Iqaluit studio, TV show with unprecedented budget for Nunavut in the works
CBC
Hollywood North North? Holly-uit perhaps?
A new studio in Iqaluit and the most expensive TV production ever in Nunavut are in the works for 2023, the heads of a production company told a municipal government committee last month.
"It's a TV comedy show with a significant budget, a budget for a film project that has never been seen here in Nunavut before," Stacey Aglok MacDonald said during the recreation committee's Jan. 20 meeting.
She and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril are co-owners of Red Marrow.
The production would provide about six months of employment for hundreds of people, including about 75 crew members from outside of the territory, they said.
"This is an important step to economic recovery, really," Mayor Kenny Bell said in a phone interview on Wednesday.
"We've been dying for two years now because of COVID[-19] lockdowns and, you know, this is going to be helpful for our whole community."
The show takes place in "a fictional community in Nunavut," Aglok MacDonald said, and the goal is to air the 10-episode first season by fall 2023.
"This is a project that we're really proud of and that we've been working for two and a half years on."
The duo kept many aspects of the show secret, including the name of the broadcaster, promising more information will come out once the production is officially announced.
They were speaking to the recreation committee because the plan is to build a studio in the city in time to record the first season between February and August, but they need to have a plan B.
"When you have funders giving you millions of dollars to do something, they want to know that you can execute it for sure," Arnaquq-Baril said.
They believe their only option for a one-time backup space is to rent the city's curling rink.
They said if that's allowed, then the entire production can happen in the territory. If not, most of it will happen elsewhere.
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