Aaron Ashmore is realtor Randall Wishart in four episodes of the third season of CARDINAL. The show is based on Giles Blunt’s novels, and Wishart appears in the fifth book in the series, “Crime Machine“. In the book, Randall is married, and has a thing for younger women. He becomes involved in a murder investigation after he and art college student Sam Doucette (who will be played by Devery Jacobs) have a tryst in an empty house he is selling. Afterward, Randall leaves first, and Sam remains in the house for a bit. Then a young man and an older couple arrive, and the younger fellow shoots the older couple and cuts off their heads. CARDINAL Season Three will premiere on CTV in Canada on 24 January . A trailer is available on YouTube. The first two seasons are on HULU.

Ashmore will also be Reggie Seamus in the dark comedy TAMMY’S ALWAYS DYING, which will star Anastasia Phillips as Catherine, the 35-year-old daughter of Tammy (Felicity Huffman) whose role as caregiver changes when Tammy is diagnosed with terminal cancer. Catherine recruits a talk show agent in an attempt to profit from her mother’s life story, but it becomes increasingly obvious to her that Tammy’s death is her only way out and Tammy refuses to die. Olunike Adeliyi (Artura Senbek in “Heart-Shaped Box“) is also in the cast. TAMMY’S ALWAYS DYING completed filming in Toronto in December. No release date has been announced.

Thom Allison (Pree) will be Gary in CANADIAN STRAIN, which stars Jess Salgueiro as Anne Banting, a boutique weed dealer whose business has been severely disrupted by the legalization of pot. (Recreational cannabis became legal in Canada on 17 October.) Colin Mochrie is Anne’s dad Jack, and Naomi Snieckus is her uptight co-worker. Among others in the cast are Natalie Brown and Angela Besharah.

Writer/director Geordie Sabbagh told David Silverberg of PRØHBTD: “The themes in Canadian Strain are wider than just inside pot jokes. Anyone who has run a business and gone up against ‘the powers that be’ can relate to what Anne goes through.” Sabbagh also says that the film will show viewers “a normalized view of cannabis consumers…Everyone might be excited about legal weed, but it comes at a cost for those who helped make the industry what it is today.” CANADIAN STRAIN has completed filming in Toronto.

Allison and Sharon Matthews (Flo Chackowitz on FRANKIE DRAKE MYSTERIES) have been named co-hosts of the 2019 Canadian Alliance of Film & Television Costume Arts & Design (CAFTCAD) Awards. The awards ceremony will be held at the Aga Kahn Museum in Toronto on Sunday, 10 February .

Anna Hopkins (Fairuza in “Johnny Dangerously“) wrote and directed the short science fiction film THE GIVE AND TAKE (below), which stars Macy Drouin as Amy, who calls the help number on the back of an old video game magazine, and by a cosmic glitch is connected to Caesar Spinone (Matthew Gouveia), a video game call center employee in the year 1989. Hopkins appears in the film as Amy’s mother.

Lara Jean Chorostecki (Sheriff Charlie Volford in “It Takes A Pillage“) stars as Chef Daniel’s know-it-all sidekick Chloe in Jesse Zigelstein‘s drama NOSE TO TAIL. Daniel (Aaron Abrams) struggles mightily with his personal demons and the relentless pressures of running a high-end restaurant. Over the course of one frantic day and night, with Chloe’s help, he faces a rash of trials both private and professional in a desperate bid to save the business that forms the very core of his identity. NOSE TO TAIL will have its US premiere at the 2019 Santa Barbara International Film Festival (30 January – 9 February) A trailer is available on YouTube.







