Visit our sister site:
Follow us on
Front Page, Industry News
Will Arnett’s follow-up to ‘Arrested Development’ hunts for Canadian network
Thursday June 17th 2010BANFF, Alta. – Canadian comic Will Arnett returned to his home country to shoot the pilot for his upcoming comedy, “Running Wilde,” but producers have deemed Vancouver not opulent enough to base the entire series there.
Executives with Lionsgate Television offered a sneak peek of the show at the Banff World Television Festival this week, as they sought a Canadian broadcaster for the outlandish sitcom, in which Arnett stars as a wealthy playboy.
Kevin Beggs, Lionsgate’s president of television programming and production, said that although they enjoyed filming the first episode in Vancouver, it was apparent the city did not have the over-the-top extravagance needed for the show.
“What we really needed to deliver on his opulent lifestyle was really a whole world of mansions,” Beggs said after a pilot screening at the industry conference, which wrapped Wednesday.
“And we didn’t really have it in Vancouver as much as we would have liked. We used two mansions to create the one mansion we saw in the pilot but there’s a fair amount of filming restrictions — you can’t shoot after 11 o’clock at night — that were really going to restrict us.
“We found a place that we’ll probably shoot this in New York. We’ll probably take over an entire golf course, an estate and country club, and we’ll just house the series there for the whole run.”
The Toronto-born Arnett plays Steve Wilde, the billionaire son of an oil tycoon determined to woo his childhood sweetheart, Emmy, played by “Felicity”‘s Keri Russell.
The sticking point is that Emmy is a staunch humanitarian living in the Peruvian rain forest with her 12-year-old daughter Puddle and eco-warrior boyfriend.
Much of the comedy arises in Wilde’s buffoonish attempts to impress Emmy — they include giving himself an award for “Humanitarian of the Year” and uprooting the Peruvian tribe that Emmy has been studying to a nearby hotel.
Other characters include an Austrian nanny named Gertie, played by Jayne Houdyshell, with an ardent attachment to Steve.
The pilot was co-written by Arnett and “Arrested Development” mastermind Mitch Hurwitz, and Arnett is expected to write more episodes as the series progresses.
Lionsgate executive vice president Sandra Stern said the pros and cons of shooting in Vancouver were weighed heavily, but several factors made New York the better option. A key factor is that Russell lives in New York where she has a young child.
“It was going to be difficult for lifestyle,” Stern said.
“It would require us to hire a private plane to fly her home every weekend … and when we weighed the pros and cons it was going to be very, very challenging from a production standpoint to accommodate Will and Keri’s lives and the production. At the end of the day it just made more sense to take the series to New York.”
Nevertheless, Lionsgate is eager to drum up interest in the show in Canada, where “Running Wilde” failed to nab a timeslot with Global, CTV or Citytv.
South of the border, it’s set to air Tuesdays on Fox following “Glee” and another new sitcom, “Raising Hope.”
But here, Beggs says each of the big Canadian networks are already stacked with established series.
“It’s just a unique function of the Canadian scheduling,” says Beggs. “They’re all challenged by their schedule.”
He said a natural home would be Global Television, which snapped up another season of “Glee” along with “Raising Hope” as a package deal earlier this year.
The problem is that Global is shelving “Raising Hope” so it can follow “Glee” with the established hour-long dramas “NCIS: Los Angeles” and “The Good Wife,” Beggs says.
“There’s a whole bunch of things that are already kind of in these key slots,” he says.
“Obviously, we’re working hard to find the right home, we want to stay on broadcast. We may have to take our chances a little bit to see what shows fall out, hopefully not ours.”
Maple Pictures co-president Brad Pelman, tasked with finding a distribution deal in Canada, says if other half-hour shows don’t succeed this fall, “Running Wilde” could end up on the schedule, albeit belatedly.
“If the show becomes a hit, all of the networks are going to be back all over me to try to get the second or third week in,” says Pelman.
“It happens from time to time that shows are airing in the U.S. and not in Canada on a simulcast basis. They can get pre-release (air a day or two earlier) or they’ll end up coming in a couple days later.”
“‘American Idol,’ for instance, did not air in Canada on a simulcast basis until it became the juggernaut hit that it became.”
Source: The Canadian Press
Front Page, Industry News
Will Arnett’s follow-up to ‘Arrested Development’ hunts for Canadian network
Thursday June 17th 2010BANFF, Alta. – Canadian comic Will Arnett returned to his home country to shoot the pilot for his upcoming comedy, “Running Wilde,” but producers have deemed Vancouver not opulent enough to base the entire series there.
Executives with Lionsgate Television offered a sneak peek of the show at the Banff World Television Festival this week, as they sought a Canadian broadcaster for the outlandish sitcom, in which Arnett stars as a wealthy playboy.
Kevin Beggs, Lionsgate’s president of television programming and production, said that although they enjoyed filming the first episode in Vancouver, it was apparent the city did not have the over-the-top extravagance needed for the show.
“What we really needed to deliver on his opulent lifestyle was really a whole world of mansions,” Beggs said after a pilot screening at the industry conference, which wrapped Wednesday.
“And we didn’t really have it in Vancouver as much as we would have liked. We used two mansions to create the one mansion we saw in the pilot but there’s a fair amount of filming restrictions — you can’t shoot after 11 o’clock at night — that were really going to restrict us.
“We found a place that we’ll probably shoot this in New York. We’ll probably take over an entire golf course, an estate and country club, and we’ll just house the series there for the whole run.”
The Toronto-born Arnett plays Steve Wilde, the billionaire son of an oil tycoon determined to woo his childhood sweetheart, Emmy, played by “Felicity”‘s Keri Russell.
The sticking point is that Emmy is a staunch humanitarian living in the Peruvian rain forest with her 12-year-old daughter Puddle and eco-warrior boyfriend.
Much of the comedy arises in Wilde’s buffoonish attempts to impress Emmy — they include giving himself an award for “Humanitarian of the Year” and uprooting the Peruvian tribe that Emmy has been studying to a nearby hotel.
Other characters include an Austrian nanny named Gertie, played by Jayne Houdyshell, with an ardent attachment to Steve.
The pilot was co-written by Arnett and “Arrested Development” mastermind Mitch Hurwitz, and Arnett is expected to write more episodes as the series progresses.
Lionsgate executive vice president Sandra Stern said the pros and cons of shooting in Vancouver were weighed heavily, but several factors made New York the better option. A key factor is that Russell lives in New York where she has a young child.
“It was going to be difficult for lifestyle,” Stern said.
“It would require us to hire a private plane to fly her home every weekend … and when we weighed the pros and cons it was going to be very, very challenging from a production standpoint to accommodate Will and Keri’s lives and the production. At the end of the day it just made more sense to take the series to New York.”
Nevertheless, Lionsgate is eager to drum up interest in the show in Canada, where “Running Wilde” failed to nab a timeslot with Global, CTV or Citytv.
South of the border, it’s set to air Tuesdays on Fox following “Glee” and another new sitcom, “Raising Hope.”
But here, Beggs says each of the big Canadian networks are already stacked with established series.
“It’s just a unique function of the Canadian scheduling,” says Beggs. “They’re all challenged by their schedule.”
He said a natural home would be Global Television, which snapped up another season of “Glee” along with “Raising Hope” as a package deal earlier this year.
The problem is that Global is shelving “Raising Hope” so it can follow “Glee” with the established hour-long dramas “NCIS: Los Angeles” and “The Good Wife,” Beggs says.
“There’s a whole bunch of things that are already kind of in these key slots,” he says.
“Obviously, we’re working hard to find the right home, we want to stay on broadcast. We may have to take our chances a little bit to see what shows fall out, hopefully not ours.”
Maple Pictures co-president Brad Pelman, tasked with finding a distribution deal in Canada, says if other half-hour shows don’t succeed this fall, “Running Wilde” could end up on the schedule, albeit belatedly.
“If the show becomes a hit, all of the networks are going to be back all over me to try to get the second or third week in,” says Pelman.
“It happens from time to time that shows are airing in the U.S. and not in Canada on a simulcast basis. They can get pre-release (air a day or two earlier) or they’ll end up coming in a couple days later.”
“‘American Idol,’ for instance, did not air in Canada on a simulcast basis until it became the juggernaut hit that it became.”
Source: The Canadian Press
Leave a Reply
Front Page, Industry News
Will Arnett’s follow-up to ‘Arrested Development’ hunts for Canadian network
Thursday June 17th 2010BANFF, Alta. – Canadian comic Will Arnett returned to his home country to shoot the pilot for his upcoming comedy, “Running Wilde,” but producers have deemed Vancouver not opulent enough to base the entire series there.
Executives with Lionsgate Television offered a sneak peek of the show at the Banff World Television Festival this week, as they sought a Canadian broadcaster for the outlandish sitcom, in which Arnett stars as a wealthy playboy.
Kevin Beggs, Lionsgate’s president of television programming and production, said that although they enjoyed filming the first episode in Vancouver, it was apparent the city did not have the over-the-top extravagance needed for the show.
“What we really needed to deliver on his opulent lifestyle was really a whole world of mansions,” Beggs said after a pilot screening at the industry conference, which wrapped Wednesday.
“And we didn’t really have it in Vancouver as much as we would have liked. We used two mansions to create the one mansion we saw in the pilot but there’s a fair amount of filming restrictions — you can’t shoot after 11 o’clock at night — that were really going to restrict us.
“We found a place that we’ll probably shoot this in New York. We’ll probably take over an entire golf course, an estate and country club, and we’ll just house the series there for the whole run.”
The Toronto-born Arnett plays Steve Wilde, the billionaire son of an oil tycoon determined to woo his childhood sweetheart, Emmy, played by “Felicity”‘s Keri Russell.
The sticking point is that Emmy is a staunch humanitarian living in the Peruvian rain forest with her 12-year-old daughter Puddle and eco-warrior boyfriend.
Much of the comedy arises in Wilde’s buffoonish attempts to impress Emmy — they include giving himself an award for “Humanitarian of the Year” and uprooting the Peruvian tribe that Emmy has been studying to a nearby hotel.
Other characters include an Austrian nanny named Gertie, played by Jayne Houdyshell, with an ardent attachment to Steve.
The pilot was co-written by Arnett and “Arrested Development” mastermind Mitch Hurwitz, and Arnett is expected to write more episodes as the series progresses.
Lionsgate executive vice president Sandra Stern said the pros and cons of shooting in Vancouver were weighed heavily, but several factors made New York the better option. A key factor is that Russell lives in New York where she has a young child.
“It was going to be difficult for lifestyle,” Stern said.
“It would require us to hire a private plane to fly her home every weekend … and when we weighed the pros and cons it was going to be very, very challenging from a production standpoint to accommodate Will and Keri’s lives and the production. At the end of the day it just made more sense to take the series to New York.”
Nevertheless, Lionsgate is eager to drum up interest in the show in Canada, where “Running Wilde” failed to nab a timeslot with Global, CTV or Citytv.
South of the border, it’s set to air Tuesdays on Fox following “Glee” and another new sitcom, “Raising Hope.”
But here, Beggs says each of the big Canadian networks are already stacked with established series.
“It’s just a unique function of the Canadian scheduling,” says Beggs. “They’re all challenged by their schedule.”
He said a natural home would be Global Television, which snapped up another season of “Glee” along with “Raising Hope” as a package deal earlier this year.
The problem is that Global is shelving “Raising Hope” so it can follow “Glee” with the established hour-long dramas “NCIS: Los Angeles” and “The Good Wife,” Beggs says.
“There’s a whole bunch of things that are already kind of in these key slots,” he says.
“Obviously, we’re working hard to find the right home, we want to stay on broadcast. We may have to take our chances a little bit to see what shows fall out, hopefully not ours.”
Maple Pictures co-president Brad Pelman, tasked with finding a distribution deal in Canada, says if other half-hour shows don’t succeed this fall, “Running Wilde” could end up on the schedule, albeit belatedly.
“If the show becomes a hit, all of the networks are going to be back all over me to try to get the second or third week in,” says Pelman.
“It happens from time to time that shows are airing in the U.S. and not in Canada on a simulcast basis. They can get pre-release (air a day or two earlier) or they’ll end up coming in a couple days later.”
“‘American Idol,’ for instance, did not air in Canada on a simulcast basis until it became the juggernaut hit that it became.”
Source: The Canadian Press
Leave a Reply
Advertisements
