Amazon teams with The Crown producer for new drama starring Alfred Molina

Alfred Molina in Three Pines

Streaming giant Amazon Prime Video has commissioned a drama series called Three Pines from The Crown producer Left Bank Pictures.

The (8×60’) series is fronted by British-American actor Alfred Molina and is based on Canadian author Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novels. Molina plays an inspector investigating a spate of murders in a seemingly idyllic village.

Production on the Canadian Amazon original series began in Montreal and rural Quebec in August and is scheduled to wrap in December. Montreal-based prodco Muse Entertainment is providing production services on the series.

The show will premiere exclusively on Prime Video in Canada, the US, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Greenland. Left Bank parent company Sony Pictures Television is handling international sales in other territories.

Three Pines is directed by Sam Donovan, who serves as lead director, alongside Tracey Deer and Daniel Grou. Deer is also serving as an Indigenous consultant, alongside Katsitsionni Melissa Fox. IllumiNative, a non-profit initiative designed to increase the visibility of Native Nations and peoples in American society, will also consult on the series.

The project is executive produced by Andy Harries, Sharon Hughff and John Phillips for Left Bank Pictures, which is producing a series in Canada for the first time. Also serving as exec producers are Donovan, Molina and Emilia di Girolamo. John Griffin is the series producer.

Three Pines is penned by Emilia di Girolamo, who was the lead writer on the adaptation, while Catherine Tregenna will write two of the episodes.

The cast also includes Rossif Sutherland, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Tantoo Cardinal, Clare Coulter, Sarah Booth, Anna Tierney, Julian Bailey, Frédéric-Antoine Guimond, Pierre Simpson, Tamara Brown, Marie-France Lambert, Frank Schorpion, Marcel Jeannin, Georgina Lynn Lightning, Crystle Lightning, Isabel Deroy-Olson and Anna Lambe.

Amazon has expanded its presence in the Canadian market this year, commissioning several projects including docuseries All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs, half-hour comedy The Lake, comedy-variety series LOL: Last One Laughing Canada and special Rupi Kaur Live.

Those commissions came after Amazon greenlit its first Canadian original, a revival of popular sketch comedy The Kids in the Hall, just before the onset of the pandemic in North America. After a year-long delay, production on the series got underway in Toronto in May.

“With Three Pines, we continue to grow our slate of local originals and overall investment in Canada,” said Christina Wayne, head of Canadian originals at Amazon Studios.

“The series will be our first locally produced scripted drama, and we are thrilled to work with Left Bank to bring these layered characters, unique setting and masterfully constructed mysteries that Louise created to Prime Video.”