#TV and #Film News In Brief

The Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens NHL season opener was the most-watched opening night game on Sportsnet since 2014. The game drew an average audience of 1.73 million viewers – up 26 per cent over last year’s Leafs-Winnipeg Jets opening matchup.

Asian Television Network (ATN), Canada’s largest South Asian broadcaster, has acquired exclusive Canadian broadcast rights for the first-ever Afghanistan Premier League 2018 (APL 2018). ATN will broadcast all 23 matches of the inaugural edition of APL 2018 live on its Commonwealth Broadcasting Network (CBN) channel and ATN Cricket Plus across Canada from Oct. 5th to Oct. 21. ATN has also won broadcast rights for the fifth season of Indian Super League Soccer (ISL) which will air through March 2019.

CBC Sports will kick off the fourth season of Road To The Olympic Games with coverage of Team Canada at the Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018. Scott Russell and Andi Petrillo will continue to host the Saturday and Sunday afternoon coverage which begins Oct. 13 at 4 p.m. ET (1 p.m. PT) on CBC, cbcsports.ca and the CBC Sports app. New commentators this season include 2014 Olympic Games gold medallist Jill Officer on curling, while four-time Olympian Brian Stemmle will join the broadcast team for coverage of alpine skiing events. Winter highlights include 12 different World Championships and the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Series, culminating with the Final in Vancouver, Dec. 6–9; ISU World Cup Speed Skating; Championship Curling; FIS World Cup Alpine, Cross Country, Freestyle Skiing, Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined; FIS World Cup Snowboarding; IBSF World Cup Bobsleigh and Skeleton; FIL World Cup Luge; FIG Gymnastics; FINA Swimming and Diving; FIBA 3×3 Basketball World Tour; and varied marathon and cross-country championships.

Corus Studios has announced new worldwide sales for its original content slate. Among them, Backyard Builds forges into the U.S. market with sales of Season 1 and 2 to BYU-TV, a Season 1 sale to ALECIA for their video-on-demand/watch and shop platform, and a Season 2 sale to South Africa’s Home Channel. Masters of Flip will air on Italy’s Sky Italia, South Africa’s Home Channel (Season 3) and Israel’s Talit Communications (Season 3). Season 1 of The Baker Sisters has also been sold to AETN18 Media in India, ALECIA’s video-on-demand/watch and shop platform in the U.S. and Spafax, a leading provider of media, entertainment and content marketing services to the airline industry, for Air Canada’s inflight entertainment programming.

Michael Greyeyes will receive the 2018 August Schellenberg Award of Excellence from the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival. The Nêhiyaw actor, choreographer, director and educator will be honoured with the “Augie,” which recognizes significant professional and personal achievement by an Indigenous actor, of any gender, from Turtle Island (North America). He’ll receive the award on Oct. 21 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. In a career spanning 31 years, Greyeyes has moved between stage and screen, from dancing with The National Ballet of Canada to performances in Bruce McDonald’s Dance Me Outside, AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead and as legendary Hunkpapa leader Sitting Bull in Woman Walks Ahead (A24). He’s also an associate professor in the Theatre department at York University, where he teaches devised theatre and screen performance.  

BRON has launched BRON Ventures, a division that will make strategic equity investments in content-driven production companies and leaders in film, TV, digital and animation. BRON Ventures will be led by Jennifer Arceneaux, formerly of Acorns, the Sundance Institute and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, who joins the company as SVP, Venture Partnerships. BRON Ventures will act as a creative and strategic advisor to joint-venture partners and offer back-office production and post-production support.

Global begins its national casting tour for Big Brother Canada Season 7 with a two-city stop in Vancouver and Halifax on Oct. 13. Canadians 19+ can also apply online at BigBrotherCanada.ca until Nov. 17.

Nelvana has entered into an agreement with Spin Master Ltd. and TMS Entertainment Co., Ltd. to relaunch global animated series BAKUGAN. Set to debut on the 10-year anniversary of the original series, the coordinated project also includes the development of toys, toy-linked TV animation and the formation of a joint production committee. The new series BAKUGAN Battle Planet will air on Teletoon in Canada and Cartoon Network in the U.S., Europe, Middle East & Africa, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand.

History has renewed six of its unscripted series, including a 30-hour Season 6 order for ratings hit The Curse of Oak Island. It’s also picked up a 10-episode second season of Oak Island offshoot The Curse of Civil War Gold. Also renewed are Truck Night in America, Alone, Mountain Men and Swamp People. In addition, History has greenlit five new series including Ax Men Reborn, a reboot of the original which ended its nine-season run in 2016.

Jessica Lucas (Gotham, Cloverfield) is set to star in new Citytv original crime drama The Murders, to air in 2019. Produced by Muse Entertainment in association with Citytv, the eight-episode, hour-long series began shooting in Vancouver this week. The police procedural crime drama features Lucas as a rookie homicide detective searching for redemption in her investigative work after her negligence is the cause of a fellow officer’s death. Lochlyn Munro (Riverdale) co-stars, along with Dylan Bruce (Orphan Black), Terry Chen (Jessica Jones), Luvia Petersen (Ghost Wars), and Venus Terzo (Arrow).

The CW has picked up Manitoba-filmed legal drama Burden of Truth for a second season. Produced by ICF Films, Eagle Vision and Entertainment One (eOne) for CBC, the series follows big city lawyer Joanna Chang, played by Kristin Kreuk, who returns to her hometown to fight for justice.

The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) presents the 1st DGC Biennial Convention on Oct.19 and 20 at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel. The event includes the opening of elections for DGC National Executive Board Members, a speaker series, and networking opportunities for DGC Members and screen-based industry leaders. Find registration info here.

The Canadian Cinema Editors (CCE) have launched a monthly podcast exploring the art of picture editing. The first four episodes cover CCE’s February EditCon 2018 conference and include guests like Mike Munn (Stories We Tell), Nick Hector (Sharkwater Extinction), and Wendy Hallam Martin (The Handmaid’s Tale).

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