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eOne news - fall edition 2013
FALL EDITION 2013
eOne CLOSES EXCLUSIVE OUTPUT DEAL
WITH AMC AND SUNDANCE CHANNEL
They Make Great Drama. We Make It Yours.
An interview with John Morayniss,
CEO Entertainment One Television.
eOne just announced a major deal with
AMC and Sundance Channel. What is
the substance of the agreement, and its
significance for eOne?
It’s a three-year exclusive output
agreement to distribute multiple, 1-hour
drama series from AMC and Sundance
Channel.
The significance is huge. It gives us a
steady flow of unattached product from
a preeminent U.S. cable network. HBO
has a tremendously strong brand on
a global basis, but I would say AMC is
second, in terms of label awareness
and brand quality, when you think of
shows like MAD MEN, WALKING DEAD
and BREAKING BAD. It’s just one show
after another coming out of AMC -- and
now we’re going to see them coming
out of Sundance as well. They all have
that high-quality underpinning. WALKING
DEAD, for example, was one of the most
highly rated drama series of last year.
At one point, it was getting a larger
audience than any of the broadcast
series, which is amazing.
This the first deal we’ve done with a
top-tier U.S. network, and the truth is
there are not a lot of these deals around
because most of the networks in the U.S.
are already affiliated with international
distributors. It’s rare to even have this
opportunity.
PAGE 6
TV4 GETS BOLD WITH FIRST
ENGLISH LANGUAGE COMEDY
Welcome to Sweden
An interview with TV4’s Head of Programming, Asa Sjoberg
Executive Producer Amy Poehler
Laura Vandervoort, star of BITTEN
A year ago, when Swedish producer Felix
Herngren and American comedian Greg
Poehler came calling with a project about
a clueless American who’s come to live
in Sweden, TV4 director of programs Asa
Sjoberg was intrigued from the start.
SYFY AND SPACE
“We were immediately serious about it,”
she says. “It was fun, and interesting, to
think of following an American who tries
to settle down in Sweden, and the crazy
things that happen to him. We liked the
concept of us watching Sweden through
his eyes and experiences.” PAGE 5
Laura Vandervoort, the female lead
“Elena” in the human-wolf series
“Bitten,” is a lithe blonde with a
sensual and introspective aspect.
How, then, does such an actor adapt
herself to the violent fight scenes
she must play in the action-packed
series? PAGE 10
ARE SMITTEN
FOR BITTEN
PAGE 1
eOne news - fall edition 2013
eOne news - fall edition 2013
Interview with BITTEN CGI creators –
ATMOSPHERE VFX.
Main characters undergo astonishing transformations into CGI-generated wolves.
Accomplishing this takes an equally
astonishing amount of painstaking
planning and computerized labor. The
two men who oversee the magic, Craig
Vanden Biggelaar and Adam de Bosch
Kemper, 3D digital supervisors for
Atmosphere VFX, recently described the
challenges and processes involved:
Craig: “The big challenge is not only the
technical difficulties of fur, and shooting
with fog and light interaction, but
everyone is familiar with what a wolf
looks like, so if you’re off on your
hair or your proportions,
people will pick
it up right
away.
T
I
B
almost regal look about them. So, we’re
trying to incorporate as much of their
human character as possible into the
wolf counterparts.”
Adam: “It’s been an
ongoing process. We
started last
March,
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“There are two different aspects to what
we’re doing on the show. There’s
the wolf when fully formed,
and then there’s the
transformation
N
E
T
they
go through
to become the wolf.”
When
you do space
aliens, or the Harry
Potter-type werewolves,
you have a lot of latitude. But our
characters are people transforming into
a very recognizable thing.”
Adam: “That extends to motion as well.
We all know how wolves tend to move,
but the added challenge on this show
is to give human characteristics to their
emotions and to their look as well.”
Craig: “We want each wolf to represent
their human counterpart. So, the main
character Elena is very blonde, very
spare, whereas the antagonists, the
Mutts, are heavier, scruffier looking.
Our heroes, on the other hand, have an
PAGE 2
fingers. We have to know what’s
underneath. Are the bones breaking?
Are the muscles flexing or compressing?
We’re basically recreating the characters
anatomically, so we can get them to do
what we want them to do.”
Adam: “We take 3D scans of
our actors, and apply high resolution
textures to those images. Then we get
them into 3D space, basically to make
a CG human form. From that point, we
had to contort skeletons, joints, muscle
groups, skin simulation to conform to
something closer to a wolf.”
Craig: “For us to recreate, we have
to build an underlying system for the
character to move. It’s like a statue, and
we have to recreate the muscles so as
to make this character able to articulate
and move. And there’s an added layer of
complexity in having also to simulate a
wolf. It basically doubles the amount of
work, scaling the bones down, scaling
the muscle systems -- all on the fly. And,
there’s no magic button that does that,
just a lot of elbow grease.”
“It’s not just a matter of, say, shortening
and
it’s never
finished until the
deadline, because you’re
constantly refining up to the last
minute, to get it as good as we can
possible get it.”
Craig: “We had a proof of concept within
about a month -- okay, we want the
knuckles to do this, we want the nose to
do that. But the rest of the time, we’ve
been refining as we get plates from
production. It’s a slow, iterative process,
almost one step forward and two steps
back. The proof of concept is fairly quick,
but the rest is all the small details that
make it rise above the level where it
seems real to the audience. If you have
hair growing on a creature, you can’t just
show the hair sprouting. You also have to
have the follicles, the goose pimples.”
Discovery Channel Strikes
Gold with KLONDIKE
FOR DISCOVERY CHANNEL’S FIRST-EVER SCRIPTED PROJECT, THE GOLD-RUSH EPIC
KLONDIKE, THE PLANETS LINED UP WITH ASTONISHING SPEED AND EASE.
“This was a real natural and organic
situation for Discovery because of the
popularity of their gold rush series on the
nonfiction side,” says David Zucker, head
of television for Scott Free Productions
and executive producer of “Klondike.”
“It all moved rather fast because the fit
could not have been more natural. And
once we had Paul Scheuring on board
as writer, things moved quite quickly.”
The event miniseries, expected to air
in early 2014, is a fictionalization of the
nonfiction book, “Gold Diggers: Striking
It Rich in the Klondike,” by Charlotte Gray.
The book chronicles the near-incredible
boom-and-bust gold rush in the Canadian
Yukon, which saw the population of
Dawson City explode from 400 to 30,000
in just three years, 1896-1899.
The series cleaves as closely to the
book as fictionalization permits, utilizing
in most cases the real names and real
experiences of actual historical figures.
“In Charlotte Gray’s book, we sort of had
it ready-made for us,” Zucker says. “We
took some liberties, as one must to tell
the story to greatest effect, but in the
book we had a fairly awesome ensemble
of historical figures to shape into six
hours. The power and resonance of the
piece rests in the determination and
vigor and vitality of these figures, and
in the incredible achievement and risk
this whole venture involved.”
amid rampant lawlessness, ruthless
-- sometimes deadly -- rivalries, and
some of the most ferocious weather
imaginable.
“It was sort of life-and-death from Day
One,” Zucker says. “Many, if not most,
didn’t survive, or didn’t come out with
what they’d hoped they would.”
were great stories to tell in that format -stories like this one.”
eOne is producing the series in concert
with Scott Free, and is the worldwide
distributor for it.
“We certainly felt a great obligation and
responsibility to tell the story, in terms
of making it as primal and visceral
an experience as possible, but not to
Hollywood-ize it. Giving that ground level
view of the experience was essential to
Discovery, and how it would most appeal
to their audience.”
Rare among television production
companies, Scott Free never abandoned
the event miniseries format, even
when the genre was beginning to look
like a quaint relic in much of the TV
market. Now, event miniseries are back
in fashion, particularly among cable
channels. Scott Free, however, makes
no claims to having been clairvoyant.
Richard Madden, star of KLONDIKE
“I’m not sure it was a matter of our
anticipating its coming back
into vogue,” Zucker
says. “We’ve just
always felt
there
“Klondike” depicts the
struggles of people
vying for
riches
Adam: “We get storyboards and have
plotting sessions with the producers and
directors, and they’ll give us guidelines
about what they want to see in each
shot. We do our best to match them.
At the same time, if we have ideas that
might augment what they say, we’ll
definitely suggest them. But, first and
foremost, we want to get their vision,
because, ultimately that’s what’s going
to matter.”
PAGE 3
eOne news - fall edition 2013
eOne news - fall edition 2013
GREG & AMY POEHLER INTERVIEW
Phone Call
9:53 AM Los Angeles,
6:53 PM Stockholm
do think everyone can relate to Bruce’s
plight. Even if you’ve never moved to
another country, everyone’s been in new,
awkward situations where they feel like
the odd man out. And anyone who’s ever
tried to make a relationship work under
difficult circumstances can hopefully
relate to the Bruce-Emma relationship.
Amy: How much of the show would you
say is based on your life?
Amy Poehler with Greg Poehler,
star of WELCOME TO SWEDEN
Amy: What’s up Bro?
Greg: Hey Sis.
Amy: What time is it there?
Greg: Same as every time you ask - we’re
9 hours ahead. I’m literally talking to you
from the future.
Amy: Hey, I need you to quickly describe
your show. Briefly. In 20 words or less.
Greg: Can’t you do it? You’re also a
producer.
Amy: No. I’m your sister and you have to
do what I say.
Greg: OK. I’d say that it’s a show about an
American who gives up his former life to
move to Sweden with his girlfriend. It’s a
DATES
From the
creator of
Skins, a witty,
sexy and
emotional
drama series
about the
complicated
and hilarious
ways that
strangers
interact on
dates in their
quest to find
love.
PAGE 4
“fish out of water” tale which shows the
struggles people encounter when they
move to an entirely new environment. But
it’s also very much a love story - about
whether or not he’ll stay in Sweden or
return to his former life - whether true
love, in and of itself, really is enough.
Amy: Wow. That was way longer than 20
words.
Greg: Oops. You know I have problems
with limits. And boundaries. How about “It’s a half-hour show and we promise it
will be the best 30 minutes of your life.”
Amy: That’s much better. I do think the
show has something for everyone. Car
chases, murder mysteries, explosions, all
of those things.
Greg: Yes. Or none of those things. But I
David: “I do care. I care
a lot. That’s just the way
I am. I can’t help it. Now
you either deal with that
or you tell me to fuck off
now and I’ll go home.”
Mia: “I remember every
man that paid me for
sex. Every single one.”
Greg: Well, certainly the premise - I am,
after all, an American who moved to
Sweden with my Swedish girlfriend. But I
like to think I’m a little cooler than Bruce.
And slightly better looking.
Amy: I have to say, it’s about time you got
into show biz. My shoulders are killing
me from carrying the hopes of our entire
family these past few years.
Greg: The whole reason I got into the biz
is because I would hear literally every
day - “Greg, you’re better than her. Greg,
you’re so much funnier than your sister.”
And yes, it was me, saying it to myself in
the mirror, but still I heard it every day.
(Also, I just like saying “the biz”)
Amy: OK. Well then, that’s all I have.
Thanks for doing this. Love you.
Greg: Love you too. Wait. Doing what?
You’re not recording this are you?
TV4 Expects a hit with
Welcome to Sweden
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
The show, “Welcome to Sweden,”
features dialogue in both Swedish and
English (with subtitles added, just in
case), and marks TV4’s first Englishlanguage co-production. It’s about
Bruce (Poehler), a successful New York
celebrity money manager who falls in
love with a beautiful Swedish woman
and spontaneously gives up his former
life to join her and her eccentric family in
Sweden.
TV4 was undeterred by the relative
novelty of a bilingual series. “For the last
couple of years, we’ve been following
the “Lillehammer” project (on Netflix),
which is very unique, and involves mixing
cultures, as well,” Sjoberg says. “It’s
hilarious. That project had opened our
minds to other projects involving mixed
cultures.”
What helped, too, was the involvement of
Herngren, a principal at FLX, with whom
TV4 has “Solsidan,” which Sjoberg says is
“one of the most successful comedy
shows in history on TV4. We rely on him
a lot and have a lot of confidence in him.”
Amy: Nope.
In the typical international co-production,
a show is filmed in one language, and
Stephen: “Look come
on... you’ve got to love
the confidence of a man
who’ll bring an elevenyear-old to a booty call.”
Jenny: “It’s not fair you
know. Some of the world’s
worst people have
managed to get married.
Hitler got married. Stalin
got married. Just what is
so wrong with me”
Erica: “I see guys to
keep my family happy. To
make them think I’m not a
disgrace... To make them
think I don’t love women.”
Heidi: “You can’t help
wondering is there someone
or something else out there
that you just missed somehow.
So you subtly screw everything
up cos you’re playing with the
idea that you could do better.”
Asa Sjoberg, Director of Programmes TV4
then dubbed into the languages of
other participants, for broadcast in their
particular countries. Sweden, however,
does not dub. Swedish viewers, therefore,
are accustomed to subtitles.
They’re accustomed also, Sjoberg says,
to hearing English being spoken on
subtitled shows. Moreover, practically all
Swedes speak some English.
“For the Swedish audiences, it’s not
unusual to hear American shows in
English. So, in that sense, ‘Welcome to
Sweden’ is not something that comes
out of the blue as a new thing. Almost
a hundred percent of Swedes speak
English; it’s the obligatory second
language you learn in school. They hear
Nick: “I can’t stand all that
false modesty crap, you
know. You tell a woman she’s
beautiful, she says she’s fat.
You say you’ve got nice legs,
she says they’re tree trunks.
Just fucking boring.”
Kate: “I’m so sick of
women who go this way
and that on a whim; it’s not
complicated, it’s annoying.”
it on television constantly.”
Sjoberg believes that the old adage,
“comedy doesn’t travel,” is undergoing a
slow death, in view of the omnipresence
of humor, not only on TV, but the internet.
While that might not be as true for broad
comedy, it definitely applies to comedy
that is directed specifically at a certain
niche of experience or nationality, as is
the case with “Welcome to Sweden.”
“It’s important that the show be relevant
to Swedes,” she says, “and that we can
laugh about ourselves when we see
ourselves through Greg’s eyes. It’s also
a fascinating opportunity to work with
the other American actors that Greg has
brought on.” Greg’s sister Amy Poehler,
Will Ferrell and Gene Simmons appear
in some episodes as celebrity clients
who’ve been abandoned by their money
manager. Aubrey Plaza appears as a
celebrity stalker, and Patrick Duffy and
Ileana Douglas play Bruce’s
parents.
“Welcome to Sweden” is now in postproduction, and TV4 has slated it to
launch in early 2014. TV4 has high hopes
for it. “We have, in eOne, an American
production partner and international
distributor that’s confident of selling the
show globally. And the key factor is Greg
Poehler, who is a rising star, is part of a
fantastic community of actors, and has a
surname with a following. You know, ‘Amy
Poehler has a brother, and he’s funny,
too, and we exported him to Sweden.”
Callum: “I mean, I know
I’m no Hugh Grant, but....
I thought you’d see past
that.”
Ellie: “Look, I’m aware
that this Hindenburg of
a date is crashing into
flames, but maybe if we keep
talking, everything in
the world will be alright.”
PAGE 5
eOne news - fall edition 2013
Adam Korson, star of SEED
eOne news - fall edition 2013
THE CW
ACQUIRES
SEED WITH
STAR ADAM
KORSON
RENEWED FOR A 2ND SEASON!
Actor Adam Korson plays the lead in
“Seed,” a hilarious comedy about sperm
donation. His Harry is a young, devilmay-care sort who discovers that his
donations to a cryobank have resulted
in a gaggle of children by numerous and
very different women. Korson sat for an
interview recently:
Q. There are a couple of
feature films coming out
with the same theme. Any
idea why the subject of
sperm donors is suddenly so
prominent?
Q. With such a meaty,
comedic role, was the first
season fun?
A. I think it’s prominent in our culture right
now, as we steer more and more toward
untraditional families. Even after shooting,
I would have people coming up to me
and talking about their own experiences
with sperm donation. Relationships have
changed, but people still want family.
A. Every character has human qualities,
and I always look for those when I
approach a character. As far as Harry
goes, I saw his heart right away. Yes, he’s
the kind of guy who does things for his
own benefit, but at the end of the day
there’s no question he puts the people
he cares about first. I think we all want
to be good, rather than bad, and he’s a
character that’s very much that way.
Q. As Harry, you manage
to accomplish being both
Q. In season two, will Harry
get any closer to settling
A. Omigod, it was a blast. It was an
absolute joy every single day. We had
such a great cast and such a great
crew. Every day it was like going to a
playground.
A Conversation with eOne
a show we did with HBO. I don’t think
you’ll see us go heavily into multi-camera
sitcoms, but certainly half-hour, singlecamera comedies or dramedies, which is
an area we think we’re going to continue
to grow in, because the market is
demanding these types of shows more.
Is there a growing appetite in the global
market for event miniseries, such as
eOne’s KLONDIKE and forthcoming
BOOK OF NEGROES?
John Morayniss,
CEO Entertainment One Television
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
In less than half a decade, eOne
Television has emerged as a major
player in the international TV industry.
In a conversation, eOne TV CEO John
Morayniss assessed the company’s
phenomenal success, its future, and the
emerging global marketplace, including
its new blockbuster deal with AMC and
Sundance Channel:
Given eOne’s growing slate of comedies
with your acquisitions of SPUN OUT and
SEED, is comedy a new focus for the
company?
It’s definitely a growing area for eOne.
We’ve always focused on it to a lesser
extent, but recently we’re seeing more
buyers in the U.S. and elsewhere that
are looking for half-hour, comedic type
shows – things like GIRLS and HUNG,
PAGE 6
Yes, absolutely. What we’re seeing, with the
proliferation of channels and platforms,
digital channels, and new SVOD services
like Netflix, is a very crowded marketplace.
Those buyers need to make noise to
stand out, and one way to make noise is
with events. And, what better way to have
an event than a limited series? It’s not
going to be around forever, and viewers
have to catch it when it runs. These types
of series also attract big writers and big
directors from the film world because
you’re not asking for a season-long
commitment.
We’re seeing a lot of buyers throwing a
lot of money to commission these kinds
of projects. And, the international market
is demanding these kinds of events. As
one of the largest independent studios,
we can’t ignore that demand. But, there’s
substantial risk with the big budgets, and
so on. I don’t think you’re going to see us
do a dozen every year. But, it would be
nice to have two or four such projects
that we bring to market every year.
Your unscripted division is relatively
young. It is possible to grow it to match
your robust scripted business, and is
that a goal?
We started our unscripted business
in the U.S. only a couple of years ago,
but we’ve had a significant business
based in Canada for quite a while.
We developed unscripted, factual,
documentary-type programming that
was initially commissioned by Canadian
broadcasters, but that we sold around
the world. We started in the U.S. without a
lot of capital because we were so heavily
invested in the scripted side and weren’t
sure we want to just dive into unscripted
programming. So we decided, let’s just
dip our big toe into that market. And
we’ve done very well with a limited and
constrained business model. It hasn’t
been about volume, but rather about
getting specific shows on the air, and
seeing that they stay there – something
like MARY, MARY, which has been on the
air for three years. The model has proven
itself to be a good one. Our plan with
unscripted in the U.S. is to grow it much
faster, however.
You have a large slate of family
shows that are just being green-lit for
production. How difficult is it to line
up the necessary elements to have
the kind of breakout success that your
PEPPA PIG has enjoyed?
It’s really hard because, ultimately, with
most kids and family programming, for
success to occur you really need to build
a brand and have a significant licensing
program that comes out of it. PEPPA PIG
is a huge licensing success in the U.K.,
and is building in the U.S., but it takes
endearing and a jerk. How
does an actor do that without
resorting to the Jekyll-andHyde method?
down with one woman?
A. We’ll start shooting at the end of
September, and I don’t know what will
happen. We’ll have to wait and see
what the writers do. The thing about
the first season is that we saw Harry go
through some sort of metamorphosis. He
became a little more responsible. But,
who knows?
Q. Are you a father in real life?
A. No, I have no children. I’m single and
lovin’ it. I do have two nephews, though.
One is four, and one is one. My parents
are still together, and they really value
family. So, down the road, absolutely, I’d
like to have my own kids.
TV CEO John Morayniss
looked at by the U.S. marketplace in a
way they haven’t been before.
a long time and a lot of strategy and
expertise and brand management. And,
you never know what’s going to work.
know our market really well. But you have
to constantly replenish these shows,
otherwise they get stale.
It takes building the right creative
package, and getting the show on the
air long enough to build the necessary
awareness. We’ve always started by
saying, let’s make a show, and in success
the show will become a brand that
we can then exploit. But we recently
bought a retail branding business, Art
Impressions, which is run by Cindy Bailey,
and Cindy is all about starting to build
a brand from the get-go. Now, we hope
to look at some of the content we’re just
developing, and bring Cindy and her
business in at an early stage for brandbuilding purposes.
It’s exciting to have them renewed for
a fourth or fifth season, but it’s also a
little scary. We have to really nourish
our newer shows like SAVING HOPE and
ROGUE, so hopefully they become the
ROOKIE BLUES and HAVENS of the future.
Certainly with digital and online platforms
were seeing new models. In addition,
advertisers are now more involved with
content and production – it’s actually a
new version of an old model of advertisers
directly funding TV content, and having
editorial involvement in that content.
Which areas of eOne Television do you
think need more of your attention?
How do you see eOne as standing apart
from its competitors?
It’s the newer areas. We’ve got a lot of
growth ahead of us in the unscripted
space in U.S., the U.K., and beyond, and
we’re looking at strategic alliances or
acquisitions in that space. That’s one
I want to give more attention to. We’re
doing really well in the scripted space,
and have a great team, but there’s always
room for improvement. But we also have
a lot of momentum in that space, so
it doesn’t require quite as much of my
attention.
We’re unique as a global independent.
We’ve got a strong global TV business,
and strong global film and home
entertainment businesses. We are the
largest independent music distributor
and label in the United States. It’s a
really interesting collection of media
disciplines that all integrate well.
With eOne Television only five years
old, how have you managed to break
out so quickly with dramas like HAVEN,
ROOKIE BLUE, HELL ON WHEELS and
SAVING HOPE, some of which are going
into their third, fourth and fifth seasons?
Part of the way we’ve been able to
pull it off was by acquiring a couple of
companies that were proficient in that
area. But, the truth is that most of the
shows on the air now came to fruition
right before the acquisitions, or just after.
Shows like HAVEN and ROOKIE BLUE
started just at the beginning of eOne
Television. It was through a combination
of skill and luck. The television business
is a bit like alchemy; there’s an
unpredictable side to it. But we’ve got
a great development and production
team, and we listen to our buyers. Market
intelligence is very important to us. We
EOne has been a leader in
unconventional business models for
television series. Is the industry overall
shifting in that direction?
We look and smell like a major studio,
but we’re small, lean and limber enough
to work outside the system, and look
at these new models and make quick
decisions, and take risks and structure
things in ways never done before. The
majors tend to be a little slow in reacting
to change.
Absolutely. It’s become a global business,
and you’re seeing way more partnerships
among broadcasters in the U.S. and the
international marketplace. We’re seeing
talent come from all over the world in
a way we’ve never seen before – great
writers, producers, actors. We’re seeing
more willingness and openness to
explore content from all over the world.
Formats from all over the world are being
In this new world order, all of our
competitors are also our potential
partners. You’re seeing that more and
more in television – all kinds of players
looking at all kinds of partnerships to
reduce their exposure and have sensible
creative collaborations on a global scale.
That’s been going on internationally for
quite some time, but five or six years ago,
that wasn’t happening in the U.S.
PAGE 7
eOne news - fall edition 2013
eOne news - fall edition 2013
Thandie Newton, star of ROGUE
e
n
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Not long ago,
DirecTV found
itself up against
a hard reality.
DirecTV’s solution was to step into
the realm of original content with the
riveting crime drama, “Rogue,” produced
by eOne. “Rogue,” which is gearing
up for its second season, centers on
an undercover cop, Grace Travis, who
becomes emotionally involved with
the head of the crime family she’s
investigating.
Executives at the satellite provider had
begun to realize they no longer could
rely on simply taking over shows from
other networks -- shows such
as their “Friday Night Lights” (originally
on NBC). and “Damages” (which
started on FX).
A number of considerations prompted
DirecTV to make the show its first foray
into the genre, Long says. “Part of it was
our relationship with eOne. Also, the
pitch given by creators Nick Hamm and
Mathew Parkhill was intriguing -- a look
at a different kind of crime family from
what we’ve seen on television.
“There’s a point in time when you can’t
just revive shows,” says Chris Long,
DirecTV senior vice president for
entertainment and production, “and
there’s not a lot inventory out there.
There’s not a bucket of ‘Friday Night
Llights’ and ‘Damages’ available. If you
want to grow, you can’t just wait for
someone else’s leftovers. You have to
create your own magic.”
PAGE 8
“In addition, we thought it was a safe
genre. We weren’t going for a far-fetched
idea. A lot of our acquisitions of crime
dramas are stuff that we got from the
U.K., Australia, and elsewhere, and
they did well. So the idea of serialized,
scripted dramas was in our wheelhouse.
We were going for the sweet spot of
what premium television viewers like.”
DirecTV’s audience -- “premium
ALIEN TV (78X7’)
For preschoolers...
PJ MASKS (52X11’)
television viewers,” as Long terms
them -- consists of 35-to-54-yearold men and women who are highly
educated, own their own homes and
have household incomes of more than
a hundred thousand dollars a year.
“Rogue” has been such a success for
DirecTV that they immediately ordered
a second season of the show. The new
season begins shooting later this month,
and introduces several new characters,
as well as a new crime for Grace, played
by series star Thandie Newton, to solve.
Long expects DirecTV to
be in the original drama
business for some time to
come. “As long as we keep
giving our customers shows
that they want, I think we’ll
be in good shape. I’ll take
one or two hit shows a year.
That’ll be fine with me.”
Who said superheroes have to be big
and strong? Take the trio of sevenyear-olds in this series, which is based
on the popular French books, “Les
Pyjamasques” by Romuald Racioppo,
and aimed at preschoolers. Each night
when darkness descends, the three
undersized avengers slip into their
pajamas, activate their magical animal
amulets -- and are off into the night to
right the wrongs they’ve seen by day.
The series, co-produced by Frog Box in
France, has been picked up by France
5 in France, and by a global platform for
preschoolers, to be announced soon.
OSCAR & HOO (78x7’)
Also for the preschool set: One day a
little boy named Oscar is visited by a
little cloud named Hoo, and the two
become best friends and constant
companions. Hoo shares Oscar’s
adventures and helps him deal with all
the everyday experiences that beset
an ordinary kid. As Hoo is introduced to
human emotions, Oscar makes better
sense of them, too.
EOne’s partners in the series are ABC in
Australia, and TVO, TFO and Knowledge
in Canada, as well as the Shaw Rocket
Fund. It is co-produced by Cheeky Little
Media in Australia.
An alien television crew arrives on a
curious, small blue planet in the Milky
Way. Their mission: Gather as much
information as they can about the odd
little sphere, and its strange inhabitants.
They are completely clueless about the
place, and misinterpret everything they
encounter on Earth.
EOne’s co-producer is Essential Media in
Australia.
WINSTON (52x11’)
Winston is a fearless wonder-kid whose
goal is to explore every solar system in
the universe, horrific space monsters
notwithstanding. His ambition is to
emulate his hero Sgt. Sasha Spritz of the
Space Cops Superforce -- the coolest
guy in the cosmos. With his stuffy
sidekick Hammy and talking pet cat Sir
Dudley Ding Dong, Winston takes on
eerie, bubbling planets, bad-breathed
space bandits and -- worst by far -- PAM
THE DESTROYER, a tweenie-bopper with
a mega crush on him.
Co-produced by Sticky Pictures in
Australia, the series has been picked
up by ABC in Australia and Teletoon in
Canada.
PEPPA’S ONE FANTASTIC PIG...
Eone’s PEPPA PIG, meanwhile is on fire
around the globe. It’s growing by leaps
and bounds in Spain, Italy, Australia and
the U.S., and still doing well in the UK. It
launches next year in Latin America and
Russia -- a fitting 10th anniversary for the
brand.
eOne’S TV
MOVIES
AND MINISERIES
CONTINUE
TO BOOM
eOne’s Executive Producer,
Ira Pincus, is on slate
for a record-setting
year in TV movie and
miniseries productions for
the company. At a time
when the U.S. market has
seen increased demand
for close-ended stories
in television, Ira Pincus
and his Manager of
Development, Harrison
Reishman, have expanded
eOne’s already strong
marketshare into more
productions and new
business opportunities.
This year the department
will surpass six longform
productions, including two
TV movies at Hallmark
Channel, based on Mary
Higgins Clark’s novels,
and several more movies
for Hallmark Channel,
Lifetime and the rebranded
network, UP!. The team
is also focused on being
a primary partner for
television networks
venturing into scripted
longform, like Discovery
Channel with eOne’s
KLONDIKE. Expect to hear
more exciting news from
this department in the
months to come!
PAGE 9
eOne news - fall edition 2013
eOne news - fall edition 2013
eOne
GOES
BIG WITH
NEW
REALITY
SHOWS
IN PRODUCTION
GLADYS KNIGHT
A fascinating look at the singer/icon
as she navigates the joys, sorrows and
challenges of overseeing an active,
four-generation family while tending to
a robust career. For the Oprah Winfrey
Network.
FOR DISTRIBUTION
PROJECT: GUATEMALA
Young, rich and spoiled - nine, over
privileged partygoers think they’ve
signed up for an adventure in paradise
and their usual frivolous fun...but what
they get is the experience of a lifetime.
The Project follows their transformational
journey to Guatemala to help build an
orphanage for children in need.
A BEAUTY YOU DON’T
WANT TO TANGLE WITH
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
That challenge, it turns out, has been
little more than a love tap. Vandervoort
holds a second-degree black belt in
shotokan karate, which emphasizes both
power and fluidity, and is the martial art
practiced by such action-film heroes as
Jean-Claude van Damme and Wesley
Snipes.
“I knew ahead of time it would be a fairly
large action show, and I really enjoy
doing it,” she says. “I’ve been doing
martial arts since age seven, so it’s
ingrained in me. I stopped when I was
about 20, so it’s been quite a while since
I’ve done it, so it was only a matter of
getting those muscles back.”
The physical demands were not the
problem, she says. The challenge was
to adapt fighting movements to being
filmed with its peculiar demands for
exaggeration and curtailment.
“I’ve had to learn how to hit for the
camera, how to work with specific angles
to make it ‘sell’ to the camera,”
she says. “It was definitely
a challenge, but
also a nice
break
PAGE 10
in the week’s work, mixing it in with the
straight acting. I’ve done a few other
projects that allowed me to fight, or to
be around fighting, and so I’ve been able
to study it in that way.”
Being transformed from a particularly
attractive example of homo sapiens
into canis lupus requires not only the
exacting magic of CGI, but a dramatic
display by Vandervoort of emotional
anguish that bridges the gap between
the two creatures. Vandervoort wears no
prosthetics to help signal the coming
transformation. That acting challenge
-- Elena’s heroic battle to manage
two contradictory existences -- is the
dramatic heart of the story.
“That kind of multi-dimensional person
is what I tend to go for when I’m picking
characters,” she says. “It’s more
compelling than playing onedimensional characters.
The whole show
is about
Elena’s two different lives, and her
struggling with that dual reality. It’s very
challenging to go in one day and portray
her wolf life, and the next day to play
her as very lighthearted and part of the
human world. I definitely get to stretch
my muscles.”
“Such a transformation is
something that any actor
who would want to be taken
seriously would look for.
‘Bitten’ is not a teeny-bopper
show, but very dark and gritty.
It gives me an opportunity
to explore the
darker part of
myself.”
The cast of BITTEN
TEXAS STRONGMEN
An comedic docu-series that chronicles
the outsized personal lives of six of the
world’s strongest men and women as
they train, compete and deal with the
ups and downs of daily life. Big people,
big challenges -- and big laughs, too.
On A&E.
PANIC BUTTON
This newly adapted US version of Panic
Button is not just a reality show, it’s an
altered reality event filled with mindbending challenges for teams trying
to make their way through the ultimate
Haunted House. In this personal test
SWV (60x6)
An intriguing docu-series about world
famous R&B group, SWV (it stands for
“Sisters With Voices”). They broke up
at the height of their careers but are
getting back together to see if they can
make it work the second time around. It
launches February 2014 on WE.
of will, the goal is to complete all levels
and feel a sense of accomplishment,
but with shocking surprises guaranteed
to keep viewers laughing, the result is
frighteningly funny, unpredictable, nonstop entertainment.
A Marriage
Made in
Licensing
heaven!
In
acquiring
Art Impressions,
Inc., Entertainment One
Licensing brought leading
US and international lifestyle brand
management and licensing expertise all
together under eOne. “The most exciting
part of joining eOne is realizing the
many opportunities for cross promotions
throughout eOne’s tremendous portfolio
of film, television, and music artists”, said
Cindy Bailey. “Our partnership sets the
stage for a whole new wave of innovative
multi-platform collaborations within eOne
and cross-marketing campaigns.”
Based in Calabasas, California, and
launched in 1992, Art Impressions
specializes in lifestyle brand creation
across all key demographics. The
company handles widely-popular brands
SO SO Happy and Skelanimals, both
catapulted to success through innovative
marketing campaigns and social media
fandom.
Cindy Bailey,
CEO Art Impressions
Conceived
by Bailey in
an effort to raise
awareness about teen
bullying, tween and teen lifestyle
brand SO SO Happy has already secured
60 licensees, achieving huge resonance
within retail through a robust program
which includes lines in apparel and
accessories. The company saw similar
success with teen brand Skelanimals.
Both brands were launched via popup shops at famous pop culture
boutiques and lifestyle stores, and grew
customer awareness sponsoring music
events such as the Vans Warped Tour,
collaborating with bands and Youtube
influencers on product placement, videos
and blogs, cross-promoting via social
media, creating animated shorts, doing
celebrity seeding and gifting suites.
Art Impressions is all
about developing,
licensing, and
merchandising popculture lifestyle brands,
aimed primarily at
the highly desirable
teen-and-young adult
demographic. It boasts
more than 500 licenses
and relationships with
manufacturers in 42
countries.
With Art Impressions on board, eOne
Licensing has extended its scope
in brand management across film,
television and music projects. “Now,
as soon as eOne acquires or develops
new projects, we will be in the position
to acquire the rights for the consumer
products, merchandising and licensing
for those projects to offer our partners
complete brand-management beyond
traditional means of exploitation. eOne’s
all-media rights management business
can provide opportunities to exploit
content and brands at the highest levels
across all markets,” Bailey says.
Now combined, eOne Licensing’s
growing portfolio includes the recentlyacquired YouTube sensation Simon’s
Cat; an animated series featuring the
mischievous and often hilarious antics
of a fat white cat and his owner Simon.
With 1.72 million subscribers on its core
YouTube channel, Simon’s Cat shorts
have generated an astonishing 358
million views online since its creation in
2008. And eOne already has big plans
for Simon on both the big and small
screens…
“I cannot even tell you how blessed I
feel,” said Cindy. “It’s so inspiring to be
involved with such a talented network
of partners and colleagues. We feel like
we’ve been an only child all these years,
and now we have so many creative
siblings.”
PAGE 11
eOne news - fall edition 2013
Get BITTEN by a Unique Supernatural Drama
An interview with series creator Daegan Fryklind
In the crowded genre
of werewolf drama,
BITTEN stands out.
To begin with, it features a strong female
lead, played by Laura Vandervoort.
Moreover, unlike the others, the series
takes its time to build in the texture of
relationships among its characters, what
series creator Daegan Fryklind calls,
“water-cooler moments you won’t see on
any other series.”
“We’re basically a Mafia story with a
supernatural twist,” she says. “Audiences
come to the supernatural because
they want the familiar dressed up in a
different way. We have the familiar -- love,
revenge, betrayal, forgiveness. But we
also have what you won’t see on any
other series. We’re a sexy, action-packed
werewolf show. And we also have Laura
Vandervoort changing in to a wolf. Where
else are you going to see that?”
for the series. “We didn’t want a waif
or a victim. We wanted a survivor, but
someone you could love and root for.”
benefitted from the deep mythology she
had in place for this world and these
characters.”
Fryklind was drawn to “Bitten,” based on
Kelley Armstrong’s novel of the same
name (it’s part of the “Women of the
Otherworld” series) because of her
longtime fascination by the animal
aspect of human nature. The first novel
Fryklind wrote was about a woman who
has a falling out with language and turns
into a dog. Her next was about a feral
child.
The producers got a taste of fan reaction
in late August when they screened a
trailer of the series at Fan Expo Canada,
the so-called “Comic Con of Canada,” in
Toronto. “Bitten’s” Canadian broadcaster,
Space, made headbands with wolf ears
on them for people in the audience. The
trailer played to a packed house, Fryklind
says, “and it was really, really well received
both in the room and on Twitter.”
She was intrigued also, she says, by the
concept of the pack mentality that
imbues Elena and her peers. “In our
age of Flickr, Twitter, Tinder, we are
communicating more, and connecting
less,” she says. “I was attracted to the
idea of how someone who had tried to
isolate herself was pulled back into this
pack, and the realization of the strength
you pull from a group.”
“The plot of the novel is basically the plot
of the first season. However, the book
itself is really told from Elena’s POV. We,
however, have stepped outside that
in order to give all of our characters
their moments and their scenes and
their stories. Of course, we have a few
surprises along the way that are offbook, but we hope those will be pleasant
surprises to faithful readers. As we
like to say, “You can’t have
a thrill-ride without
thrills.”
Like others seeking to make film from a
novel with a large fan base, the makers
of “Bitten” have had to tread carefully,
so as not to alienate dedicated readers.
“The success of the Otherworld franchise
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PAGE 12
LCO EDEN
E
W
W
S
The lead character, Elena, who struggles
to distance herself from the pack of
werewolves that constitutes her only
family, is much in the emergent pattern
of strong women on television series
-- from “Homeland’s” Carrie Mathison, to
Saga Noren from the original version of
“The Bridge,” to Starbuck of “Battlestar
Galactica,” to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
DID
YOU
W?
KNO