CBS Picks Up CTV’s Flashpoint

LOS ANGELES, January 29:
To fill gaps in its schedule in the wake of the writers’ strike, CBS has taken
on the new CTV original Canadian drama series with the working title Flashpoint (also known as Sniper), which is currently in preproduction.

The U.S. network has
picked up 13 episodes of the one-hour drama series, which was greenlit by CTV
back in December, and will be the first Canadian series since CTV’s Due
South (1994) to air in network
prime time in both Canada and the U.S. Production for the series will begin in
Toronto in April.

Flashpoint, which was written and created by Mark Ellis and
Stephanie Morgenstern, evolved from CTV’s Writer-Only development program in
2005 to a pilot (entitled Sniper)
that was produced by Pink Sky Entertainment for CTV in July 2007. The series is
executive produced by multiple Gemini Award-winner Anne Marie La Traverse (Hunt
for Justice: The Louise Arbour Story, Tripping the Wire) for Pink Sky Entertainment and Bill Mustos for
Avamar Entertainment in association with CTV and CBS Paramount Network
Television. It stars Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars), Hugh Dillon (Durham County) and David Paetkau (Whistler) as a group of cops who risk their lives in the
Strategic Response Unit (SRU), inspired by Toronto's Emergency Task Force.

“Today’s announcement is a
significant achievement for CTV’s development team and Canada’s independent
production community,” said Susanne Boyce, the president of creative, content
and channels for CTV.

“It’s an exciting
privilege to be able to reach so many people, and we’re thrilled that we have a
chance to do it with Flashpoint,” said La Traverse and Mustos. “It’s the
brainchild of two brilliant creators, Mark Ellis and Stephanie Morgenstern, and
showcases the superb visual work of director David Frazee, and the spellbinding
talent of Hugh Dillon and Enrico Colantoni.”

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski