‘Yaga’: HBO Max Europe, Foxtel & Sky New Zealand Are Latest Buyers Of Crave Drama Series

EXCLUSIVE: The buyers keep lining up for Yaga, the upcoming Canadian drama series featuring Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams.

HBO Max in Europe (excluding the UK and Ireland), Foxtel in Australia and Sky New Zealand have acquired the Crave series from distributor Sphere Abacus. The deals closely follow AMC Global Media snapping up U.S. rights and Sky taking the UK and Ireland.

The series comes from Bell Media-owned Crave, Blink49 Studios and Front Street Media, with Bell’s UK-based sales house Sphere Abacus shopping it internationally as both a four-part hour-long series and in eight-part half-hour format.

The series stars Williams, Carrie-Anne Moss, Clark Backo and Noah Reid, and is based on Kat Sadler’s play, which reimagines the myth of Baba Yaga as a contemporary mystery thriller. Sadler serves as writer and showrunner.

Yaga follows Rapp (Reid), a private investigator who arrives in a small coastal town to investigate the disappearance of a young heir to a powerful fishery, Henry Park (or Williams). He finds himself at odds with an apprehensive local detective, Carson (was Backo), a charismatic university professor with a taste for younger men, Katherine (Moss), and a labyrinth of enigmatic suspects, secret lives, and ancient magic.

Also starring are Sheila McCarthy, Megan Follows, Ezra Franky, Patrick Gilmore, Katharine Isabelle, Hiro Kanagawa, Emilija Baranac, Georgia Acken, Anisa Harris and Sam Krochmal. David Frazee and Rachel Talalay are the co-directors and Mackenzie Donaldson, Andrew Miller and Moss are the exec producers. Charles Cooper is producing.

“We’re seeing a fantastic response across major territories for this unique series. Yaga is a brilliant example of a genre-defying, high-energy production – with an incredible cast,” said Hana Palmer, Sphere Abacus’ Head of Sales. “Combine these attributes with the exceptional credentials of Bell Media, Canada’s premier media and content company, we look forward to announcing further global sales in the weeks to come.”