'Defying Gravity' lifts off August 2 on CTV, A and ABC

CTV's fourth cross-border scripted series continues August 9 in its regular timeslot, Sundays at 10 p.m. on CTV.

DEFYING GRAVITY was created by award-winning, Emmy® Award-nominated writer/producer James Parriott (executive producer on GREY'S ANATOMY and UGLY BETTY).

Parriott and Emmy® Award-nominated producer Michael Edelstein (executive producer on DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES) are executive producers, along with Omni's Brian Hamilton and Michael Chechik. Ron French (BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) is the producer. DEFYING GRAVITY is produced by Fox Television Studios and Omni Film Productions (producers of CTV's critically-acclaimed series ROBSON ARMS) in association with CTV and Germany's ProSieben.

Fraser Robinson is Director of Content for SPACE. Robert Hardy is Development Manager, Western Production for CTV. Brett Burlock is Director, Program Development for CTV. Susanne Boyce is President, Creative, Content and Channels, CTV Inc.Following the CTV/ABC broadcast premiere, encore episodes of DEFYING GRAVITY air on demand on the CTV Video Player at CTV.ca. The series will premiere on SPACE at a later date.

On November 4, 2008, CTV, along with Fox Television Studios and Vancouver's Omni Film Productions Limited, jointly announced the series co-venture, with CTV as lead broadcaster. Production began January 17, 2009 in Vancouver and wrapped June 19. Three weeks later ABC announced it had ordered DEFYING GRAVITY for broadcast in the U.S., the fourth drama series CTV has been involved in to also air on a major U.S. network in primetime.

"DEFYING GRAVITY is a sexy, beautifully shot drama full of mystery, suspense and intrigue," said Susanne Boyce, President, Creative, Content and Channels, CTV Inc. "With a stellar international ensemble cast set against the backdrop of space millions of kilometres from Earth, Jim and Michael have delivered a drama that is truly out of this world".

"DEFYING GRAVITY has been a labour of love from the very beginning," said Creator and Executive Producer, James Parriott. "Part of what made it so was the wonderful collaboration with our partners in Vancouver. I couldn't be more thrilled to see the show getting its ideal on-air home in Canada, the United States, and around the world."

With state-of-the-art CGI effects by award-winning visual effects company Stargate Studios (HEROES, GREY'S ANATOMY, UGLY BETTY), in collaboration wit veteran set designer Stephen Geaghan (THE OUTER LIMITS) and his team, DEFYING GRAVITY is a stunning visual production. The series comes to life by anticipating scientific technologies of the future; from the massive, spectacularly detailed spacecraft to innovative visual effects, which depict the astronauts' weightless realities, and their descent onto planets so far untouched by man. The series was shot in Vancouver, British Columbia.

DEFYING GRAVITY is a co-venture produced by Fox Television Studios and Vancouver's Omni Film Productions Limited in association with CTV, the lead broadcaster. Starring a diverse, international ensemble cast led by Ron Livingston (Office Space) and Vancouver-native Laura Harris (24), the hour-long, 13-episode series will also air on the BBC in the U.K. and on ProSieben in Germany.

The series' international ensemble cast is led by Ron Livingston (Office Space, Band of Brothers) as Antares' flight engineer Maddux Donner; Canadian Laura Harris (24) as ship's geologist Zoe Barnes; Malik Yoba (New York Undercover) as Antares commander Ted Shaw; Canadian Christina Cox (Blood Ties) as Canadian biologist Jen Crane; Florentine Lahme (IMPACT) as pilot Nadia Schilling; Paula Garces (THE SHIELD) as pilot, scientist and on-board documentary producer Paula Morales; Eyal Podell (24) as psychiatrist and medical officer Evram Mintz; and Canadian Dylan Taylor (House Party) as theoretical physicist Steve Wassenfelder. The cast on planet Earth is led by Canadian Andrew Airlie (REAPER) as Mission Control Commander Mike Goss; Canadian Karen LeBlanc (ReGenesis) as scientist Eve Shaw; Canadian Zahf Paroo (Battlestar Galactica) as grounded flight engineer Ajay Sharma; Canadian Ty Olsson (MEN IN TREES) as grounded mission commander - and Jen's husband - Rollie Crane; and Canadian Maxim Roy (MVP) as flight surgeon Claire Dereux. Episodic Director and Canadian Peter Howitt also plays the role of British journalist Trevor Williams.

DEFYING GRAVITY was created by award-winning, Emmy® Award-nominated writer/producer James Parriott (executive producer on GREY'S ANATOMY and UGLY BETTY). Parriott and Emmy® Award-nominated producer Michael Edelstein (executive producer on DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES) are executive producers, along with Omni's Brian Hamilton and Michael Chechik. Ron French (BATTLESTAR GALACTICA) is the producer. DEFYING GRAVITY is produced by Fox Television Studios and Omni Film Productions (producers of CTV's critically-acclaimed series ROBSON ARMS) in association with CTV and Germany's ProSieben. Fraser Robinson is Director of Content for SPACE. Robert Hardy is Development Manager, Western Production for CTV. Brett Burlock is Director, Program Development for CTV. Susanne Boyce is President, Creative, Content and Channels, CTV Inc.

WE OPEN ON FEB. 6TH
we open in Toronto at AMC
(yonge&dundas) and Royal Cinema.

Check Local Listings.

In Vancouver we open at Cinemark Tinseltown.

11 FACTS about Nurse.Fighter.Boy

Fact: Nurse.Fighter.Boy is an urban love story.

Fact: Nurse.Fighter.Boy has a wicked soundtrack.

Fact: Nurse.Fighter.Boy will only last 1 week UNLESS people come to see it Opening Weekend.

Fact: Nurse.Fighter.Boy needs 500 people to come out Feb. 6 - 7 - 8 or else we get the Boot.

Fact: Nurse.Fighter.Boy is celebrating Black History Month. A time for cultural exchange.

Fact: Nurse.Fighter.Boy opens on Bob Marley's Birthday.

Fact: Nurse.Fighter.Boy is kicking off with a PARTY at Harlem Bar. Present your Movie Ticket Stub and get in FREE. See Attached.

Fact: Nurse.Fighter.Boy is happy that Clark Johnson, Karen LeBlanc and Daniel J. Gordon are nominated for ACTRA Awards.

Fact: Nurse.Fighter.Boy has a website www.nursefighterboy.ca

Fact: Nurse.Fighter.Boy will be screening in New York in March.

Fact: Nurse.Fighter.Boy is dedicated to everyone who has loved and lost.

As such, Nurse. Fighter. Boy is a powerful film to watch, distinguishing locations with strong colors of the palette that wash scenes in bright blue and orange. “It does have a logical effect whether you know it or not,” says Officer.“Colors represent things and it was really great to explore that.” read more

   ACTRA AWARDS 2009
   Nominated for Nursefighterboy

Spotlight

Karen Leblanc Gets Chills

Karen LeBlanc had been waiting for that really great part to come her way. And when she read for the role of Jude, the dying single mother in the dramatic Nurse.Fighter.Boy, she knew she had found it.

“You hear it over and over again from actors,” says LeBlanc on the line from her east-end Toronto home, “and finally I had the opportunity to say it — this is an amazing script, it’s so well written, so honest and I got chills reading it.”

LeBlanc gives a wonderfully subdued performance as a proud woman struggling to care for her 12-year-old son (Daniel J. Gordon), while falling in love for one last time with a sombre street fighter (Clark Johnson) in director Charles Officer’s debut feature film.

For Leblanc, who grew up in Tottenham, Ontario, dreaming of being a singer (“we used to sing on the streets, scream at the top of our lungs our favourite rock ’n’ roll songs”), acting was an afterthought.

But after graduating from Sheridan College’s musical theatre program, acting began to eclipse her work as a singer, and the woman who has sung back-up for Glass Tiger and performed as Tina Turner in a revue show has now made acting her first priority.

“My agent said to me, ‘Karen, you could actually put your Tina Turner stuff away for 10 years and still come back and do your Tina.’ And that’s fine,” says LeBlanc. “I finished shooting a feature called Dolan’s Cadillac, where I don’t have any lines. I’m playing this gun-toting bodyguard for Christian Slater. She’s a silent, afro-wearing, tough-looking woman. I’ve been playing all these women of strength lately, it’s  amazing and I love it.”

—Ingrid Randoja

read more

Written by Lisa Rosati

www.lisarosati.com

   CINDERELLA
   Elgin Theatre

   November 29th, 2008 - January 4th, 2008
   Ticketmaster 416.872.55555
   www.rosspetty.com

Karen is happy to announce her first Gemini nomination in a guest roll on the hit Series: ReGenesis

Dress Designer - THIEN LE