CBC is interested in airing Hip’s final concert
The CBC says it is “having conversations” with the Tragically Hip about broadcasting the final show of the band’s tour this summer.
Many are speculating that the concert in Kingston, Ont., the Hip’s hometown, could be the band’s last ever big show, given the recent news that frontman Gord Downie has terminal brain cancer.
Not surprisingly, there’s incredible demand for tickets for the band’s 15 scheduled concerts in July and August.
Presale tickets that went on sale Monday and Tuesday sold out immediately, and fans lamented that many quickly appeared on secondary resale sites with grossly inflated prices. The general ticket sale begins on Friday.
Ontario’s attorney general said Tuesday that she’s prepared to try to find out why so many Tragically Hip fans were stymied during the presales.
Meanwhile, the CBC is hoping to work out a deal so Canadians across the country can watch what could be a historic show in Kingston.
“We are interested in airing the Tragically Hip’s final show and are having conversations with the band to see if we can make it happen,” said spokesman Chuck Thompson in an email. The Canadian Press
Daniel Craig to star in U.S. TV series
Daniel Craig may not be back as Bond, but he’s coming to the small screen.
The actor will star in and executiveproduce a Showtime series based on Jonathan Franzen’s novel Purity.
A news release didn’t say what role Craig would play, but called Purity “a morally complex story of youthful idealism, extreme loyalty and coldblooded murder. . . From Stasi offspring to Oakland anarchists, Franzen tracks his characters’ landscapes as varied as East Berlin, the Bolivian jungle, East Harlem walk-ups and the California Redwoods.”
Franzen and David Hare, an En- glish playwright known for work such as The Judas Kiss and Plenty, will write the series along with Todd Field ( Little Children, In the Bedroom), who will also direct and executive-produce.
Production on the 20-episode limited series will begin in 2017. Debra Yeo
CTV announces 2nd serialized drama
CTV is getting deeper into the serialized drama game.
The network has announced a second such show to go along with murder mystery Cardinal.
The six-part series The Disappearance will explore the case of a 10year-old boy who vanishes during a birthday treasure hunt.
It’s created by Normand Daneau ( Unité 9) and Geneviève Simard of Montreal and will begin shooting there in fall of 2016.
CTV says it’s the first English-language project for Montreal’s Productions Casablanca. Debra Yeo
The pressure is on for Star Wars spinoff
It sounds like the most far-fetched Star Wars storyline yet: a box-office bomb.
Yet rumours are circulating that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, due in December, is in trouble, with Disney ordering costly reshoots after the film tested poorly.
The New York Post’s Page Six says executives were not happy with director Gareth Edwards’ early cut of the film and are doing four more weeks of shooting. The movie is the series’ first spinoff, starring Felicity
Jones and Mads Mikkelsen. Edwards is in a tough position, following up on the critical and boxoffice success of Star Wars: The Force
Awakens. The J.J. Abrams- helmed film has had worldwide earnings of more than $2 billion, making it the third-highest grossing film of all time, after Avatar and Titanic.
As a spinoff, Rogue One was likely never aiming that high, but because this is Star Wars, the most venerable science fiction movie franchise in history, Rogue Onewill be judged by a completely different yardstick, one that George Lucas helped create.
Disney executives are likely already making up talking points about how the spinoffs are not necessarily meant to capture the same kind of reach as the main series.
Rogue One apparently is supposed to be darker and not quite as kidfriendly as the core films. Tony Wong