Paramount+ has unveiled four new development projects, an original documentary, and a host of acquisitions as part of its Canadian slate.

The streamer announced its Cancon strategy and first Canadian development slate at the Banff World Media Festival on Monday (June 13), including collaborations with Toronto’s New Metric Media, Montreal-headquartered Muse Entertainment, and Elliot Page’s Page Boy Productions, according to a news release.

Its strategy “includes partnering with the most exciting creators in the country,” Katrina Kowalski (pictured, left), VP content, Paramount+ and Pluto TV Canada, said in a statement.

Series in development include the scripted comedy Hate the Player: The Ben Johnson Story about the rise and scandal that brought down Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson. The series is written by Anthony Q. Farrell (The Office U.S.) and produced by New Metric Media (Letterkenny).

Also in the works is the limited six-part series Len & Cub from writer Lynne Kamm and producers Muse Entertainment and Page Boy Productions. Based on a true story, the series dramatizes the secret relationship of two young men in rural 20th-century New Brunswick whose story came to light when a box of photos was recently discovered in an estate sale, according to the release.

Carpe Demon from Canadian showrunner Emily Andras (Wynonna Earp) is a one-hour genre series about a suburban mom who is a secret demon hunter. Based on the best-selling book series by Julie Kenner, the series is produced by Toronto’s December Films, Cineflix Studios, Gina Marcheschi and Jon Brown.

Rounding off the development slate is They Drive at Night, a dark comedy from Toronto’s Black Birds Entertainment. Written by Emmy Award winner Craig Wallace (Murdoch Mysteries), the series follows two best friends – a vampire and a werewolf – who take a road trip across Canada.

Meanwhile, Paramount+’s original doc 500 Days in the Wild brings to life filmmaker Dianne Whelan’s (This Land) epic 28,000 km-journey across Canada. It is produced by Betsy Carson with executive producers Christine Haebler and Whelan for Rebel Sisters Productions and distributed in Canada by Elevation Pictures.

Also on the slate is The Boy in the Woods, produced by Toronto’s Lumanity Productions and JoBro Productions in association with Paramount+. It tells the true-life survival story a Jewish boy hunted in the forests of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, and is distributed by Photon Films.

On the acquisitions front, Paramount+ has picked up Canadian feature films Midnight at the Paradise from LevelFILM – slated for later this year – along with titles All the Lost Ones, Café Daughter, Orah and Who’s Yer Father? which are set for 2024. It has also acquired the romcom The End of Sex from Vortex Productions.

The streamer’s expanded offering compliments Paramount+’s existing Cancon lineup on its Pluto TV FAST service.

Pluto TV currently offers 45 dedicated Canadian channels in genres including home + DIY, food, kids, factual and news through its ad sales and content partnership with Toronto-based Corus Entertainment. In February, it premiered the Out TV Proud channel and launched the Blue Ant Media-owned channels HauntTV, Crimetime, HistoryTime and Homeful. In March the service debuted The Weather Network’s new FAST Channel.

Three additional channels will join the Pluto TV family on July 1, including Truly Canadian, which will highlight Canadian-produced scripted series such as Little Mosque on the Prairie, Edgemont and Arctic Air; Pluto TV Documentaries which will include NFB documentaries and films that have been featured at Hot Docs, such as Canadian-produced When Jews Were Funny by Alan Zweig and Randy Bachman’s Vinyl Tap: Every Song Tells a Story; and The Red Green Show channel, said the release.

Doug Smith (pictured, right), SVP, streaming and content licensing, Canada, Paramount Global, said in a statement that the slate and strategy is “the result of thoughtful dialog with the Canadian production community. Paramount Streaming has a robust team of Canadians working directly on the business; we know this is the key to our success in the market, and we are proud to give the Canadian creative community an opportunity to shine both at home and around the world.”