Paramount+ in Canada reveals Ben Johnson comedy from ‘Letterkenny’ prodco & Elliot Page drama

Katrina Kowalski

Paramount+ has unveiled a raft of shows in development for its service in Canada, including a comedy about athlete Ben Johnson and a series from Elliot Page’s Page Boy Productions.

Hate The Player: The Ben Johnson Story is a scripted comedy about the scandal behind the scandal about the athlete, who was found to have taken drugs having set a world record of 9.79 seconds for the 100m. It is from writer Anthony Q Farrell (The Office US) and Letterkenny prodco New Metric Media.

Also on the slate revealed at the Banff World Media Festival is six-part Len & Cub, which is based on a true story dramatises the secret relationship of two young men in rural 20th-century New Brunswick whose story came to light when a box of photos was recently discovered in an estate sale.

It has been written by Lynne Kamm and is being produced by Muse Entertainment and Page Boy.

Two others shows are on the scriped slate: Carpe Demon is based on the best-selling book series by Julie Kenner, about a frazzled suburban mum who used to be a demon hunter, with December Films and Cineflix Studios producing; and They Drive At Night, which is a dark comedy about two best friends, a vampire and a werewolf, on a road trip across Canada.

It has been written by Craig Wallace (Murdoch Mysteries) and producers Black Birds Entertainment.

Paramount+ also unveiled a new doc, 500 Days In The Wild, which will debut in autumn and is from filmmaker Dianne Whelan (This Land). It tracks her 28,000km journey travelling across Canada in 2015 and is from Rebel Sisters Productions and distributed in Canada by Elevation Pictures.

Paramount+ is also onboard movie The Boy In The Woods, which tells the true-life survival story of a Jewish boy hiding and being hunted in the forests of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. It is based on the memoir The Boy In The Woods by Maxwell Smart, with Lumanity Productions and JoBro Productions attached.

A number of acquisitions were also revealed including feature films Midnight At The Paradise and romantic comedy feature The End Of Sex.

“Our strategy includes partnering with the most exciting creators in the country, like we did with this first slate of projects,” said Katrina Kowalski, VP of content at Paramount+ and Pluto TV Canada.