ORILLIA PLAYS STARRING ROLE IN NEW COMEDY/MYSTERY SERIES

FOUR-PART SERIES FEATURES A LOCAL 'EXPERT' HOSTING A TRAVEL SHOW AND A DETECTIVE

The Sunshine City was rarely sunny when Jake Horowitz and Andy Lewis set out to film a comedy/ mystery series in Orillia last October.

Not that the show's cocreators were complaining.

Overcast skies provided an ideal mood-setter that viewers of the hit drama "Ozark" are likely to find familiar.

"A lot of people think the show is darker than it is, because we made it all kind of look eerie and ominous,"

Horowitz told Simcoe.com. "It plays on Sunshine City, because it was not sunny once the entire time we were shooting."

Currently available through Bell Fibe TV on demand or online, Sunshine City is a four-episode series that centres on the filming of a travel show about the charming lakeside community of Orillia.

Cast and crew soon discover the local 'expert' hosting the show "actually doesn't know that much about Orillia, is getting all the information wrong, doesn't even know how to say the name of the town properly," Horowitz said.

Added to this is a detective who circles the set for answers to an unresolved case, with all involved soon becoming immersed in a mystery.

"It's, at times, very silly and also equally very emotional,"

Horowitz said.

The writer, director and producer splits his time between Toronto and Orillia,

where his production company, Sideways Dog Productions, is based.

He made his directorial

debut with the 2019 romantic comedy "All About Who You Know," followed a year later by "Cup of Cheer," a well-received spoof of Hallmark's notoriously cheesy Christmas movies.

Both were filmed in the Orillia area.

Horowitz's latest offering not only names the city explicitly, but it honours the strong sense of community spirit Horowitz has come to appreciate during his time filming here.

"A lot of the show is just about community and everybody helping each other out to make a better place to live," he said. "That's certainly why we keep filming in Orillia, why we're based in Orillia — we couldn't do any of this without the entire community always helping out and always being so supportive."

Horowitz hopes to shoot a second season in summer or fall.

To watch the Sunshine City trailer, go to https:// youtu.be/4fupfws2kjM