to tackle and the way they tackled them is like nothing I’ve ever seen on TV or film before. I have never seen a woman on a TV show or in a movie who is married, with her husband, decide to abort their third child.” Continue reading.
