James Farr Upped As ‘Age Of Samurai’ Maker Cream Productions Expands Team With ‘Ghosting With Luke Hutchie And Matthew Finlan’ Exec

Jesse Whittock
·2 min read
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EXCLUSIVE: Canada’s Cream Productions has made some changes to its development team.

Veteran exec James Farr has been promoted to Executive Vice President of Development, and will lead a team comprising former Blue Ant Studios producer Zachary Frank, who has joined as Vice President of Development, and Jane Churchill-Smith, who has been upped to Director of Development.

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Farr’s expanded role at the Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan producer will see him creating and developing programs for broadcast and cable nets, with a focus on true crime, history, pop culture and paranormal.

In a decade-long spell at Cream, Farr is credited with developing the likes of Netflix series Age of Samurai, CNN’s History of the Sitcom, ABC series The Game Show Show and History Canada’s The World Without Canada. He also worked on shows such as ID’s Murder U and Fear Thy Neighbor, as well as Discovery+/Travel Channel series Eli Roth: A Ghost Ruined My Life.

He’ll continue to report directly to Cream CEO David Brady and President Kate Harrison Karman. Frank and Churchill-Smith will report to Farr.

Frank was most recently at Blue Ant, where he oversaw the development of CrimeTime’s A Secret To Die For served as executive producer for Ghosting with Luke Hutchie and Matthew Finlan for CBC Gem. In an earlier spell at Cream of nearly a decade, he developed the likes of Fear Thy Roommate, Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life, Discovery’s I Got Lucky and ID limited series BTK: A Killer Among Us (ID).

Churchill-Smith began her career at Cream as a researcher on History of the Sitcom and has risen through the ranks at the development team.

“For well over a decade, James has been integral to Cream’s success and building our reputation for memorable content,” said Brady. “He’s an incredible developer with a keen eye for story and a steadfast dedication for unique access and IP. “We are excited to welcome Zachary back – he’s a longtime collaborator with strong roots in true crime and the ability to find and chase incredibly unique stories. We can’t wait to see his dynamic ideas come to life.”

All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs maker Cream Productions recently launched An Optimist’s Guide to the Planet with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau on Bloomberg, debuted The Game Show Show on ABC, and dropped Season 2 of Eli Roth Presents: A Ghost Ruined My Life on Discovery+. It also produced the Roth-directed feature film Thanksgiving for Sony Pictures and Spyglass Media Group.

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