KOTV and Endemol Shine North America team up to Executive Produce "Boundary Pond"

KOTV and Endemol Shine North America have teamed up to executive produce "Boundary Pond," a new thriller adapted for television from the award-winning novel, "Boundary," by acclaimed author Andrée A. Michaud. Louis Choquette (19-2, Mafiosa) is attached as the series showrunner and director.“We are very excited to continue our push into the scripted space through our partnership with KOTV and Louis Choquette, and bring this incredible thriller to viewers across the globe,” said Sharon Levy, Chief Executive Officer, Endemol Shine North America. “'Boundary Pond' explores the North American tradition of the Great Outdoors in the sixties, at a moment in history when such a lifestyle became widely democratized. Today, it’s bound to strike a chord with all age groups as either a piece of memorabilia with a dark and gruesome spin or a tale of youthful lust and terror set in a familiar decor.”

Based on the novel "Boundary" by André A. Michaud, "Boundary Pond" is produced by KOTV and Endemol Shine North America. The series showrunner is Louis Choquette. KOTV’s Louis-Philippe Drolet and Endemol Shine North America’s Sharon Levy and Lisa Fahrenholt serve as executive producers. The international production will be brought to market in the coming weeks with a focus on North America. “I am thrilled to partner up with Endemol Shine North America to bring the amazing novel Boundary to life in a very organic partnership between our two companies, as Boundary Pond unfolds on the Canadian/U.S. border, and I can’t wait to bring it to market,” Mia Desroches, Vice-President of International Sales, KOTV said.

Attached to the project as the showrunner is Louis Choquette, who is well-known for having directed multiple successful series in France and Quebec, including the police procedural crime drama 19-2 for the CBC, as well as the first season of Mafiosa (Canal +) which was sold in more than 61 countries. Choquette also directed the second season of the prestigious TV series, Versailles, Philharmonia, and, most recently, Mirage, a six-episode series co-produced by France, Germany, and Canada. “This unique and captivating crime thriller will immerse viewers in the ever-so-familiar world of small, summer communities, the ones from our childhood years, with the scent of mothballs and dusty rooms and pine, and through its hunt for a serial murderer showcase both man's worst and most beautiful natures.”

In addition to Choquette, William S. Messier is attached to script the first two episodes and bible. Messier, a Sherbrooke writer, screenwriter, and translator, wrote the docu-drama series Chicanes d’héritages (Vrai) and co-created and co-scripted the web series "Terreur 404" (ICI Tou.tv), for which he was awarded two Gémeaux awards as well as several international awards. He has also published four novels, among these, Le basketball et ses fondamentaux (Le Quartanier, 2017), which received the Grand prix du livre de la Ville de Sherbrooke award.

Boundary, to which KOTV had previously secured the rights, was originally published in 2014 and has received multiple awards worldwide, including author Michaud’s second Governor General’s Award for Fiction. Set in 1967 and taking place on Boundary Pond, a lake spanning across the U.S./Canadian border between the province of Québec and the state of Maine, the predominately English-language Boundary Pond is a thriller that unfolds with a backdrop of canoes turning over, loons sending out their eerie calls, and campfires by the lake. But the idyllic cottage life and warmth and familiarity of Boundary Pond’s forests turn treacherous when a mysterious death rocks the normally peaceful lake community where outsiders keep summer cabins, and locals struggle through the winter. When a second body turns up, the mystery turns to murder.

“Unlike in most Nordic Noirs where nature’s cold and remote hostility dictates the tone, it’s the warmth and familiarity of Boundary Pond’s setting that makes it so treacherous – a play on contrasts between the idyllic cottage life and the more terrifying wilderness all around. It’s a crime thriller where the woods, whether with their warm memories or with their haunting presence, play a crucial part in how the story unfolds,” said Louis Choquette, showrunner/director. “Endemol Shine North America’s arrival in the series production process is very positive and constructive news. I'm thrilled by this new big push towards the realization of this magnificent project.”