Abacus Media Rights sales success with CBC series, “Trickster”

London 16 September — Abacus Media Rights (AMR), a member of the Amcomri Entertainment Inc, has secured sales of the CBC original series Trickster to Sky in the UK (SyFy), NITV and SBS On Demand in Australia, Globoplay in Brazil and KinoPoisk (Yandex) in Russia ahead of its launch on CBC in October and on the day following its world premiere at TIFF.

From Canadian producers Sienna Films, and already greenlit for a second season by CBC, Trickster (6 x 60’) is based on the best-selling trilogy by Eden Robinson, Son of a Trickster.

Trickster is created by Streel Films’ Michelle Latimer (Rise, Nuuca) and Tony Elliott (Orphan Black), who also act as Executive Producers, alongside Sienna Films’ Jennifer Kawaia and Julia Sereny (Cardinal, Ransom).  All six episodes are directed by Michelle Latimer. 

Jonathan Ford, Managing Director, AMR, commented, “We are delighted to have the opportunity to represent this extremely timely drama on the international market.  Trickster is at first sight an irreverent coming-of-age story – teen angst, family pressures, and social complications – but dig deeper and the story explores issues of identity, cultural heritage and family legacy as seen through an Indigenous perspective.”

Based on the bestselling trilogy Son of a Trickster, written by Eden Robinson, Tricksteris a supernatural mystery which delves into an indigenous mythology rarely, if ever, seen before on television.

The series stars Joel Oulette (Monkey Beach), Crystle Lightning (Outlander), Kalani Queypo (Fear the Walking Dead), Anna Lambe (The Grizzlies), Nathan Alexis (Tin Star), Georgine Lightning (Blackstone), Craig Lauzon (Royal Canadian Air Farce) and Joel Thomas Hynes (Frontier).

Jared is an Indigenous teen in the town of Kitimat, a coastal town in Northern British Columbia, struggling to keep his dysfunctional family above water.  He holds down an after-school job and cooks ecstasy on the side to support his separated parents – partying mom Maggie, who self-medicates an undiagnosed mental illness, and unemployable dad Phil, who has a painkiller addiction and a new girlfriend. But when Jared starts seeing strange things — talking ravens, doppelgängers, skin monsters — his already chaotic life is turned upside down. 

At first, he thinks he’s losing his mind, but to his relief, and terror, the supernatural events are all too real.  It turns out there’s more than meets the eye to the place Jared grew up, the people he loves – and to Jared himself.  He’s inherited magical abilities from his mum, and from someone Jared never even knew existed – his real dad, Wade.

Jared’s mum hid the truth from him because Wade is not just any dad. He’s also the mythical Trickster. And Wade’s reason for suddenly showing up in his son’s life is centuries in the making. Wade has come back to determine if Jared has inherited his magic. Because only one Trickster can exist at a time.

With his friend Crashpad and girlfriend Sarah, Jared navigates an already tricky situation that has deadly implications – Jared needs to stop his dad from killing him, but his real struggle is to control his own life. Being a teenager already sucks. The supernatural death threat makes it suck that much harder.

Link to image: https://we.tl/t-2Fa3YIyDvX

Press Contact: 

Debbie Lawrence, The Lippin Company Ltd – dlawrence@lippingroup.com – +44 7771 850580

About ABACUS MEDIA RIGHTS 

Abacus Media Rights (AMR) acquires and distributes a diverse slate of premium, multi-genre programming in the international market. At the same time, the company also works with producers to facilitate pre-sales and development finance as well as broadcaster commissions.

Embracing a fully transparent reporting ethos throughout, AMR focuses on building strong client relationships and generating positive solutions at every stage of the process, from initial financing to worldwide broadcast in order to successfully deliver scripted and non-scripted entertainment that counts to a global audience.

Abacus Media Rights is financed by the Amcomri Entertainment Inc.

Further details: www.abacusmediarights.com

About SIENNA FILMS

Led by EP/Producers Jennifer Kawaja and Julia Sereny, Sienna Films is one of Canada’s pre-eminent scripted content companies, producing film and television internationally since 1992. Over the past several years Sienna has made its mark in television and was named Canada’s broadcast trade publication Playback’s Production Company of the Year for 2017. In 2020, the company was acquired by Sphere Media, which specialises in the creation, adaptation, production and distribution of television and film content.