Robyn Carr ‘Sullivan’s Crossing’ In Works At Fremantle, Reel World

As “Virgin River” Season 4 launched on July 18 to turn into Netflix’s No. 1 most watched TV collection on the earth, its producer, Vancouver’s Reel World Administration and literary supply, New York Occasions greatest promoting novelist Robyn Carr, are re-teaming, to launch one other huge daring broad world viewers play, “Sullivan’s Crossing,”

This time they companion with Canada’s CTV and Fremantle, which is dealing with worldwide distribution. Fremantle has shared in exclusivity with Selection first look behind-the-scenes images of the collection’ shoot.

“Sullivan’s Crossing” varieties a part of RTL Group-owned Fremantle’s drive into English-language production each within the U.Ok., –  the place it triumphed this 12 months with BBC One’s “The Responder,” starring Martin Freeman – and past, in Australia and now Canada.

“Sullivan’s Crossing” additionally exhibits one more key world TV participant, right here Fremantle, shifting into ever greater mainstream swings as distributors and VOD platforms alike look to safe huge audiences as soon as broadly the area of broadcast networks.

“We’re thrilled in regards to the English-language drama pipeline and Canada was a giant objective for us. It’s the primary huge present we’re engaged on popping out of Canada. We’ve additionally launched into a restricted collection known as ‘Little Hen,’ with Bell. So we’ve two collection popping out of Canada, finally extra,” stated Jens Richter, CEO of worldwide at Fremantle.

“It’s a improbable territory for us to work with and we positively have ambitions to develop our footprint in Canada, particularly with the relevance within the U.S. market. Producing in Canada after which hitting the general North American market with nice collection like ‘Sullivan’s Crossing’ is unquestionably the large objective right here,” Richter added.

Respiratory cinematic life into the CTV Unique collection are its govt producers, showrunner Roma Roth and Christopher E. Perry of Reel World Administration. The group spun gold with Carr’s “Virgin River” novels, tailored to turn into the Netflix Unique of the identical identify. Season 4 has run up 240 million hours watched in its first three weeks.

“I’m very excited to be in enterprise with CTV and Fremantle, two ahead considering firms who actually perceive and assist our artistic imaginative and prescient for the present,” acknowledged Roth.

“That is one in all Fremantle’s first forays into drama collection and it’s made the present its precedence, which is great provided that it’s a distribution firm with an enormous world footprint. We have been fortunate sufficient to get a straight-to-series order as a result of each Fremantle and CTV have an unbelievable group of creatives who instinctively understood the worth of the Robyn Carr model and fan base,” she added.

The undertaking is an inter-province co-production with Mike Volpe, president of Nova Scotia-based Topsail Productions (“The Lighthouse”), and Mark Gingras, managing companion at Toronto’s City Publish Manufacturing (“Dying of a Girls Man”).

Produced by Reel World Administration and govt produced by CTV and Fremantle, “Sullivan’s Crossing” is developed and produced in affiliation with Bell Media, with the participation of Canadian Media Fund and the Bell Fund.

“Sullivan’s Crossing” follows neurosurgeon Maggie Sullivan as her life in Boston collapses round her, inserting a fork within the highway the place her private {and professional} paths as soon as moved effortlessly ahead. Pressured to move in the wrong way, she finds her method again to the agricultural city she as soon as known as house, the place her estranged father runs the native outpost.

The ten-episode romantic drama unspools as Maggie confronts previous traumas to reconnect to the elements of herself she’d lengthy forgotten. Tackling relatable themes of group, familial bonds, love and self-fulfilment, the present permits its characters the grace to develop, heal and dwell a bit within the course of.

“‘Sullivan’s Crossing’ is extra of a multi-generational drama that focuses on a variety of relationships. My objective is to create a high-level emotional drama that can really feel real and genuine to our viewers, providing them a glimpse right into a world that feels relatable and actual,” Roth commented.

“What Roma does so effectively is return to the extra conventional concept of mainstream, which is sweet, accessible storytelling carried out very effectively. This present is the perfect instance of that,” added Christian Vesper, president of world drama at Fremantle.

“The scripts are emotional, grownup and compelling, but on the similar time, they’re for a broad viewers. They don’t exclude anybody within the household. But they’re not smooth. They’re fairly actual about grownup and household life experiences,” Vesper added.

Carrs’ novels present ample materials and have the potential so as to add a number of seasons value of content material to the inviting debut narrative.

“Robyn creates characters and worlds that resonate on a deep and emotional stage. That’s resulted in her constructing an infinite devoted and dependable world fanbase,” stated Roth.

“Our purchasers, whether or not it’s broadcast or platforms, love huge IP, huge IP is improbable to arrange all advertising and marketing and launch communications across the present and you’ll faucet into that present fan base,” added Richter.

Canadian actor Morgan Kohan (“When Hope Calls”) will painting Maggie with nostalgic casting picks Scott Patterson (“Gilmore Ladies”) and Chad Micheal Murray (“One Tree Hill”) taking part in Maggie’s father and potential love curiosity, Cal Jones, respectively.

“Roma put collectively a phenomenal ensemble forged. We even have a forged that has an important observe document within the U.S. market,” Richter added. “When serious about how we are able to create a present that may journey actually fantastically, casting is clearly a giant level. With three of our leads, Morgan, Chad and Scott, we’ve these parts within the present.”

Rounding out the supporting forged are Lindura (“Via The Gorge”), Dakota Taylor (“Zero Chill”), Allan Hawco (“Frontier”), Amalia Williamson (“Northern Rescue”), Andrea Menard (“Rabbit Fall”) and Canadian folks singer and actor Tom Jackson (“Cardinal”) .

At present filming in Nova Scotia, the manufacturing nods to the sweeping landscapes, wealthy tradition and variety of the province, altering the placement from the ebook’s Rocky Mountains to the Canadian countryside and casting native expertise extra consultant of the fashionable patchwork of people who make the area various.

“To make sure the present would really feel distinctive from her different adaptation, I made a decision to set it in Nova Scotia for Nova Scotia. This meant diverging from the books barely; nonetheless, having been born and raised in Canada it’s all the time been a private objective of mine to create and write a Canadian content material present that may attain a worldwide viewers. I consider that given Robyn’s successes we’ve a robust probability of engaging in this with ‘Sullivan’s Crossing,’ Roth acknowledged.

Eyeing a February launch date, Richter concluded, “It’s a giant piece of IP. It’s fairly clear what we’re going to ship on, what we need to ship on. I simply need to underline that romance and connecting to folks, it simply suits fantastically in as we speak’s instances.”

‘Sullivan’s Crossing’: Additional Credit

On behalf of Fremantle, Michela Di Mondo, govt VP, distribution and gross sales, Canada, and Hilary Martin, govt producer, world drama, are govt producing, with the participation of Mike Cosentino, CosMedia. Pat DiVittorio serves as VP, CTV, specialty programming.

At Bell Media,  Carolyn Wu serves as improvement govt, Rachel Goldstein-Couto as head of improvement, unique programming, Mitch Geddes as a manufacturing govt. Sarah Fowlie is head of manufacturing, unique programming and Carlyn Klebuc, common supervisor, unique programming. Justin Stockman is VP, content material improvement & programming, Bell Media. Karine Moses is senior VP, content material improvement & information, Bell Media and vice chair, Québec, Bell.