Etan Vlessing / The Hollywood Reporter
KARLOVY VARY – The struggling CBC in recent months has been endlessly talking about job and programming cutbacks to balance its books, and today surprised by announcing it had acquired Syfy’s pricey space opera Ascension for its Fall 2014 schedule.
The six-episode mini-series qualifies as Canadian content as the Syfy-commissioned show is a co-production of Lionsgate and Sea to Sky Studios, both headquartered in Vancouver.
Ascension, a drama created and written by Smallville’s Philip Levens, is also produced in association with Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions.
The drama, co-financed and distributed by Universal Cable Productions and Lionsgate Television, is being shot in Montreal.
Stephen Williams (Lost) is directing the first two episodes.
Ascension, starring Tricia Helfer and Brian Van Holt, follows a covert U.S. space mission launched in 1963 that sent hundreds of men, women and children on a century-long voyage aboard the starship Ascension to populate a new world.
Halfway into their journey, as they approach the point of no return, the mysterious murder of a young woman causes the ship’s inhabitants to question the true nature of their mission.
Ascension is executive produced by Levens, Blum, Ivan Fecan, Tim Gamble and Brett Burlock.