The Prime Video scripted production slate became a little sweeter last week with the announcement of maple syrup heist comedy The Sticky.

The series was unveiled during a showcase event for members of the media at Toronto’s Massey Hall on April 13, the streamer’s first in-person event to show off its Canadian originals, featuring Magda Grace (pictured centre), head of Prime Video Canada; Christina Wayne, head of Canadian Originals, Amazon Studios; Nav Saini (pictured left), head of content, Canada, Prime Video; and Brent Haynes (pictured right), head of scripted originals, Canada, Amazon Studios.

The Amazon-owned streamer also revealed an upcoming documentary project on The Tragically Hip, directed and produced by Mike Downie, as well the acquisition of Canada/Mexico copro Sugar and a second season of the animated series Gary and His Demons from Blue Ant Media’s Look Mom! Productions.

The Sticky has a number of high-profile names attached as executive producers, including Jamie Lee Curtis and Jason Blum. Its producers include Montreal’s Sphere Media, with Josée Vallée and Bruno Dubé to executive produce, alongside U.S. prodcos Blumhouse Television, Curtis’ Comet Pictures and Nine Perfect Strangers director Jonathan Levine’s Megamix.

Brent Haynes, head of scripted series, Canada, Amazon Studios, tells Playback Daily that The Sticky was among the scripts already submitted to Prime Video when he joined the company in spring 2021. “The subject matter is just so perfect it’s hard to walk away from, especially when the scripts are really strong, really funny and they’re built for great casting,” he says. The series is set to go to camera in the fall, with casting announcements to come at a later date.

The script was written by American scribes Brian Donovan and Ed Herro (Little Darlings) and is inspired by a real-life Canadian crime in 2011, when more than $18 million worth of Quebec maple syrup was stolen. The two are co-showrunners and executive producers on the series alongside Anne With an E writer Kathryn Borel.

Haynes says Borel, who originally hails from Montreal, was attached to the project during the development stage to help ensure the series remained authentically French Canadian. He adds that, with the exception of director and EP Levine, the creative team will be rounded out with Canadian writers and directors.

The Sticky joins other previously announced Prime Video scripted series The Lake, a Northern Ontario-set comedy that follows an unconventional father-daughter duo in a send-up of Canadian cottage culture, set to premiere on June 17; the long-awaited revival of The Kids in the Hall, which premieres May 13; and Three Pines, a Quebec-based mystery drama based on the Chief Inspector Gamache series by Canadian author Louise Penny.

Haynes says the current development slate features stories set outside of Ontario and Quebec, based in cities such as Vancouver, B.C., Winnipeg, M.B., and Halifax, N.S. “We’ve been able to see lots of material that are in these different areas, and it usually speaks to where the writer’s from,” he says. “It’s part luck and part by design, but I think you’re going to see some of the next ones we do take place either farther east or all the way to the west coast.”

The design aspect is a large part of the driving force of Haynes’ programming strategy, with Prime Video focused on finding stories that only a Canadian can tell. “The thing that really excites me the most [in a pitch] is that whatever the story we’re telling, we want to tell from that Canadian perspective,” he says. “What’s important about it isn’t to be pandering to Canadians or try to explain Canada to the world – we just want to tell a story that is from that [local] perspective, so if it takes place in Toronto or Vancouver or Manitoba it takes place there because it has to.”

He adds that he hopes Prime Video’s 240-territory reach can help to build on the momentum of recent Cancon success stories and accelerate global demand for Canadian content as its scripted local originals hit the platform starting this spring. “It allows for immediate feedback worldwide,” he says.