Loading site-loader
News
July 13, 2016

Kim’s Convenience comes to life for small screen

General

Jordan Pinto / Playback

Thunderbird executive chair Ivan Fecan is executive producing the award-winning play’s transfer to TV, with production underway.

 

Production is underway in Toronto on CBC comedy series Kim’s Convenience, with former media exec and current Thunderbird executive chair Ivan Fecan serving as lead producer.

Produced by Vancouver’s Thunderbird, in association with Toronto’s Soulpepper theatre company, the 13-part series is based on a successful stage play by Korean-born Canadian playwright Ins Choi. Thunderbird inked a film, TV and digital content development deal with Soulpepper in January 2014.

Choi, who also serves as an executive producer on the project, began developing the series adaptation with showrunner Kevin White (who also serves as a writer and executive producer on Schitt’s Creek) in summer 2014, with CBC greenlighting the project in 2015.

Fecan, who has formerly held roles as president and CEO of CTVglobemedia, VP of creative affairs at NBC and head of English TV at CBC, joined Thunderbird as chair in 2013.

On working with Fecan, showrunner White told Playback Daily that the project is benefitting from his “global eye” and hands-on attitude. “He has a strong sense of what works, what the network will need, what will be appealing to audiences, and so much experience bringing series to life on a network,” said White.

Filming on the half-hour series, which is set to bow on CBC this fall, began three weeks ago at Toronto’s Showline Studios. Shooting on the first three episodes is complete, with the remaining 10 to be shot in two-episode blocks. Filming is expected to wrap on Sept. 2.

Executive producers on the project are Tim Gamble, Alexandra Raffé, Leslie Lester and Albert Schultz, as well as Fecan, Choi and White. Sandra Cunningham and Robin Cass serve as supervising producers.

The series tells the story of the everyday lives of a Korean-Canadian family who run a downtown Toronto convenience store.

Kim’s Convenience stars Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (Shoot The Messenger, Degrassi: The Next Generation), Jean Yoon (Orphan Black, The Expanse), Simu Liu (Blood and Water, Taken), Andrea Bang (Camp Death III: The Final Summer), Andrew Phung (Adventures of a Pizza Guy) and Nicole Power (Anne of Green Gables).

site-loader