Vérité Films names Amy Cameron
Head of Development, Drama and Scripted Television
Toronto (March 26, 2012) - Vérité Films has appointed production executive, screenwriter, author and award-winning journalist Amy Cameron as Head of Development, Drama and Scripted Television.
“Amy’s key focus will be developing a slate of hour-long drama series,” said Virginia Thompson, President of Vérité Films. “It’s great to have a writer and story editor of Amy’s caliber on our team. There’s no doubt she’ll maximize ideas we’re developing in -house and be a terrific support to projects brought to us by the writing community” said Robert de Lint, Executive V.P & Creative Head.
Before joining Vérité Films, Amy Cameron was Executive in Charge of Production for CBC Comedy (2011-2012) and spearheaded development on the award-winning comedy series LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE (Westwind Pictures) and INSECURITY (Vérité Films). Cameron was the co-creator, co-executive producer and writer of the one-hour dramatic television series WILD ROSES (2009, CBC) and writer of the short, SONG OF SLOMON (2007, Canadian Film Centre), selected for the Montreal World Film Festival. She is the author of PLAYING WITH MATCHES: MISADVENTURES IN DATING(Anchor, 2005), a collection of stories about women’s experiences in dating. Other projects include the features GET A LIFE, IVY TURNBUCKLE & THE MAGIC NATION and A FALSE NOTE. Cameron was an editor at Maclean’s Magazine (2000-2004) and a reporter at The New Brunswick Telegraph Journal (1996–2000), where she won a National Newspaper Award. She is a graduate of the Writers' Lab at the Canadian Film Centre (2006) and holds a B.F.A. from Concordia. She is the daughter of Stevie Cameron, an award-winning Canadian investigative journalist, best-selling author and founder of ELM STREET, a national lifestyle magazine. Cameron lives in Toronto with her husband and two children.
About Vérité Films:
With over 250 episodes of award-winning prime time television series to their credit, Vérité Films has built a reputation of creating and producing TV that resonates with audiences - across Canada and around the world. Established in 1994, the company was founded by executive producer Virginia Thompson and Director/Writer/Producer Robert de Lint.
Vérité recently wrapped production on the second season of their narrative comedy series INSECURITY(23 x 30 minutes) and website for CBC. INSECURITY (2011-) is created and produced by Kevin White of Company Name Here Productions and Virginia Thompson and Robert de Lint. Vérité produced the smash hit narrative comedy series CORNER GAS (107 x 30 minutes) and website for CTV with Brent Butt and David Story’s 335 Productions. Created by Brent Butt, CORNER GAS was Canada’s #1 rated scripted series from 2004 to 2009, and was nominated for an International Emmy, won seven Geminis (including Best Series and Best Interactive), nine Canadian Comedy Awards, four Directors Guild Awards and four Writers Guild Awards.
Virginia Thompson and Robert de Lint also created and produced the youth dramatic series and e-zine RENEGADEPRESS.COM (52 x 30 minutes) from 2004 to 2008 for Global and APTN and the hit children’s series INCREDIBLE STORY STUDIO (65 x 30 minutes) from 1997 to 2002 for YTV and Disney International. Both serieswon numerous Gemini Awards and were each nominated for The Prix Jeunesse.
Vérité Films have offices in Toronto, Ontario and Regina, Saskatchewan.
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Media Contact: Margaret Sirotich for Vérité Films, msirotich@sympatico.ca, 647-242-1746
By WENDY DALLIAN, Vancouver Observor
InSecurity is one of CBC’s hottest new shows and I had the great fortune of talking with two of the talented and hilarious actors, Vancouver Island’s Natalie Lisinska (as Alex Cranston) and Vancouver’s Richard Yearwood (as Benjamin N’udu). WD: Can you tell us a little about the show? NL: InSecurity is a parody of the spy genre and the existing archetype of the American hour long procedural drama: Law & Order, Alias, 24. I feel like it sort of steals its tone a bit from Get Smart and Naked Gun and even Airplane in a way. RY: I agree. It makes fun of those serious shows. Just on last week’s episode someone came up to me and said they were so glad we did the bonk on the head thing and that it didn’t work. Because every time someone hits you on the head with a gun or punches you in the face, down they go and then they move on. NL: Yah, I feel like there’s an archetype in spy shows where there’s this one move where you come up to somebody and you karate chop them on a really obscure, vague area of the neck. It causes them to drop to the ground for just the right amount of time you need to escape. RY: It’s just silly. NL: For example, Jack Bower (24). How much can happen to Jack Bower and the dude is still going (laughs). We have this great fight scene where Richard’s character has gone rogue and my character starts to figure out what’s going on. He comes after me with a pipe, the butt of a gun, he head butts me, and I just won’t go down and my hair’s flying all over the place like a Pantene ProV commercial.
CON'D
Click here to read the complete article in the Vancouver Observer.
By BRIAN LILLEY, Toronto Sun - Parliamentary Bureau
OTTAWA - CBC launched a new show this week, spoofing the world of spies, and it's garnering an audience of at least one group of people in Ottawa – our own spies at CSIS. “The entertainment industry has had a long fascination with the intelligence business, and that's perfectly legitimate. We, too, think our work is pretty interesting,” said CSIS spokeswoman Isabelle Scott. “That said, screenwriters don't always get it right.” The CBC show is called InSecurity and deals with a fictional spy agency called NISA — National Intelligence and Security Agency. “We poke affectionate fun at ourselves in how Canadians have this worldwide reputation of being incredibly nice but sort of ineffectual,” the shows star, Natalie Lisinska, told QMI Agency's Bill Harris. “So in this show, the characters all take themselves way too seriously and think they’re a really big deal. That is, until someone from the CIA shows up, and then they’re all trying so hard to impress.” CSIS doesn't seem to be taking their comedic send-up too seriously, but they do want to set the record straight.
Click here to read the complete article in the Toronto Sun.
By DENETTE WILFORD, TV Guide
I popped in the InSecurity screener into my laptop without knowing anything about it. Based on the title, I figured it was either a been there, done that tale of a group who worked at some sort of security firm, or the trials and tribulations of a character lacking self-worth. I couldn’t have been more wrong. And I couldn’t have been happier. As I laughed and laughed (to the point of tears), my co-workers were curious about all the commotion (OK, that’s putting it mildly; it was more like, “What the hell’s going on over there?”). I sputtered that I was watching CBC’s latest comedy endeavour, confidently stating that the network was going to have a hit on its hand.
Click here to read the complete article in TV Guide.
By JAMES BAWDEN, James Bawden Blog
InSecurity is CBC's latest attempt to find a replacemet for the rapidly aging sitcom Little Mosque On The Prairie. This decidedly hilarious spoof of such TV spy series as 24 premieres on CBC Tuesd. Jan. 4 at 8:30 p.m. and should not be missed. Shot mostly in Regina, the half hour series focuses on the fictional National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) and stars Natalie Lisinska (Young People Fucking) as rookie agent Alex Cranston, a lush blonde who gets saddled with a particularly inept band of agents who can't shoot straight.
Click here to read the complete post at James Bawden Blog.
By BRIAN GORMAN, Edmonton Journal
ON SCREEN: INSECURITY TUESDAY; CBC - - - If you want to parody spy shows and movies, re-imagining Canada as a world power goes a long way toward establishing the right tone of insanity. As series co-creator Kevin White says, InSecurity -debuting Tuesday, Jan. 4, on CBC Television - is set in "a superpower that is tricking the world." "We all thought that was a pretty funny idea," he says. "Instead of going the route of Canada being under-funded and not very good, which we kind of know to be the norm, let's go the other way. "So Canada's a superpower." We may not be a superpower in this world, but the characters of InSecurity will be painfully familiar to anyone who has followed some of the crazy goings-on in Canadian security and intelligence over the years. Set in Ottawa, it follows the exploits of a team of super-agents charged with protecting some of the country's top secrets -such as the "fact" that we have one of the world's most powerful military establishments.
Click here to read the complete article in The Edmonton Journal.
By ETAN VLESSING, The Hollywood Reporter
TORONTO -- Most Canadians know their little-known spy agency is a joke, so the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) isn’t letting that go to waste. The public broadcaster is set to debut in early January InSecurity, a spy-fi sitcom about bungling Canadian secret agents trying to liquidate terrorists from Ottawa as part the fictional National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA). “It’s a bit of a comic book world we’re trying to create,” InSecurity showrunner Kevin White said of Canada’s version of Fox’s 24, only with laughs. “Canada can save the world, with permission to screw up on our own. No parents are watching,” he added.
Click here to read the complete article in The Hollywood Reporter.
By ETAN VLESSING, Playback
Well, we can dream, can’t we? Canada has a vast, dark intelligence network as befits a superpower, and valiant efforts to save the world just get thwarted by bungling characters and sloppy execution. That’s the premise behind the upcoming CBC spy-fi comedy InSecurity, from Corner Gas creative Kevin White, Virginia Thompson and Robert de Lint. “It’s a bit of a comic book world we’re trying to create. Why not?,” says Kevin White, of Company Name Here Productions, about the 13-episode spoof of the popular secret agent genre. “Canada can save the world, with permission to screw up on our own. No parents are watching,” he adds. InSecurity, while shot mostly in Regina this past summer, is set in Ottawa and portrays a fictional National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), who keep Canada safe-ish.
Click here to read the complete article in Playback.
By KATE TAYLOR, The Globe and Mail
In an Ottawa lab, two government agents are submitting a piece of pizza to rigorous computerized testing – until one of them gives up and just eats the day-old slice. Its tandoori flavour can mean only one thing: It’s the Bombay Burn from Sanjay’s Real Italian. The pair rush over to the pizzeria and attempt to extract information from an obstructionist employee by threatening to kill her with a plastic pizza protector.
The CBC is hoping you will find this funny. It’s a scene from InSecurity, the new Canadian sitcom that launches Jan. 4. The spy and crime shows that it mocks – CSI, 24 and The Border – are ubiquitous, but the TV spy spoof has rarely put in an appearance since the days of Get Smart back in the 1960s.
No matter: Sitcoms are hot these days – the U.S. show The Big Bang Theory is currently the most-watched series in Canada – and Canadian TV producers are ranging far and wide in their search for funny ideas.
“We wanted to shake it up a bit; it’s not as classic as Corner Gas,” says Virginia Thompson, an executive producer on both that long-running former CTV series and InSecurity.
Click here to read the complete article in The Globe and Mail.
By BRENDAN KELLY, The Gazette
Following my column last week about the lack of anglos on local French TV, a number of folks responded by noting that English-Canadian TV isn't much better when it comes to representing francophone Quebec. And they are absolutely right.
Dramas and sitcoms from the ROC (Rest of Canada) hardly ever feature francophones, and that is a real shame. But funnily enough, just days after the column, I was sitting in an Old Montreal hotel suite listening with fascination as great Quebec actor Remy Girard and producer Virginia Thompson told me how easy it was to sell CBC-TV on the idea of a comedy series starring Girard.
The show is InSecurity, a very funny spoof of all those procedural series out there, from CSI to 24, and it follows a group of rather incompetent spies bumbling their way through top-secret missions in the nation's capital. It premieres on CBC Jan. 4.
Girard -whom you know and love from Les invasions barbares, Les Bougon, and Jesus de Montreal -plays Claude Lesage, the most seasoned member of the spy team, a guy who speaks with a Quebec accent and, as early as the second episode, shows that he can make a mean souffle.
The creators and executive producers of InSecurity are Thompson, Robert de Lint and Kevin White, all three of whom spent much of the past decade working together on the hit CTV sitcom Corner Gas. Thompson, who grew up in Dorval, says she just felt it was natural to cast Girard.
"When we came up with the concept of creating a show about a fictional spy agency, naturally it would happen in Ottawa," said Thompson. "And Ottawa is a bilingual city. So the first two characters we came up with was the (spy played by Natalie Lisinska) and the Remy character. He was going to be a French-Canadian, he was going to be a veteran. It was a natural choice. It seemed completely organic. It's kind of what should be. It's our country, you know?" CON'D Click here to read the complete article in The Montreal Gazette.
Isabelle Hontebeyrie / 7Jours
Dès le 4 janvier, Rémy Girard se transforme en Claude Lesage, alias «The Conoisseur», un ancien de la GRC devenu agent secret. Et attention, ça va rigoler!
Ils sont six agents. Six à faire partie de La National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), basée à Ottawa – le tournage s’est déroulé à Regina –. «Ils se prennent très au sérieux, mais ils sont très poches. Ils finissent toujours par réussir leurs opérations, mais, parfois, c’est vraiment par hasard» révèle Rémy Girard en éclatant de rire dès le début de l’entrevue qui se déroulait à l’Hôtel Place d’Armes dans le Vieux-Montréal en présentant InSecurity.
Le ton est donné. Utilisant le même genre de décors et de situations que dans des émissions telles que CSI ou 24 heures chrono, cette comédie d’espionnage – genre rarissime au petit écran – tourne tout en dérision. «On trouve cette dérision dans notre obsession de la sécurité et notre paranoïa. Les méchants sont toujours des étrangers. Ils sont russes et même canadiens anglais.» On trouve aussi des piques à l’endroit des Québécois. «On n’a pas peur d’aller là. Ça va peut-être faire grincher des dents, mais, dans le même temps, c’est une comédie», dit-il avant d’ajouter «Oui, c’est un projet déjanté.» CON'D Click here to read the complete article at 7 Jours.
Tricon Films & Television, one of North America’s fastest growing production and distribution companies has acquired the international rights to InSecurity, a 13-part action-comedy series set to debut on CBC Television in January 2011. The series is about the men and women of the fictional National Intelligence and Security Agency who keep the world safe…ish. “We’re thrilled to be working with Virginia Thompson, Robert de Lint and Kevin White - a team who have proven themselves to be one of the best in Canadian comedy domestically and internationally ” says Andrea Gorfolova, President of Tricon Films & Television. InSecurity, coming to MIPCOM for the first time with Tricon Films & Television, is created and executive produced by Virginia Thompson and Robert de Lint of Vérité Films, the production company behind the smash hit television series Corner Gas and Kevin White of Company Name Here Productions, who was showrunner of Corner Gas in it’s last two seasons of production. “ InSecurity is an action comedy about spies, a genre that’s loved around the world and as such we’re excited to hear the international feedback on the show. We also wanted a boutique approach to the international sales of the series and Tricon was the ideal fit.” says Virginia Thompson, President of Vérité Films. In each episode of InSecurity, special agent Alex Cranston and her team of espionage misfits take on a mission vital to international security. They go where others can’t go. They do what others won’t do. And they screw up in ways that can only be described as world class. But like all great spy heroes, Alex and her NISA team get the bad guys and make the world a safer place. Just not always on purpose. InSecurity stars Natalie Lisinska (Chloe) as rookie leader Alex Cranston; William Devry (Bold and The Beautiful) as the politically-savvy boss, Peter McNeil; Matthew MacFadzean (Stratford Festival) as the Jack Bauer wanna-be Burt Wilson; Richard Yearwood (The Plan) as the loyal and unpredictable Benjamin N’udu; Grace Lynn Kung (Being Erica, House Party) as the super-smart field specialist, Joho Quan; and Rémy Girard (Les Boys) as the jaded veteran of the team, Claude Lesage.
Click here to read the full press release at Channel Canada.