Rowan comes home for Eight Days

Vancouver – Shooting wraps this month on the MOW Eight Days to Live, a true story by Shaftesbury Films for CTV that brings Canadian-born Kelly Rowan (The O.C.) back home to star and executive produce.

The real ‘eight days’ took place almost a decade ago, when a young B.C. man left his parents’ home for a party, using treacherous mountain roads, but never arrived. His mother’s determination to find her son is the focal point of the story.

According to executive producer Christina Jennings, the project was originally earmarked to go into production in 2003 under the title North of Hope, but it wasn’t until mid-2005 that the elements came together – including the right script, by David Fraser and Greg Spottiswood (who previously teamed on Gemini winner Tripping the Wire), a big TV star in Rowan to play the boy’s mother, and a presale to Lifetime Network in the U.S.

‘We’ve been working on it for three years or so with CTV in development, but it all came together over these last eight months,’ says Jennings.

CTV invested in the $4.5-million movie through its Heroes, Champions and Villains stream, which also backed Terry and The Man Who Lost Himself. The remaining funding came from tax credits and the Lifetime presale.

Jennings and Rowan exec produce with Graham Ludlow (Call of the Wild) and Scott Garvie (ReGenesis). Norma Bailey (Cowboys and Indians: The Killing of J.J. Harper) is directing, and Virginia Rankin (Except the Dying) and Laurie McLarty (Terry) are producing. The film costars Dustin Milligan (Da Vinci’s City Hall), who plays the missing son, and Shawn Doyle (The Eleventh Hour).

Production began on Nov. 16 and is slated to wrap Dec. 11. The producers will deliver in March. A CTV airdate has not been confirmed, but Jennings says Lifetime is expected to air Eight Days in April.

Meanwhile, back in its hometown of Toronto, Shaftesbury is also shooting the CBC MOW Booky’s Mark – a Depression-era drama about a 13-year-old girl who dreams of being a writer. Peter Moss (Scar Tissue) directs. Booky’s stars Tatiana Maslany (Dawn Anna) as the girl and Megan Follows. Dustin Dinoff

Hotz stuff

Montreal – The CBC and Just For Laughs are hoping that cheesy B-movies and miserable life experiences will make a winning combination in the new year. The two have been fused in a two-part comedy pilot Jeremy Hotz: My Life and a Movie, that wrapped in Montreal on Nov. 30.

‘Jeremy got to be a staple on the Just For Laughs tours,’ says Bruce Hills, a producer and COO of JFL. ‘He has a wide audience that includes a lot of young people. This is the kind of show that’s perfect for the CBC – adventurous and out there.’

The premise has Hotz playing the host of a TV show about bad movies. Each week, Hotz will screen a rotten B-movie, triggering a memory of some catastrophic experience in his own neurotic life, seen in flashback.

Hills says taking on a show fronted by Hotz was a no-brainer. ‘When you look at Jeremy’s routines on the page, it’s one thing. But when you see him doing the material, it’s entirely different. He connects with an audience, he’s unique on a bill of stand-up comics. After the shows were over, we always heard that people wanted to see him again – not a bad sign for a TV show.’

Hills hopes to repeat the success of The Tournament, now in its second season on CBC. Both shows come from Adjacent 2 Entertainment, a partnership between Hills and Howard Busgang. My Life is produced by Hills, Busgang, Gilbert Rozon and Andy Nulman. Hotz also wrote the script.

Currently, Jeremy Hotz: My Life and a Movie is only two half-hours. The original game plan had to be trimmed when Telefilm Canada passed on the pitch.

‘The CBC believed in this project enough that they opted to fund it alone,’ says Hills. ‘Obviously, we’re extremely happy about it, given the potential for the show. We are hoping that when we have the shows ready in January, the CBC will opt to produce an entire season.’

Hotz is a Gemini winner for his work on The Newsroom, has written for Jon Stewart (The Daily Show) and appeared in the feature film My Favourite Martian. Matthew Hays