Paramount Plus is boosting its CanCon with acquisition and development deals that include a scripted comedy inspired by the Ben Johnson doping scandal and a limited series from Elliot Page’s production company.
The Paramount-owned streamer touted four Canadian series in the works including “Hate the Player: The Ben Johnson Story,” from writer Anthony Q. Farrell of “The Office” and “Run the Burbs,” and “Letterkenny” producers New Metric Media.
The premise is described as "the scandal behind the scandal that brought the 'world’s fastest man' from hero to zero in 9.79 seconds."
The sprinter was stripped of his 100-metre gold medal at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games for failing a drug test.
Paramount Plus outlined its programming strategy at the Banff World Media Festival, noting it also greenlit Page Boy Productions' six-part series “Len & Cub,” about the secret relationship of two young men in rural 20th-century New Brunswick.
Executives also touted commissioned features and plans to acquire hundreds of hours of content by year’s end from companies including the National Film Board of Canada, Elevation Pictures, Mongrel Media, Sphere Films and Blue Ant Media.
Paramount Global’s senior vice president of streaming and content licensing for Canada says partnering with the creative community is “key to our success in the market.”
"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,” Doug Smith said Monday in a release.
The two other series are: the hour-long ”Carpe Demon” about a frazzled suburban mom who used to be a demon hunter, from showrunner Emily Andras of “Wynonna Earp” and “Lost Girl”; and the dark comedy ”They Drive at Night,” about two best friends – a vampire and a werewolf – on a road trip across Canada. It’s written by Craig Wallace of “Murdoch Mysteries” and “Todd & The Book of Pure Evil.”
Expected this fall is the documentary “500 Days in the Wild” from filmmaker Dianne Whelan of “This Land,” in which she self-recorded a solo journey across Canada in 2015.
And produced in association with Paramount Plus is "The Boy in the Woods,” a true-life survival story of a Jewish boy hiding in the forests of Nazi-occupied eastern Europe, based on the memoir by Maxwell Smart.
Acquisitions include the NFB documentary “Anything For Fame” and “Never Seen Again” from Efran Films; the feature films “Midnight At The Paradise” from LevelFILM, and the romantic comedy “The End Of Sex,” from Vortex.
Canadian titles already on the streamer or soon to arrive include “Away from Her,” “Aline,” “Kayak to Klemtu” and “Paw Patrol: The Movie.”
Meanwhile, Paramount’s FAST service Pluto TV, which already includes 45 dedicated Canadian channels, is adding three more on July 1, including one dedicated to “The Red Green Show.”
The other channels are: Truly Canadian, featuring scripted series such as “Little Mosque on the Prairie,” “Edgemont” and “Arctic Air,” and Pluto TV Documentaries, featuring NFB documentaries and Hot Docs films such as “When Jews Were Funny” by Alan Zweig and Randy Bachman's “Vinyl Tap: Every Song Tells a Story.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2023.
Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press
