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Macha Grenon, Éric Bruneau, Patrick Watson and Kim Lévesque Lizotte join NRK and Crave Original Drama SO LONG, MARIANNE
– Eight-part series is co-produced by Montréal based Connect3 for Crave and NRK –
Montréal (August 23, 2023) – Crave and NRK announced today additional Canadian cast members for the highly anticipated new drama series SO LONG, MARIANNE, co-produced by Montréal’s Connect3 (part of the Cineflix Media group of companies), about the legendary love story of Canadian singer and poet Leonard Cohen, and Marianne Ihlen.
Joining the lead cast of Alex Wolff (Leonard), Thea Sofie Loch Næss (Marianne), Anna Torv (Charmian Clift), Noah Taylor (George Johnston), and Peter Stormare (Irving Layton); is Macha Grenon, alongside special appearances from Éric Bruneau, Kim Lévesque Lizotte, and singer-songwriter Patrick Watson.
Macha Grenon plays Leonard’s mother, Masha Cohen; while Éric Bruneau takes on the role of Cohen’s long-time friend Robert Hershorn; and Kim Lévesque Lizotte plays Monique Mercure, who runs into Marianne at a party in Montréal. Patrick Watson has a cameo as a singer who performs for Cohen on a rooftop.
Robin L’Houmeau, Raphael Grosz-Harvey, Miranda Calderon, Tatiana Latreille, Ryan Bommarito, Emily Lê, Frank Fontaine, Megan Jonker, Sonia Berube, Rob Stewart, Chip Chuipka, Howard Bilerman, and Avi Bendahan round out the Canadian cast.
“Today’s casting news amplifies the excitement and anticipation for SO LONG, MARIANNE,” said Carlyn Klebuc, General Manager, Original Programming at Bell Media. “The series is an expansive, sweeping international co-production that travels the world, and Crave is thrilled to bring the series, and Cohen’s celebrated story, to life for audiences in English and French.”
“Connect3 is committed to showcasing the best creatives on and off camera, and it’s been wonderful to work with the talented teams in our hometown of Montréal,” added Pablo Salzman, Executive Producer and President, Connect3. “We’re thrilled to be working with Crave, NRK, and Cineflix Rights to bring such an iconic story to audiences worldwide.”
Set in some of the most beautiful international locations during the 1960s, SO LONG, MARIANNE is an intimate tale of two lonely people falling in love, during a period of their life when they are trying to figure out who they are and their place in the world, while one is becoming one of the most famous singers of all time.
Just as it served as a backdrop for Cohen’s life, Montréal will also feature heavily in SO LONG, MARIANNE. Crave audiences will recognize a number of landmarks, such as McGill University where Cohen studied, distinctive restaurants Toqué! and Greenspot, and the Des Seigneurs Bridge.
SO LONG, MARIANNE is developed by Ingeborg Klyve (Exit), Øystein Karlsen (Exit, Dag, Lilyhammer, Whitstable Pearl) and Tony Wood (Irvine Welsh’s Crime, Marcella, Whitstable Pearl) and written for the screen by Øystein Karlsen and Jo Nesbø (Harry Hole, Kingdom, Headhunters). The series is directed by Øystein Karlsen and Bronwen Hughes (Shantaram, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul). SO LONG MARIANNE is co-produced by Redpoint Productions, Tanweer Productions, and Connect3. The Executive Producers are Ales Ree for NRK, Richard Tulk-Hart and Tony Wood, Vegard Stenberg Eriksen and Ingeborg Klyve for Redpoint Productions, Dionyssis Samiotis and Nancy Kokolaki for Tanweer Productions, and André Barro and Pablo Salzman for Connect3.
Connect3 is part of the Cineflix Media group of companies, the leading international media company which is also headquartered in Montréal with operations in Toronto, New York, London, and Dublin. Cineflix Rights is distributing the series globally.
SO LONG, MARIANNE will be available to Crave subscribers in French and English.
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About Crave
Delivering more Oscar®-nominated and Emmy® Award-winning programming than any other service, Crave is Canada’s prestige entertainment offering, with HBO, HBO Max Originals, STARZ, Hollywood-hit movies, is the exclusive Canadian streaming home of FRIENDS, and boasts a robust slate of English and French original series. Crave is a major supporter of Canada’s production industry, helping to fund numerous film projects, and features acclaimed selections from some of Canada’s prestigious film festivals including Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, HOT DOCS, ImagineNATIVE, and Inside Out LGBT Film Festival.
Crave is a bilingual TV and streaming service with thousands of hours of exclusive French-language content. Crave is available directly to all Canadians with access to the Internet at Crave.ca, via iOS and Android, and other platforms such as Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, select LG Smart TVs, PlayStation, Roku, select Samsung Smart TVs, and Xbox One. It’s also available through participating service providers across ten, 24-hour High Definition linear and on demand channels. Crave is from Bell Media, Canada’s leading content company, providing Canada’s most-watched and most-acclaimed television programming on network, specialty, pay and digital platforms. Visit our website at Crave.ca.
About NRK
Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) is the leading broadcaster in Norway for Norwegian drama series for all audiences. NRK’s titles include SKAM, Nobel, Mammon, Home Ground, State of Happiness and Exit, among many others. NRK aims to give the audience stories that create identification, reflection and space for conversations.
Established in 2002, Cineflix Rights is based in London, and is part of the Cineflix Media group of companies, which is celebrating 25 years as a leading international media company.
About Cineflix Rights
Cineflix Rights is the UK’s largest, truly independent TV content distributor to broadcasters and streamers worldwide with a catalogue of premium standout scripted series and movies as well as must-watch returning factual programming from some of the world’s most creative producers. Our growing scripted slate includes Last King of The Cross, a new crime drama featuring Tim Roth and Lincoln Younes for Paramount+ Australia; supernatural drama Reginald the Vampire starring Spider-Man’s Jacob Batalon for SYFY US; Irvine Welsh’s Crime, the acclaimed author’s riveting adaptation of his bestselling novel starring Dougray Scott in his International Emmy® and BAFTA Scotland® award-winning role as Ray Lennox for ITVX/BritBox; International Emmy® Best Drama Award-winning Israeli espionage series Tehran for Apple TV+; French thriller Rebecca, an Official Selection at Séries Mania 2021; Acorn TV’s cozy crime procedural Whitstable Pearl; award-winning Israeli police corruption series Manayek; global hit police procedural Coroner; and International Emmy®-winner Marcella.
About Connect 3
Connect3 collaborates with independent producers, writers, and showrunners to develop and deliver first-class television content. The company focuses on co-productions for the North American and international markets, working with independent creatives to connect their projects with the right platform and broadcast partners. Led by Pablo Salzman, Connect3 is based in Montréal and part of the Cineflix Media group of companies.
About Redpoint-productions
Redpoint is a newly-established boutique production company geared to create outstanding content for film and TV series. Redpoint is owned by three of the leading creatives in the Nordic media industry, Øystein Karlsen, Jo Nesbø and Niclas Salamonsson, which means they are in a truly advantageous position in terms of creating quality stories with fresh perspectives. Redpoint’s long-term strategy is to produce high-end drama with strong Nordic voices for an international audience. We stand for quality content, rather than focusing on the yearly quantity of productions. Redpoint is led by Vegard Stenberg-Eriksen and lead producer Ingeborg Klyve.
About Tanweer Productions
Tanweer Productions was founded in 2018 by its president Joseph Samaan and it’s the production arm of Tanweer Group, a company that for over 30 years has been active in many sectors of the audio-visual industry in Greece, Cyprus, the Middle East, India and Turkey. Tanweer Productions, based in Athens, Greece, utilizes the experience from its distributing division and steps into the Greek market strong, confident and ambitious. Tanweer Productions’ awarded films My Name Is Eftihia (2019) and Smyrna (2021), among the greatest Greek Box Office successes of all time, have also been released worldwide, while its fiction TV series have been streamed on Greece’s biggest digital subscription platforms and major free TV channels.
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