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City Announces Cast and Production Wrap of Original Limited Series Bad Blood

– Inspired by true events, Bad Blood follows the life and death of notorious underworld figure Vito Rizzuto –

TORONTO (January 12, 2017) Rogers Media announced today the completion of principal photography of City’s original limited event series, Bad Blood. The six-part, 60-minute scripted series stars Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace) as Montreal crime boss Vito Rizzuto, Kim Coates (Sons of Anarchy) as Vito’s right-hand man Declan Gardiner, Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas) as family patriarch Nico Rizzuto Sr., and Enrico Colantoni (Flashpoint) as Bruno Bonsignori. Produced by New Metric Media and Sphère Média Plus in association with DHX Worldwide, Bad Blood will debut this fall on City.

For additional program information and images: RogersMediaTV.ca

Directed by Alain DesRochers (Bon Cop Bad Cop 2, Nitro), production began in Montreal and wrapped in Sudbury, Ont. this past December. The series is inspired by reputed mobster Vito Rizzuto and based on the best-selling book, Business or Blood: Mafia Boss Vito Rizzuto’s Last War by world-renowned organized crime experts Antonio Nicaso and Peter Edwards. Nicaso and Edwards both served as consultants on this true-crime event series.

Bad Blood is a story of family, loyalty, deceit, power, greed and ultimately revenge. Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto is a criminal anomaly – the only man to bring peace among the disparate wings of the Montreal crime world who would serve as a de facto CEO while ensuring a lucrative payday for all. When Rizzuto is suddenly arrested and extradited to Colorado’s Supermax Prison for the 1981 murders of three Bonanno crime family members, the powerful empire he built begins to crumble. Rizzuto watches helplessly as his family and friends are killed one by one. Upon his release from prison in October 2012, a Shakespearean-level revenge tale unfolds, leading to the brutal murders of his closest companions, and ultimately, to the death of Rizzuto himself.

Additional cast includes Brett Donahue (The Kennedys: After Camelot), Maxim Roy (19-2), Tony Nappo (Shoot The Messenger), Frank Schorpion (Arrival), Joris Jarsky (The Art of More), Michelle Mylett (Letterkenny), Clauter Alexandre (Trauma) and Vincent Leclerc (19-2).

Bad Blood makes it world-wide debut on City and FX this fall, followed by a Radio-Canada broadcast in French. The series is distributed internationally by Sky Vision.

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About New Metric Media
New Metric Media is a film, television, and new media production company that works with top creative talent to produce outstanding content to entertain the world over. New Metric Media’s past and present projects include the CraveTV hit original comedy LETTERKENNY, now entering its third season and still CraveTV’s most watched debut ever, and the 1/2 hour Bell Media comedy WHAT WOULD SAL DO? to be released in 2017. For more information visit www.newmetricmedia.com.

About Sphère Média Plus
Headquartered in the Montreal area and founded by Jocelyn Deschênes in 1997, Sphere Media Plus has nearly 1,200 hours of series television to its credit, along with productions that have been sold or adapted in numerous international markets. In Canada, the company’s programs have been seen on the ICI Radio-Canada, TVA, Séries+ (Corus Média), CBC, Bravo (Bell Media) and CTV networks. Police drama 19-2 has been acclaimed in both English and French. The English version was awarded Best Dramatic Series at the 2016 Canadian Screen Awards, and the series was recently nominated for a 2016 International Emmy® Award in the Best Drama Series category. Season 2 of THIS LIFE, the English adaptation of NOUVELLE ADRESSE, has recently completed airing on CBC.  Over the years, Sphère Média Plus has won numerous industry and people’s choice awards, including more than 135 Prix Gémeaux (French Canada’s TV industry awards) and four (4) Canadian Screen Awards. The company continues to develop new projects for French and English-language markets.  For more information visit www.spheremedia.ca/site/company/

About Skyvision
Sky Vision is the production and distribution arm of Sky. The distribution arm represents around 5,000 hours of quality primetime programming from Sky Originals and independent third party production, across all key primetime genres (drama, entertainment, factual entertainment and factual). The business also has equity investments in seven production businesses in the UK and US; Love Productions, Blast! Films, Sugar Films and Sky Vision Productions in the UK; and in the US, Jupiter Entertainment, Talos Films and Znak & Co.

In addition to its equity investments, Sky Vision works extensively with independent producers in the UK and US and has development deals with a number of production companies; including Asylum Entertainment and Peacock Alley in North America; and Avanti Media, Bohemia, Chalkboard, LittleRock Pictures, Merman Films, Spring Films, and Roughcut TV in the UK.

 About City 
City™ television stations in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Montreal and Saskatchewan offer viewers intensely-local, urban-oriented, culturally-diverse television programming. A distinct alternative to other conventional television stations, City engages its viewers with dynamic on-air personalities and delivers an entertaining mix of news, local-interactive formats such as Breakfast Television and Cityline, as well as local Canadian and acquired prime-time entertainment programming. City is part of Rogers Broadcasting Limited, a division of Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX: RCI and NYSE: RCI), which is a diversified Canadian communications and media company. For more information on City stations and programming, visit Citytv.com.

Media Contacts:
Elisa Barbaro, City, 647-388-9403, [email protected]