Sunshine Coast born and bred actor David Paetkau has just landed the lead in CTV's new dramatic series Whistler, set to air in March.
The hour-long, 13-part drama presents the story of the seemingly perfect world-class mountain resort that is the Mecca to elite athletes from all over the world.
"But when a local snowboarding legend returns from the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics with a gold medal, only to be found dead on the slopes, it sends shockwaves through the community," said a press release from CTV.
Paetkau plays the gold medallist Beck McKaye who dies in the first show, but makes numerous appearances in the next 12 episodes through flashbacks.
"It's a bit of a murder mystery and there are a lot of flashbacks while they're trying to figure out what happened. I come back as a somewhat ghostly figure," Paetkau said from the filming studio in Langley.
This dramatic series will be backed by the biggest production budget ever for such a show in CTV's history and producers are forecasting great things.
"I feel great about Whistler. It's the first Canadian series I've ever done and it's put together really well. The writing is great and it's a pretty risky, cutting edge kind of show," Paetkau said.
However, he knows the public can be tough to please, which was driven home after he saw the demise of the last series he worked on, LAX. It was cancelled after just seven shows. "That was really sad. It seemed like a great opportunity with a lot of promise. We had Heather Locklear, which we thought was a lock, no pun intended, and everyone was preparing for our lives to change. Then we found out it was cancelled seven episodes in," he said.
Since LAX's demise Paet-kau has worked on CSI Miami and the sequel I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer. He got the lead in Whistler almost by accident.
"I came back from L.A. for Thanksgiving and I was flying out Monday evening. My agent got me an audition for this part on the Monday afternoon. I didn't know much about it but I went in to audition. I got the call a couple of weeks later saying I got the part," Paetkau said.
He's thrilled with the opportunity and says he really likes his character Beck.
"Beck's a cool guy. He's a homegrown kid who made it to the big time," he said.
That description may fit Paetkau as well if Whistler is as big a hit as hoped.
"We'll have to wait and see," he said.
