logo
Watch Canada Reads Day Two here!

Watch Canada Reads Day Two here!

CBC18-03-2025

The great Canadian book debate is back for its 24th season! The opening round of Canada Reads kicked off March 17, 2025 at 10:05 a.m ET.
Watch Day Two on this page or find other ways and times to tune in here.
The 2025 contenders are:
Over four days, the five champions will state their case for why their book is the "one book to change the narrative."
This year's host is comedian Ali Hassan.
Panellists will have an opportunity to champion their respective book about whether their book is truly the one that all Canadians need to read right now.
The debates take place live at 10:05 a.m. ET. You can tune in live or catch a replay on the platform of your choice. You can see all the broadcast details here.
After one hour of debate, the five panellists will have to vote one book off the show.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Canadian director Dean DeBlois brings animated How to Train Your Dragon to vibrant life
Canadian director Dean DeBlois brings animated How to Train Your Dragon to vibrant life

Edmonton Journal

time43 minutes ago

  • Edmonton Journal

Canadian director Dean DeBlois brings animated How to Train Your Dragon to vibrant life

Article content When Dean DeBlois was told that DreamWorks was considering turning the beloved How to Train Your Dragon animated series into a live-action movie, he thought that his words might come back to haunt him. The Canadian filmmaker had previously told people that he was not a fan of live-action remakes. DeBlois thought he had closed the chapter on the Dragon franchise. He co-wrote and co-directed the 2010 animated original and its two sequels, turning the tale of a Viking teen named Hiccup who forms a bond with a young dragon named Toothless into a beloved and lucrative franchise. He received his fourth Oscar nomination for Best Animated Film in 2020 for the second sequel, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, and had moved on to imagining other worlds. But when the prospect of a live-action version came up, he suddenly felt very protective.

‘Leaving Home' review: David French's classic Canadian drama gets an overpowered production at Coal Mine Theatre
‘Leaving Home' review: David French's classic Canadian drama gets an overpowered production at Coal Mine Theatre

Toronto Star

timean hour ago

  • Toronto Star

‘Leaving Home' review: David French's classic Canadian drama gets an overpowered production at Coal Mine Theatre

Leaving Home 2 stars (out of 4) By David French, directed by Jake Planinc. Until June 22 at Coal Mine Theatre, 2076 Danforth Ave. There are 'kitchen-sink' dramas. And then there are kitchen-sink dramas with an actual kitchen sink in them. You know things are going to get serious when you're greeted with the latter, which is the case with Matchstick Theatre's new revival of 'Leaving Home,' David French's classic Canadian drama and the first work in his seminal Mercer cycle. In director Jake Planinc's production, which premiered in Nova Scotia and is now running at Toronto's Coal Mine Theatre, the kitchen sink is prominently placed in Wesley Babcock's stylish set, depicting a modest, mid-century home in Toronto. By the end of this two-hour drama, it's piled high with filthy dishes, scraps of food and grimy cutlery — an apt visual metaphor for what has come before. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW French's 1972 play is steeped in naturalism, a portrait of a family whose relationships with each other are like a minefield embedded with latent grenades, which are triggered, one by one, over a single day. That day is the eve of 17-year-old Bill Mercer's (Sam Vigneault) shotgun wedding with his pregnant girlfriend, Kathy (Abby Weisbrot). But the story really revolves around Bill's older brother, Ben (Lou Campbell), and his fraught relationship with their short-tempered father, Jacob (Andrew Musselman), a man whose mouth moves faster than his brain. 'Leaving Home,' however, is more than its narrative. It's a tapestry of interwoven character studies. And at its centre is the mercurial Jacob. He's hurt, bitter, impulsive. The source of his anger never seems certain. Is it out of love? Or out of pure spite for his children and his wife, Mary (Shelley Thompson)? Andrew Musselman, left, and Lou Campbell in 'Leaving Home.' Barry McCluskey/Matchstick Theatre The play's naturalism is accentuated in this production by Planinc's in-the-round staging, with the audience completely surrounding the Mercers' house. But almost across the board, the performances feel miscalibrated for the intimate space. Overly broad, sometimes more fitting for a sitcom rather than serious drama, they puncture the delicate script. The actors try to do too much with French's text, which should build, slowly yet inevitably, toward its painful climax. Dialogue is over-enunciated. Scenes in the first half are played with such full-throttled intensity that the play's back end doesn't crackle with the ferocity that it should have. Moments that should zip instead feel laboured. Behind it all, French's play remains an exquisitely constructed drama. But in this latest revival, it's masked by an overpowered production.

Canadian director Dean DeBlois brings animated How to Train Your Dragon to vibrant life
Canadian director Dean DeBlois brings animated How to Train Your Dragon to vibrant life

Calgary Herald

time9 hours ago

  • Calgary Herald

Canadian director Dean DeBlois brings animated How to Train Your Dragon to vibrant life

Article content When Dean DeBlois was told that DreamWorks was considering turning the beloved How to Train Your Dragon animated series into a live-action movie, he thought that his words might come back to haunt him. Article content The Canadian filmmaker had previously told people that he was not a fan of live-action remakes. DeBlois thought he had closed the chapter on the Dragon franchise. He co-wrote and co-directed the 2010 animated original and its two sequels, turning the tale of a Viking teen named Hiccup who forms a bond with a young dragon named Toothless into a beloved and lucrative franchise. He received his fourth Oscar nomination for Best Animated Film in 2020 for the second sequel, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, and had moved on to imagining other worlds. But when the prospect of a live-action version came up, he suddenly felt very protective. Article content Article content Turning an animated favourite into a live-action film isn't new, and many have been box-office hits. But recent live-action remakes, including Tim Burton's Dumbo or Guy Ritchie's Aladdin, received mixed reviews despite being in the hands of A-list directors. The live-action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, released a few months ago, received some scathing reviews. Article content Article content 'My first response was 'OK, I'm going to eat my words,' ' says DeBlois, who was born and raised in Aylmer, Que., before attending Toronto's Sheridan College's prestigious animation program in the late 1980s. 'I had been saying that I was not a fan of this trend, and here it was happening to my movie. I felt a very protective instinct, just knowing where the heart is and knowing the characters and the world so well. I said, 'I know I haven't made a live-action movie, but would you please consider me as the writer-director? I pledge and promise to bring forward the sense of wonder and emotion that comes from that original, so it doesn't end up as yet another soulless remake.' Article content Article content It's true DeBlois did not have a lot of live-action experience – although he did make the 2007 documentary Heima, about the band Sigur Ros – but it's hard to argue with his success in the world of animation. His directorial debut, alongside Chris Sanders, was 2002's Lilo & Stitch. It received an Oscar nod for Best Animated Feature, as did How to Train Your Dragon and its two sequels. Article content The live-action version, which opens Friday, is not a scene-for-scene remake of the original, but it's closer to its source material than the 2010 original is to British author Cressida Cowell's series of children's books that it was loosely based on. Article content When Sanders and DeBlois were asked to adapt Cowell's first book, Dreamworks had already made a few failed attempts to develop a film more faithful to the book. They were given a good deal of creative freedom in interpreting the story. Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was CEO of DreamWorks at the time, gave the two filmmakers three mandates and a tight deadline of 15 months. Fifteen months may seem like a long time, but it probably seemed like a split-second when compared to the long gestation period given to most big-budget animated films.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store