Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie in ‘Heated Rivalry.’ Sabrina Lantos/HBO As international players like Fremantle and Amazon MGM Studios hone their local-first strategies in Canada to produce TV series with international appeal, the topic of telling Canadian stories without borders was top of mind Wednesday at the Access Canada Summit, powered by The Hollywood Reporter, in Toronto.
“We lead with, is this show freaking good? Do we have IP that makes sense? The jewel is when you have something that has local [appeal] but speaks to international themes and relationships,” Michela Di Mondo, executive vp distribution Canada and international for Fremantle, told the “Think Global, Act Local” panel held during the Toronto Film Festival.
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The challenge is making the economics of working locally in Canada, including leveraging currency savings and tax credits, to allow for international exploitation. As the TV content business increasingly goes global, Sarah Weaver, director of content at Bell Media, argued it’s always local first.
“It does show when you’re looking at a point of view that travels well,” however, as Weaver pointed to series like the gay hockey drama Heated Rivalry, which landed on HBO Max stateside, and Sullivan’s Crossing, which sold to The CW in the U.S. market.
“We were in early,” Fremantle’s Di Mondo said of Sullivan’s Crossing, which came from Roma Roth, the creator of Virgin River, and a partnership with Bell Media. “We saw international appeal at that moment. We didn’t change things to make it feel that way.”
Of course, more collaboration means broader deal-making and, this being Canada, producers and potential international partners are warned not to greedy or short-sighted, but to think long term. “You can only be a jerk once, and then you get the jerk tax, forever, right? Di Mondo said.
She also warned indie producers about using AI tools to pitch series ideas: “We’re starting to tell AI pitches really easily, and the more your idea is authentic to you, the better, because they start to look and feel the same, and it’s obvious.”
Weaver at Bell Media said the international appeal of Canadian series means the development phase on original IP varies. “We still get projects that are completed developed in house, and then we’re going out and we’re financing them, or then we approach different partners,” she argued.
Then there’s adapting global formats for the Canadian market, where local TV producers make productions happen. “When we’re bringing one of our global formats and we are localizing it, it is a true partnership. And I hope they (indie producers) would say the same thing,” Samantha De France, head of production and post production, international originals Canada, Amazon MGM Studios, told the panel.
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