This is one of those announcements that makes my Canadian-loving head explode because I love these folks that much. This morning, Super Channel and Shaftesbury co-announced the casting and production start on a new eight-episode horror series called Slasher that will also air on Chiller in the U.S. The cast is a who’s who of The Televixen favorites. Ready?
Katie McGrath (Jurassic World)
She’s first because she’s the lead, after all, but McGrath is new to me as I never watched Merlin or Dracula. I’m intrigued to get to know her here.
Brandon Jay McLaren (Graceland, A Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce)
McLaren has been around a while but he’s getting much-deserved attention now because of two concurrent series roles. Happy to have him anywhere.
Wendy Crewson (PICK SOMETHING!!)
Crewson is my original girl crush. I flat out adore her, all the way back to Due South. If you can ever locate the Joanna Kilbourn film series she did in the early Aughts, I highly recommend. (Some are online). She’s recently been on TV in Working the Engels, Saving Hope and Revenge.
Enuka Okuma (Rookie Blue)
Okuma is killing it in a front-burner storyline this season. I love that she’s coming to play.
Erin Karpluk (Being Erica)
Karpluk has been on TV this summer as a recurring character on Rookie Blue, and online in the just-released Riftworld Chronicles opposite Tahmoh Penikett. I interviewed her for the webisodes a couple of weeks ago and she was just about to start this project but she couldn’t discuss it yet, except to say that it would be a very different role for her. LOVE.
Patrick Garrow (Hannibal, Bitten)
Garrow is also onscreen right now in Killjoys and he popped up this spring in 12 Monkeys as Cole’s dad — which was fantastic casting.
Christopher Jacot (Rogue)
Jacot is in the current season of Rogue and has been a fixture on Hallmark Channel in the U.S., appearing in a couple of their recent films. Happy to see him on board.
Mayko Nguyen (Defiance, Cracked)
I first found Nguyen back in the GENIUS series ReGenesis (alongside Peter Outerbridge, Crewson and Bitten’s Greg Bryk), and she’s always so good. We just saw her a couple of weeks ago in Killjoys.
Rob Stewart (Killjoys, Nikita)
Stewart has been a bad boy on TV of late, playing the super creepy Khlyen on Killjoys. Curious to see if he dons a white hat or black hat here.
Dean McDermott (Due South)
Better known these days as a reality TV fixture, I look forward to him coming back to TV in a scripted role.
Rainbow Sun Francks (The Listener)
He just wrapped four seasons as the lovably nerdy Dev on The Listener, and he also brings fans from his Stargate tenure.
Steve Byers (Alphas)
He was awesome on Alphas as a War veteran and love interest for the show’s resident empath, tasked with helping her navigate what to feel and when to feel it. He’s also slated for the upcoming Amazon series, The Man in the High Castle.
Here’s what to expect: The eight episode, one-hour psychological thriller series follows Sarah Bennett (McGrath), a young woman who returns to the small town where she was born, only to find herself the centerpiece in a series of horrifying copycat murders based on the widely known, grisly killings of her parents. As the murders escalate, long-buried secrets are revealed, making everyone around her a suspect, or a victim. Sarah finds herself questioning everything and everyone around her, including her husband Dylan (McLaren), her grandmother, Brenda Merritt (Crewson), family friend Cam Henry (Byers), and the town’s police chief, Iain Vaughn (McDermott). Others in the cast include This Hour Has 22 Minutes‘ multi-hyphenate writer, producer, and actress Mary Walsh and Mark Ghanimé from Helix.
Developed and produced by Shaftesbury in association with Super Channel and Chiller, Slasher is written and created by Aaron Martin (Killjoys, Being Erica) and directed by Craig David Wallace (Todd and the Book of Pure Evil). Martin is executive producer alongside Christina Jennings and Scott Garvie (who previously worked together on Murdoch Mysteries and The Listener). The most excellent casting was done by Stephanie Gorin. Content Media Corporation is the distributor. Slasher is funded with the participation of the COGECO Program Development Fund, which encourages the development and production by independent Canadian producers of new Canadian drama by Canadian writers (we love that!).
Here’s what the production team had to say:
“We are excited to be working with showrunner Aaron Martin and Shaftesbury to bring Slasher to our subscribers,” said Julie Di Cresce, Director of Canadian Programming for Super Channel. “Fans of the slasher genre and horror fans in general, are going to love what this Super Channel original series has to offer.”
“As the television destination for horror fans, Chiller is always seeking ways to expand its brand and reach more new viewers, so we’re thrilled to be launching our first-ever original scripted series, Slasher, which joins our slate of original movies,” said Dave Howe, President, Syfy and Chiller. “Smartly written and suspenseful, [it] aligns perfectly with the network’s growing slate.”
“With Slasher, I wanted to tell a modern-day monster story – but instead of a mythological creature, the “monster” in our series is all too human,” said Aaron Martin, creator, writer and executive producer, Slasher. “The series is a fusion of some of my favourite thriller genres –- the classic slasher film, the contemporary murder mystery and the timeless works of my favourite crime writer, Agatha Christie.”
Slasher will film in Sudbury, Parry Sound, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario through October, but we have to wait until 2016 to see it. We’re so ready!
Photos Courtesy of NBC Universal, Super Channel, Crown Media, and ABC
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