Temple Street Productions – producer of CHUM’s Canada’s Next Top Model and the Showcase comedy Billable Hours – will change hands on July 27 as its heads of dramatic production, David Fortier and Ivan Schneeberg, acquire the Toronto prodco from principals Patrick Whitley and Sheila Hockin.

The new bosses say they will waste little time growing the company, having studied the Canadian production industry and met with many of its key players, from broadcasters to creatives. They arrived at TSP from the legal world just three years ago.

‘You can’t implement an aggressive growth strategy if you don’t know what you want to make and who you want to make it with,’ says Fortier.

‘The production industry is very much a volume-driven business,’ adds Schneeberg.

Whitley is stepping back from the production business after a 36-year career that saw him produce TV series including SCTV and the feature Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. He sold his controlling interest in service production firm Dufferin Gate Productions to executive John Weber on Jan. 1, while in the midst of negotiations with Schneeberg and Fortier. Whitley remains on with Dufferin Gate as chair of the board.

Hockin, meanwhile, will become a freelance producer and will continue to work with Temple Street on Top Model for the remainder of its inaugural season. The new owners hope she will be back to oversee subsequent cycles. She is also a producer on the new Showtime series The Tudors.

Under the Temple Street banner, Hockin and Whitley produced Showtime’s Queer as Folk [2000 to 2005], the North American take on the British drama series that put the prodco on the map. Last year, the company generated approximately $32 million in production spending, placing it 13th on Playback’s annual list of independent prodcos. *

www.templestreetproductions.com

www.dufferingate.com