EXCLUSIVE Northern Rescue Interview with Showrunner David Cormican!
Welcome back Northern Rescue fans! After writing my review of Season 1 last week > check it out < I looked around twitter supporting the heck out of the show so there’s a chance for a season 2. The whole Northern Rescue Team is amazing when it comes to promoting and sharing the passion for the show on social media. As it happened, I got lucky and had the chance to ask David Cormican, the showrunner of NR, for an interview. Keep reading to get an exclusive glimpse into the mastermind that’s David Cormican!
Interview with David Cormican
David Cormican
David is a pure inspiration, especially when it comes to talking about his shows. Reading his answers to my questions was mind blowing and inspiring but see for yourself!
How did you come up with the idea to write the story for Northern Rescue?
I’d been noodling on the concept for quite sometime. I was initially inspired by other tv shows like Party of 5, Heartland, Arctic Air and the film The Grand Seduction based on the incredible Quebecois film La Grande Séduction.
I wanted to create a family drama series that was one I could watch with my daughter AND my parents. And one that my niece and nephew could enjoy with their parents and grandparents.
Most of my films or tv shows to date have a higher (ie. more mature) content rating associated with them and may not quite be considered “family” fare.
I really wanted to create a series that was about real family issues inspired by stories I knew to be true that harked back to good ol’ small town value (as I grew up in Southern Alberta), but that had that coastal charm and appeal found in The Grand Seduction.
I also liked the idea that we put the family in a fish out of water scenario (ie. Aquaverse), where they may be coming back to Dad’s hometown so he could take over a search & rescue command (SAR), but where they aren’t going to be living in a conventional home setting.
So the show started to become all about new friends, new school, new job, new surroundings, new air, new life as this family begins to deal with their grief. Coping with loss and dealing with grief are paramount to what this series is all about.
And then I wanted to add a stowaway to the mix. And that’s when Tux, the penguin, came in to the fold.
Once I was set on the show I wanted to make, I enlisted the help of two colleagues (Dwayne Hill and Mark Bacci), to co-create it with and develop out the concept even further and take it to script. And it kind of spiraled out from there. During our development of the show, other complimentary series also dealing with family themes like This is Us, Parenthood and Transparent started popping up and letting us know we were on the right path.
How did you work it out to give each and every character such a different way to grief?
As we were developing the series, we wrote down the stages of grief and placed them on the wall of the writers room above everything else we posted on the walls. So they were always there for us as a touchstone. And what has certainly been our experience with our own levels and layers of grief, is that it rarely goes in order, nor can you slot every moment in just one box. Our emotions are raw and real and they vacilate all the time. So too must our characters. And also, just when they think they have it figured out, guess what? Life throws them a curve ball and they start all over again. It’s a very snakes and ladders, ying and yang, bitter with the sweet kind of way of looking at life. But ultimately, we’re never given more than we can handle. So as we were coming up with storylines, we were always bouncing the storyline off of where each character was in their own personal grief journey.
How did you come up with the beloved penguin Tux and why a penguin?
We considered a bunch of things initially. Otters, Penguins, Dolphins. We wanted something that wasn’t a dog or a cat and that played to the area and would be a source of levity and wonder for the family. We kind of put a penguin in the early scripts as a place holder and the more everyone read it and the more we learned about penguins the more it stuck. And then our broadcasters were in love with the notion of a little penguin running around. And before we knew it, we were calling breeders and zoos from Norway to Las Vegas to all over which eventually landed us working with a pair of penguins from West Edmonton Mall: Dayo & Skadu.
What is your spirit animal (talking about Tux up there) and why?
Great question! In 2004 I was “visited” by a skunk. It was a very humbling experience. But following that trauma and finally getting the scent out of my nose, I needed to know more. And I truthfully wanted to justify the experience. Or at least rationalize it to my advantage in some way. In my research, I have found it to be a very positive encounter overall. Skunks are believed to carry (and obviously can wield), a very great and impactful power. They quietly possess a calm control over most instances in the wild given their capabilities when pushed.
What I truly like about them is how respected skunks are, not just throughout the animal kingdom, but also by many cultures. In some indigenous tribes, they believe being visited by a skunk is a meaningful, spiritual and deliberate event. Wherein the skunk has chosen you for possessing similar characteristics and that the one visited by the skunk is imbued with the powers of the skunk.
Anything you can tease about the storyline in season 2 (if we hopefully get one)?
So much I could say here! I think there is a lot going on in episode 10 (of the first season), that begs to be followed through on. We have the obvious Maddie-Rick-John triangle to dive in to, Charlie and Alex are through and where does that leave her, Scout has just screwed up everything that was starting to go well for him and Taylor is getting glimpses into her mother’s life which may or may not be linked to her overall health. there’s so much that needs more screen time. I won’t give anything away, but I can tell you we’ve been working ahead on all of this and if audiences liked what we did and where we lead you in season one, I think you’ll really enjoy a second season. As it only gets better now that you’re invested in the characters and their outcomes.
Any other projects of yours you can tell us about?
I’ve also been working on a project called Blood Horn, which is set in South Africa that centres around the anti-poaching trade as it mostly relates to rhinoceros, pangolins, lions and elephants.
We’ve been working on that with Red Arrow Studios International.
Another project we’ve been developing with the CBC is the screen adaptation to the novel Forgiveness (written by Mark Sakamoto). The book won the 2018 Canada Reads competition and is in some ways a follow up to our previous Japanese-Canadian WWII drama Tokyo Trial (which we were nominated for an International Emmy® Award for Best Mini-Series in 2017).
There’s a few others, but these two are very close to my heart and will likely be candidates for you to be watching in the very near future.
But first, let’s focus on getting a second season of Northern Rescue going for all you fans out there! That is my number one goal right now. As the feedback and response from new audiences and fans has been resoundingly positive and overwhelming. It’s been such a rewarding experience sharing this series with the world.
What was the best thing/memory while writing the show and while filming the show?
I bring a bell into the writers room on all of my shows. It’s a bit Pavlovian… but it works. Whenever anyone in the room comes up with what we call a “bell moment”, you get to ding the bell. Or someone else can ding it for you (if you’re being too modest to claim the bell moment yourself — it’s very Canadian! haha). But it really helps everyone in the room take a moment to be proud of the problem we just solved or celebrate the wicked storyline just created by either the individual or the room as a collective. They’re pretty exciting moments and usually involve lots of smiles and cheers and well-deserved kudos and praise.
The first day of filming for any show is always a momentous occasion. For me especially, as the journey to this point has been the longest for me, as I was with the idea for the show from day one which has blossomed now to a cast and crew of in excess of 400 people plus national and international broadcast partners who also believe in the show. So it is remarkable, and simply put a miracle, to me when a show has been greenlit and is about to roll cameras with all these people collectively pushing and directing their energy in the same direction and breathing life in to these characters, the world of the series and the show itself. It’s like getting to stare at mountains or the ocean for the first time. It’s nothing short of surreal and takes my breath away every time we get to a first day of principal photography. Plus the first day is normally so complicated and stressful as I’m usually dealing with a million other things like closing the banking, finalizing contracts, making decisions on locations and wardrobe for the coming days, revisions to script pages, future episodes, etc. But with all that going on, we made the decision to invite some of the community leaders from the local Wasauksing Nation to share this moment and provide a blessing on the cast and crew for what was hoped at the time to be a successful production.
Dave Rice lead us in a blessing and prayer followed by a smudging to cleanse ourselves from the tensions and set us up for success creatively and spiritually. We all laughed aloud when Dave paid special attention and gave extra blessing to myself and the director of the first episode. He could see that our shoulders were tense, to say the least.
Follow Northern Rescue Online:
Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | #NorthernRescue
Follow the cast & crew of Northern Rescue:
- William Baldwin – John West | Twitter | Instagram
- Kathleen Robertson – Charlie Anders | Twitter | Instagram
- Spencer Macpherson – Scout West | Twitter | Instagram
- Taylor Thorne – Taylor West | Instagram
- David Cormican – Showrunner/Executive Producer | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
- Mark Bacci – Executive Producer | Twitter | Instagram
- Bradley Walsh – Executive Producer | Instagram
I think, this won’t be the last time we hear from David! As he said in the interview, let’s focus on a second season of Northern Rescue first. Don’t forget to use the hashtags #NorthernRescue and #RenewFor2 when you’re posting or talking about the show online! A BIG thank you again to David for giving us the chance to do this interview and a HUGE thank you to Jeff Boulton who kinda got me in touch with David!
I hope you enjoyed this interview and feel free to let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
