The Sticky creators on selling a maple syrup heist to Prime Video

Co-creators Brian Donovan and Ed Herro and Amazon's Brent Haynes discuss adapting the real-life story into a limited series.

Prime Video’s maple syrup heist comedy The Sticky began as a funny anecdote over a holiday get-together six years ago.

The 6 x 30-minute series, which drops globally Friday (Dec. 6), is a fictional take on Quebec’s Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist in 2011 and 2012. The Sticky is produced by L.A.’s Blumhouse Television, Comet Pictures and Megamix and Montreal’s Sphere Media, and created by showrunners and EPs Brian Donovan and Ed Herro.

Donovan tells Playback Daily he learned about the true story from his Canadian brother-in-law. The heist saw more than 3,000 tonnes of Quebec maple syrup — then valued at $18.7 million — stolen from a facility in Saint-Louis-de-Blandford, Que. between 2011 and 2012. Entranced by the story of Montreal crime and the realization that the sticky stuff costs so much, the L.A.-based scribe immediately called Herro and the two got to work on a script within a week.

According to Donovan and Herro, the real-life story behind The Sticky was boring. The heart of it was a slow and methodical theft of Quebec maple syrup, which was then sold to unknowing distributors. For the TV series, the duo wanted to spice it up by creating a Fargo feel with underdog criminals, fictional motives and exciting twists. From that, the series was born.

“We like to see ourselves as underdogs too,” says Donovan. “This project died like three times.”

The Sticky finally stuck after Megamix’s Jonathan Levine had a chance encounter on set with an executive from Amazon, which was building out its Canadian originals slate at the time. The exec asked if Levine had anything with “good Canadian richness” to it. Levine sent the script for The Sticky and Donovan and Herro say they received a phone call the next day.

“It was a lucky break,” adds Donovan. “If that conversation hadn’t happened, it would be dead.”

He and Herro had previously sold the script to Blumhouse Television, which brought Jamie Lee Curtis and her banner, Comet Pictures, on board. (Curtis appears later in the series in a guest-starring role.) Once Prime Video was attached, they brought in Sphere Media and got to work on an undisclosed budget. The series is wholly owned by Amazon MGM Studios, an Amazon spokesperson told Playback.

“It had come out of turnaround at another home, so we brought in Sphere and dropped names for writers. We interviewed all the writers and helped them find the room for that show,” says Brent Haynes, head of Amazon MGM Studios’ local originals, Canada. “Lauren Grant [of Toronto’s Clique Pictures] came on as our non-writing EP and helped the series and the creative along day-to-day. We were there hand-in-hand because we see ourselves as a studio and not a network.”

Initially, Toronto’s Kathryn Borel (Anne with an E) was also part of that creative team as the series’ third showrunner. She departed well into the process, but Haynes says she was instrumental in setting the story.

Meanwhile, Herro and Donovan recognized early on that they needed help executing a Canadian series from those who know the landscape best. Other than series lead, Margo Martindale, the rest of the cast is Canadian. That includes Guillaume Cyr as the down-on-his-luck security guard and Chris Diamantopoulos as a Boston mobster. (Diamantopoulos auditioned on the recommendation of Bryan Cranston, whom Martindale worked with on Your Honor.)

“Our writer’s room was fully Canadian. The crew was entirely Canadian. We went into it knowing that we are Americans and we don’t know — you’re not really Canadian unless you live and breathe it every day,” says Herro.

He uses the example of a scene in a strip club, which was created because London, Ont.-born director Michael Dowse, who directed four episodes, explained how Montreal is full of those establishments.

“That happened across the board, everyone was chipping in little ideas to make it as authentic as possible. Our rule, our guiding light, was to try and make this as authentic and as specific as possible so this wouldn’t make sense in any other show or world.”

Donovan adds that half the cast was hired on Cyr’s suggestion because, as a French-Canadian working in the area, he knew the ecosystem well.

“We would get ideas from everybody,” says Donovan. “We would get ideas from crew. We would get ideas from people we would see at bars.”

Getting the Quebec piece right was equally important for Prime Video. Haynes says he didn’t want it to feel like an American series made to look Canadian, but as an authentic Canadian project that could travel globally.

“We needed to make sure that the Canadian vision and French-Canadian vision were properly represented, and that Canadian attitudes and values were there,” he says. “But that also means the strongest creative making it believable.”

Image courtesy of Prime Video