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'Going to be a really fun ride': Allan Hawco ready to start shooting new series

'Going to be a really fun ride': Allan Hawco ready to start shooting new series

Newfoundland actor, writer and producer Allan Hawco is pumped to start work on his next project — a CBC Television series based on a book by fellow Newfoundlander Lisa Moore.

"I'm really excited," Hawco told the St. John's Morning Show Friday. "I've been prepping for two-and-a-half years … we start shooting Monday."

The series Caught is based on Moore's 2013 novel of the same name, which was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Set in 1978, it follows drug smuggler David Slaney, who breaks out of prison to do one last drug run, in a futile attempt to shake his past and set himself up for a new life.

Hawco plays Slaney. Paul Gross (Due South, Passchendaele) plays Patterson, the police officer on his tail. Tori Anderson (No Tomorrow) is also part of the cast.

"It's a super sexy plot. I think it's going to be a really fun ride," said Hawco, who is also a writer on the show. "It just kind of grabbed me, and the characters took me. I knew we had to do it."

Following his work on shows like Republic of Doyle, about a father and son detective team in St. John's, and Frontier, set in the rough-and-tumble world of 18th-century fur trading, Hawco admits that crime and smuggling are subjects "in my wheelhouse."

But writing a script based on a book is a new challenge.

"This is my first adaptation as a writer, so it was interesting to see what translates for the medium of televison."

Hawco said Moore has given him free rein to make the project his own, through his production company Take the Shot.

He's excited to be working with other Newfoundland writers Adriana Maggs (Grown Up Movie Star) and Perry Chafe.

Caught will be part of the CBC-TV lineup during the winter of 2018, but an exact air date has not been announced.