Shaw Media Signs On for Cineflix’s Copper

CANNES, October 4: Cineflix Studios has secured a number of Scandinavian deals for Copper, as well as landed a slot for the show, a new crime drama produced in partnership with BBC America, with Shaw Media in Canada.

Shaw Media is partnering with Cineflix Studios and BBC America on the new crime series, which will air in Canada on Showcase in fall 2012. “With the amazing creative minds on board for this series, Copper is already on its way to becoming a dynamic, multi-layered drama and we are thrilled to add it to our stellar slate of original programming,” said Barbara Williams, senior VP of content at Shaw Media. “The rich subtext of the many cultural and socio-economic layers in this series will captivate viewers coast to coast.”

Copper has also been picked up by SVT in Sweden, NRK in Norway, YLE in Finland and RUV in Iceland. Cineflix Rights is distributing the series in all other territories in the world outside of North America. The series is set in 1860s New York City and follows a rugged Irish-immigrant cop working the city’s Five Points neighborhood. It was created by Tom Fontana (OZ, Homicide: Life on the Street, St. Elsewhere) and Will Rokos (Monster’s Ball, Southland). Production is set to begin in Torontoin January 2012.

Goran Danasten, the head of fiction at SVT program acquisitions, said, “We are very happy to have managed to secure Copper for a Swedish audience, and given the talent behind it as well as the script, I am sure it will play a key role in our schedule. We are also thrilled to be a part of BBC America’s first original drama venture and to work closely with Cineflix and Christina Wayne [the president of Cineflix Studios] in their expansion into quality drama production.”
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Glen Salzman, the CEO of Cineflix Media, added, “We’re delighted to be working with such high profile broadcasters to bring this exciting drama to audiences across Scandinavia. Copper is the first series from Cineflix Studios to go into production as our scripted division grows with new projects in development and new talent joining us.”