A dramatic fly-on-the-wall documentary about Premier Kathleen Wynne — filmed at the height of the Sudbury byelection controversy — will finally be broadcast on CTV’s W5 next month, the Star has learned.

Entitled Premier: The Unscripted Kathleen Wynne, the film was supposed to air in June on TVOntario but the province’s public broadcaster pulled the plug after the director quit over journalistic concerns.

Three months ago, the Star viewed a 59-minute “rough cut” depicting scenes of a besieged Wynne coping with the Sudbury scandal that eventually led to criminal charges against a Liberal activist Thursday.

Anton Koschany, executive producer of the award-winning W5, which kicks off its 50th season a week Saturday, said a final 40-minute version was edited for length and will hit the airwaves on Oct. 10 at 7 p.m.

“We worked with White Pine Pictures to make sure that we preserved the integrity of the documentary and kept all of the important stuff that really gives you a sense of Kathleen Wynne,” Koschany said Friday.

“All of the compelling and interesting material remains,” he said, emphasizing “the film was true to the longer version” the Star revealed on June 24.

“It’s what we do in making documentaries . . . we make hard choices every day as to what stays in a documentary and what isn’t in. To have that kind of access inside the halls of power is fantastic.”

Koschany said the Sudbury affair — which resulted in the OPP laying bribery charges against local Liberal activist Gerry Lougheed — remains a key focus.

“This is a compelling documentary and it offers really quite incredible insight into the premier’s office,” he said, adding the final film retains the rough cut’s illuminating look at Wynne’s marriage to Jane Rounthwaite.

“It’s spectacular — that is itself a subtext that’s worth the price of admission.”

For months it seemed like the film would never see the light of day.

The premier and her officials were reluctant to sign the necessary release forms, which contributed to director Roxana Spicer, who declined comment Friday, quitting the project in May.

Without those permissions signed or a director attached, TVOntario ended its participation.

But White Pine Pictures president Peter Raymont — who convinced Wynne to take part by showing her his 1978 NFB documentary on former premier Bill Davis, The Art of the Possible — was able to salvage things.

Raymont said Friday it was “unfortunate miscommunication” that led to the problems that beset the production earlier this year and stressed the premier’s office had no editorial control over the film.

“Sudbury is in there – it had to be in there. It’s a very important part of those 100 days,” he said, noting all releases have now been signed.

Rebecca MacKenzie, Wynne’s executive director of communications, said the premier agreed to have a camera crew follow her around for three months “to show Ontarians how their government works and how decisions are made.”

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“As the premier has said all along, we have been eager to have the documentary air. We are pleased that that is now happening next month,” said MacKenzie.

Still, there may be some uncomfortable moments for the premier in the nationwide network broadcast.

In one of the film’s most dramatic scenes, Wynne is seen being pursued for comment by Star reporter Rob Ferguson on Feb. 5 after the Liberals won the byelection.

As she flees up a Sudbury hotel stairway, Wynne can be heard muttering: “That’s why I can’t stay, right?”

“Is he still following us?” she whispers to an aide.

In an interview at her home, Wynne expresses her frustration with the media over the Sudbury story.

“There are certain people in the press gallery who I just know are out to get me,” the premier says.

“I mean they just want to — not ‘they’ personally but their organization — just wants to bring me down. They can’t stand what I stand for and they are going to look for any way to make me look bad,” she says.

“And then there are others who are just more neutral, but there’s nobody who is standing in that press scrum who is there to make us look good or make us look like we’re doing the right thing.”

Editor’s note: An excerpt from this documentary was posted because of its compelling public interest. It has been taken down in keeping with the Star's standards on fair use.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Robert Benzie, the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief, was among the journalists interviewed for Premier: The Unscripted Kathleen Wynne‎‎. Benzie appears in the film.

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