Quebec's $18.7 million maple syrup heist is getting the small screen treatment it deserves

TV writer Brian Donovan first heard of the Quebec maple syrup heist quite by accident.

"I was at a boring family Christmas party, just looking for anything interesting to talk about," he says. "Fortunately, my brother-in-law is Canadian, and he was like, 'Hey, have you heard of the great maple syrup heist?' And I said, 'No, but please tell me everything about it right now.' And he did. He told me all about the crime, and then he also told me about Montreal and the different mafia groups that are there, and all the fascinating things about the area."

For those of you in need of a refresher: in late 2011 and early 2012, a group of thieves conspired to steal nearly 3,000 tonnes of maple syrup worth $18.7 million from a warehouse used by the Fédération des producteurs acéricoles du Québec (FPAQ). The FPAQ is a supply management organization — sometimes called a cartel by its detractors — that sets the price of Quebec maple syrup, controlling approximately 77 percent of the global supply.

Donovan and his colleague Ed Herro have taken that story and used it as an inspiration for The Sticky, a new series on Amazon Prime Video, about a disgruntled Quebec maple syrup farmer, played by small screen legend Margo Martindale, who decides to strike back at the provincial syrup overlords with the help of a warehouse security guard and a mobster.

Herro says that's what ultimately drew them to the story was "just the underdog nature of it all."

"Ruth, our lead is an underdog in her way," he says. "Remy, the security guard, is an underdog in his way." And even Mike, the mobster, is an underdog in his own kind of secret way."

To drive that underdog story home, they've fictionalized a lot of parts of the heist.

"In many ways this is a show about labour," says Donovan. "It's about people, workers who are getting screwed over and are tired of it. We really let that guide us. And if we happened to come up, if we happened to use some things that really happened, great. But our real goal was to tell the most interesting story about these people in this universe and let the chips fall where they may in terms of how real it ended up being."

"We took some artistic liberties and made the heads of [the syrup management organization] kind of corrupt and using it for clearly wrong reasons," adds Herro. "We're not saying that is true of the real world at all… but we wanted Ruth to be put upon so she could strike back."

Herro and Donovan say that they also let the casting choices define the characters. Mike the mobster was originally supposed to be older, closer in age to Martindale, who is in her early 70s. Instead, he wound up being played by veteran Canadian character actor Chris Diamantopolous (Silicon Valley), who is only in his 40s. 

"[Diamantopolous] submitted a tape, and it was fantastic," says Herro. "Then he read with Margo, [for a] chemistry read, and it was one of the best things I'd ever seen. It was just so moving that we said, 'It's got to be him and we'll just rewrite the character a little bit.'"

Similarly, security guard and inside man Remy was written as a short man, tired of being overlooked. Instead, he's played by Jutra-award-winning Quebec actor Guillaume Cyr, who stands well over six feet tall. In both cases, the writers say their auditions were so good they had to re-imagine the character.

"It was just his energy," says Herro. "I remember him walking in this basement casting room, and he's almost touching the ceiling. But the energy, even before he started reading, was so Remy. It was so perfect. He really is a gentle giant… he's so charismatic, so gentle and authentic."

If there's one thing the pair have taken away from the experience of making the show — other than the fact that maple syrup is more expensive per barrel than oil — it's a love for Quebec, and Montreal in particular, fostered by spending a winter and spring shooting on location.

"I'm from Boston originally and it reminds me a lot of Boston," says Donovan. "The people have the same sort of hilarious chip on their shoulder. Everybody's kind of got an attitude, but it's a lovable attitude, and it's a very quirky town. And the construction is exactly the same. Like, we just have projects that go on for 15 years… it has so much personality and that seeps into the show. I mean, you shoot a location in Quebec and it really doesn't look like anywhere else, and it has its own sort of spirit and attitude."

The Sticky premieres Dec. 6 on Amazon Prime Video.