Production is underway on director and co-writer James Mark’s feature Escalation, with Private Eyes star Cindy Sampson (pictured) confirmed to join the cast.

Produced by Toronto-based High Star Entertainment, filming on the high-octane thriller kicked off Monday (June 14) in Toronto and Hamilton, where Nina Kiri (The Handmaid’s Tale) has also joined the cast.

Bruno Marino (Gridlocked) produces under his High Star Entertainment banner alongside executive producers Plato Fountidakis (Lost Girl) and Emerson Wong (Kitty Mammas). levelFILM is the Canadian distributor.

This film marks the third collaboration between Mark, whose background is in stunt work, and Marino. Previously the duo worked together on the 2019 film Enhanced and the upcoming sci-fi feature Control starring Sara Mitich and George Tchortov.

Escalation follows a disgraced former police officer (Chris Mark, Enhanced) who puts aside his differences with the force in order to track down his brother’s murderer. Along the way he teams with a younger, no-nonsense detective (Kiri) to bring the case home. Sampson stars as a tough-as-nails lieutenant who works around all of the corruption in order to get things done. George Tchortov (Goon), Milton Barnes (Saving Hope), Paul Amos (Lost Girl) and Jeff Yung also star. The screenplay was written by James Mark, Matthew Nayman and Brett Caron.

Sampson is coming off a five-season run playing private investigator Angie Everett on eOne’s Private Eyes. The Jason Priestly series kicks off its final season on July 7 as part of Global’s summer lineup.

“After 60 episodes, we really felt we told the right story in the right amount of time, with the right amount of episodes and with a natural conclusion coming,” Lisa Godfrey, vice president of Original Content, Corus Entertainment told Playback last week during the Corus Upfront presentation.

In addition to Private Eyes, Sampson is perhaps best known for her recurring role on Supernatural as Lisa Braeden. She has also done guest spots on The Listener, Rookie Blue, Imposters and Hudson & Rex, in addition to starring on the one-season series Rogue and The Art of More.