Heated RivalryactorHudson Williamshas signed on to star in Crave's new mystery thriller seriesYaga, alongside Carrie-Anne Moss, Noah Reid and Clark Backo, according toVariety.
The commission is another high-profile scripted push for Bell Media's Canadian streamer afterHeated Rivalrytravelled internationally, including a deal that saw HBO Max pick up the series in the US and Australia.
Variety saidYagais a half-hour, eight-episode drama based on a hit play by Canadian writer Kat Sandler, who will serve as writer and showrunner. The series is described as a small-town mystery thriller that reimagines the myth of Baba Yaga, and is being produced by Front Street Pictures and Blink49 Studios in partnership with Crave.
Production is underway, with David Frazee and Rachel Talalay set to co-direct, Variety reported. Williams is re-teaming with Crave after appearing inHeated Rivalry, which Variety described as a 'surprise' global success that raised the profile of Crave Originals and later became a hit for HBO Max in the US.
Bell Media executive Justin Stockman, the company's vice-president of content development and programming, welcomed the new commission in a statement carried by Variety. 'Featuring a truly exceptional cast, this series marks another exciting collaboration with Blink49 Studios,' Stockman said. 'We're thrilled to bring Kat Sandler's bold vision to Crave with this first-ever half-hour drama, and to continue setting the bar for genre-bending, unexpected storytelling.'
Variety reported thatYagawill be shopped to buyers at next week's London TV Screenings through international distributor Sphere Abacus, which will also offer the title as four one-hour episodes. The show is being positioned as Crave's first original half-hour drama series, according to the same report.
According to the logline published byVariety,Yagacentres on Rapp (Reid), 'a private investigator who arrives in a small coastal town to investigate the disappearance of a young heir to a powerful fishery, Henry Park (Hudson Williams).' He 'finds himself at odds with an apprehensive local detective, Carson (Clark Backo), a charismatic university professor with a taste for younger men, Katherine (Carrie-Anne Moss), and a labyrinth of enigmatic suspects, secret lives, and ancient magic,' the logline adds.
Sandler described the adaptation as a milestone in comments reported by Variety. ''Yaga' has evolved from myth to stage to my first greenlit series, reclaiming the wicked witch and reshaping her as an incendiary feminist antihero for our time,' she said. 'It reflects the kind of storytelling I love: propulsive, accessible, dark, funny, and unapologetically bold.'
Williams' casting was also reportedbyThe Hollywood ReporterandDeadline, which both described the project as a half-hour drama for Crave that reimagines the Baba Yaga myth and is currently in production.
Source: International Business Times UK
