Netflix’s upcoming Arctic comedy finally has a name and has completed its cast, as it enters production in snowy Nunavut, Canada.
Stacey Aglock MacDonald and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril North North Production began today on the comedy, which follows a young Inuk mother (Anna Lampe) who wants to build a new future for herself, but finds it won’t be easy in her small Arctic town where everyone knows her work.
Join Anna Lambe (True Detective: Night Country, a fraud) and Kira Cooper in the cast are Mary Lynn Rajskub (It’s always sunny in Philadelphia, 24), Mika Harper (Law & Order: Toronto, Burden of Truth), Braeden Clark (Little bird, A stranger from home), Jay Ryan (Shrub lands, It is: Chapter Two, Mary kills people), Kelly William (Pictures of fire, Motherland), Zorga Konak and Doreen Simmonds (True Detective: Night Country).
Lambie and Cooper were cast in the roles of mother and daughter in December, as we reported at the time.
Rajskub is repped by Christina Shams at Avesta Entertainment & Buchwald, with Myman
Greenspan Fox Rosenberg Mobaser Young & Light Law Firm. Harper is repped by Oldfield Management in Canada.
Production is currently underway in Nunavut, Canada’s northernmost territory located near the Arctic Archipelago, with Agluk MacDonald (Ganourly, Grizzlies) and Arnaqouk Baril (Angry Enoch, Grizzlies(Executive Producer alongside Miranda de Pincier)Anne with E, Beginners, Grizzlies), Anya Adams (Yellow jackets, Jenny and Georgia), Susan Quinn (Mozart in the Jungle, Daisy Jones and the Six), Gary Campbell (Kids in the hall, Less than kind).
anya adams (Yellow jackets), Danis Goulet (Night Raiders), Zoe Lee Hopkins (Little bird), Lisa Jackson (savage), Renuka Jayabalan (Comfort Kim(and Alyssa Young)View drawing of Baroness Vaughn) are directing the ten-part show.
“We have already weathered a blizzard during preparation, so there is no doubt that our amazing crew is ready to film a show in the North Pole,” Agluk MacDonald and Arnaquq Baril said in a statement. “Also, a huge thank you to our community in Iqaluit for being so welcoming – we couldn’t do this show without your support.”
The series was a joint commission by Netflix and CBC in collaboration with local broadcaster APTN, with Red Marrow Media and Northwood Entertainment producing. It’s one of the few original Canadian scripted series ordered by Netflix to date, along with the likes of Anne with Ewhich was also co-produced with Canadian broadcaster CBC.
International broadcasters are now regulated in Canada under the controversial Internet Broadcasting Act, which forces platforms to spend on local content in the same way as local networks. Sources say operation has largely ground to a halt while streamers wait to see what level of investment will be required of them to realize the method.
In November, Netflix said it had spent more than $5 billion on Canadian productions over the past five years — and that number almost certainly includes acquisitions. The streamer also has a large office in Toronto and has expanded its space at Cinespace Film Studios, where it uses the country to film many of its originals.