Toronto-based Shaftesbury has begun production on writer-director Alex Pugsley’s feature debut Dirty Singles, in partnership with Vancouver-based advertising agency and animation studio Global Mechanic.

The ensemble romantic comedy focuses on a group of friends experiencing the growing pains of adulthood after news of their favourite couple’s impending divorce.

“Dirty Singles offers an oblique and provocative look at a common period in many twenty- and thirty-somethings’ lives. While the setting is specifically Toronto, the themes are universally appealing and resonant,” said executive producer Patrick Cassavetti in a statement.

The film, cast by Lewis Kay Casting, stars a slew of Toronto- and Vancouver-based talent, including Paul Campbell (The Big Year), Alex Paxton Beesley (Copper), Ennis Esmer (The Listener), Lauren Ash (Scare Tactics), Pat Thornton (comedy troupe The Sketchersons), Jefferson Brown (Degrassi: The Next Generation), Melissa Hood (Rattan), Samantha Espie (Chilly Beach), Matthew Edison (At the Hotel) and Janet-Laine Green (M.V.P.)

Dirty Singles is produced by Canadian Film Centre Producers Lab alum Melanie Windle and exec produced by Patrick Cassavetti.

The film will shoot in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood during the first three weeks of December.

Global Mechanic, founded by Bruce Alcock, is an interdisciplinary short film, TV, commercial and interactive animation studio based in Vancouver.