Leading global studio Entertainment One (eOne) and Hulu announced today a new multi-series licensing pact, under which Hulu will obtain the exclusive U.S. streaming rights for more than 240 hours of eOne's content. The deal was brokered by Joey Sabella, Head of U.S. and Latin America, eOne Television. As part of the deal, Hulu secured the streaming rights to all current seasons of the critically-acclaimed hit new dramatic thriller Cardinal, produced by Sienna Films and eOne in association with Bell Media's CTV. The complete first season will be available to stream in the U.S. on June 16th, only on Hulu. Hulu also licensed the U.S. streaming rights to the new, critically-acclaimed comedy drama series, Gap Year. The first season of the series will become available to stream in its entirety beginning May 26th.
"eOne has had an incredible experience working with Hulu and I'm thrilled to broaden our partnership to include Cardinal and Gap Year, two strong U.S. premieres along with other quality series," commented Sabella. "Hulu is one of the leading premium streaming television services and we couldn't be more proud to have struck this ambitious deal with them."
Cardinal: Cardinal is adapted from the award-winning novel Forty Words for Sorrow, the first of the John Cardinal Mysteries series, a series of six bestselling crime novels written by award-winning author Giles Blunt. The series begins with the discovery of Katie Pine, a missing 13-year-old whose body is discovered in the shaft-head of an abandoned mine. Cardinal follows detectives John Cardinal (Billy Campbell) and Lise Delorme (Karine Vanasse) as they attempt to uncover the mystery of what happened to the young girl. But as the case grows in scope and horror, a dark secret from Cardinal's history threatens to derail the investigation.
Following a breakthrough inaugural season, CTV ordered second and third cycles of the series marking the first time the network ordered two consecutive seasons of a drama. Cardinal was the most-watched new Canadian series in the 2016/17 broadcast season with total viewers and A25-54 and has become a top performer on Canadian streaming service CraveTV. In Scandinavia, Cardinal became C More's biggest foreign drama series.
Distributed worldwide by eOne, Cardinal is produced with the financial participation of the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation, the Canada Media Fund and the Cogeco Program Development Fund, and with the assistance of the Ontario Film and
Television Tax Credit and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit. Executive Producers are Julia Sereny and Jennifer Kawaja for Sienna Films. Cycle one is also executive produced by Showrunner Aubrey Nealon, who adapted the series for television, and Director Daniel Grou, aka Podz. For Bell Media, Tom
Hastings is Director, Drama, Independent Production; and Corrie Coe is Senior Vice-President, Independent Production. Pat DiVittorio is Vice-President, CTV and Specialty Programming. Mike Cosentino is Senior Vice-President,
Content and Programming. Randy Lennox is President, Bell Media.
Gap Year: Created by Tom Basden (Plebs, Fresh Meat) and first aired on, and commissioned for,
Channel 4's digital channel E4 in the UK, Gap Year is the story of a motley gang of travellers embarking on a three-month trip around Asia. The cast, drawn from the U.S., Canada and the U.K., includes newcomer Anders Hayward (Sistema) as delusional romantic Dylan, who thinks every woman he meets is a potential life partner; BAFTA Breakthrough Brit Ade Oyefeso (Unforgotten, E4's Youngers) as Sean, a friendly, easy-going guy hoping for a bit of escapism; emerging Canadian star Brittney Wilson (Bates Motel), as the blunt and headstrong Ashley, a young American student who is book-smart but emotionally immature; and Alice Lee (Jack, Jules, Esther & Me, Faking It) as May, a high-strung worrier who tends to overthink every situation. British actor, writer, performance poet and Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Tim Key (Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, I Give It A Year) joins them as Greg, a 38-year-old in denial about his marriage, his business and life in general. His upbeat energy hides a multitude of problems.
Other series included in the deal are
Welcome to Sweden, the fish-out-of-water comedy series; The Dating Guy, a hilarious animated comedy about dating, sex and friendship with a twist; the sexy, action-packed thriller from Executive Producer Robert Rodriguez, Matador; and the emotional, gripping medical drama, Saving Hope.
