✖
Bride and gloom
Tatiana Maslany (Booky Makes Her Mark) and Mary-Louise Parker star in The Robber Bride, an adaptation of the Margaret Atwood murder yarn from Shaftesbury Films and Working Title Television. The MOW airs Jan. 21 on CBC and also stars Shawn Doyle, Greg Bryk and Wendy Crewson
Briefs
More VOD from TMN
Roméo et Juliette find love in Quebec
Quebec’s star-crossed lovers came out on top despite heavy competition over the holidays when Roméo et Juliette opened on Dec. 15 to a first-week gross of $481,510, besting the box-office take on French screens of both Charlotte’s Web and The Pursuit of Happyness.
Cherry rocks and socks the competition on DVD
Selling hockey on DVD in Canada should be as much of a sure thing as betting against the Leafs winning a Stanley Cup in our lifetimes, but the relative success of three hockey titles released last month had more to do with content and marketing strategies than love of the game.
Hot Sheet
The Hot Sheet tracks Canadian box-office results for the period Dec. 22-28, 2006 and DVD sales in Canada for the period Dec. 11-17, 2006.
Second chance for Falcon Beach
More drama and higher-stakes storytelling are in store for the sophomore season of Global Television’s primetime soap Falcon Beach.
Top 20 TV Programs
Top 20 TV Programs tracks ratings for the top 20 television shows in Canada for the period Dec. 11-17, 2006.
Cronenberg, Lantos roll on Promises
The thriller Eastern Promises marks the first collaboration between David Cronenberg and Robert Lantos in seven years, but it hasn’t been for lack of trying.
People
* Former Mainframe CEO Rick Mischel is now an executive producer at Rainmaker in Vancouver, following the latter’s takeover of his company last year. The transition will keep Mischel with his previous Mainframe team.
Sold!
* Degrassi: The Next Generation has been sold for U.S. syndication, and will reach 60% of households south of the border when it launches in the fall, according to distributors Thunderbird Films in Vancouver and Program Partners in Venice, CA. The teen drama has also gone to outlets including Belo, Clear Channel, Granite, Gray, Hubbard, the Pegasus groups and The CW Plus stations.
Alliance Atlantis stakes online space
Canadians who’ve been going to American sites such as YouTube to post and view videos online now have the option of going homegrown.
The trouble with copyright
Samantha Hodder is the executive director of the
New year, new Playback
The year just passed burst at the seams with significant industry stories. One major broadcaster bought another; much debate surrounded the direction of our national pubcaster; a Canadian feature film smashed box-office records; more production found its way onto new media platforms; the CRTC heard arguments aimed at influencing its TV Policy review; and union conflicts across the country threatened production stability.
Playback readership poll results
Playback readers by and large want the regulator to step in. In a recent online Playback poll asking ‘Should the CRTC reimpose Cancon spending requirements on broadcasters?’, 79% of respondents voted Yes, and 21% said No.
Blood work
Christina Cox, backed up by Kyle Schmid and Dylan Neal, star in the 22 x 60 Blood Ties, a supernatural thriller underway in B.C. at Insight Film Studios. The CHUM series, a copro with Kaleidoscope Entertainment in Toronto, follows the love-triangled trio as they battle the forces of evil.
The definitive CDN broadcast and production resource.Over 5,000 company listings!
