Waterside Studios Finds First Challenge in ‘The Final Want of Sasha Cade’

Waterside Studios has discovered its first venture within the miniseries “The Final Want of Sasha Cade.” Created by Jacqueline Pepall, at present at work on “Horrible Histories” for the BBC, it’s based mostly on a novel by Cheyanne Younger.

Headed by Jeff Norton, who will produce, Waterside Studios is a brand new inventive content material enterprise from Canada’s Corus Leisure and a part of the Nelvana Studios group. The corporate was launched following an total cope with Norton’s IP firm Dominion of Drama.

The bittersweet story – pitched at MIA Market and billed as “All of the Brilliant Locations” meets “The Fault in Our Stars” – sees a highschool woman attempting to come back to phrases together with her finest buddy’s passing of most cancers. However Sasha retains on revealing her secrets and techniques, as Rocki begins to obtain letters written earlier than she died. Sasha, who was adopted, had a brother she by no means knew. Now, she is asking her buddy to satisfy him.

“It’s a triangle,” Pepall tells Selection in Rome, admitting she shortly embraced her protagonist’s erratic habits.

“Rocky is struggling and he or she retains making unhealthy decisions. However I need folks to go: ‘Oh, that’s a horrible concept. I might have completed it too’,” she says, admitting it was “joyful” to permit her to do issues that might scare others.

“As a lot because it’s about loss, I need it to be a enjoyable trip. I need you to observe this present and have a very good time, snort and get caught up within the salaciousness of what youngsters are doing.”

Pepall additionally misplaced her finest buddy to most cancers.

“She died two years in the past. Once I was going by it, I believed: ‘Sometime, I would like to put in writing about this.’ Everybody is aware of somebody who has most cancers. However it couldn’t be my private story. It might have been too onerous.”

“As a result of I’ve lived by that have, I wish to be certain that these scenes are depicted in an sincere approach. I might by no means need it to really feel emotionally manipulative or simply play for tears.”

She was interested in the youth of the characters, she says.

“If you end up that younger, you go from being fully bereft to driving with the home windows down, listening to your favourite tune. That’s why this story is not only about grief. It’s about friendship and all these wild feelings.”

“All of us bear in mind what it was like, being that age. Every part felt just like the worst factor ever,” provides Norton.

“However the best way Jacqueline structured it, which differs a bit from the e-book, is that a lot of the story is about transferring on. It has a really hopeful trajectory.”

Pepall and Norton aren’t planning to ship one other darkish YA present.

“To not knock ‘13 Causes Why,’ however I discovered it so miserable,” says Norton.

Netflix’s present, a few younger lady who takes her personal life, has obtained criticism for its depictions of suicide and sexual assault.

“We wish to present there’s quite a bit to life. It’s an essential message to youngsters: ‘Sure, unhealthy issues occur, however you’ll be able to at all times put one foot in entrance of the opposite.’ We’ve a duty to do this.”

“A variety of teen content material is de facto grim,” agrees Pepall.

“I wish to make a present the place, as painful as it’s typically, you continue to wish to be this character, like in [Claire Danes starrer] ‘My So-Referred to as Life,’ which I used to be obsessive about after I was youthful.”

The miniseries, prepared to start taking pictures in the summertime of 2023, is anticipated to clock in at eight episodes.

“These characters are nonetheless very younger, so we might revisit them afterward. However, coming again to the identical instance, ‘13 Causes Why’ was an ideal season of tv and actually shouldn’t have returned,” says Norton.

“We wish the viewers to really feel like they’re getting a deal with and don’t must commit years and years of their lives to it.”