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DOGWOOF AND VISITOR MEDIA PARTNER WITH CBC, ROLLING STONE FILMS AND LA CORRIENTE DEL GOLFO ON SNOW KING: FROM OLYMPIAN TO NARCO
DOCUMENTARY SERIES WILL TELL THE STORY OF OLYMPIC SNOWBOARDER
TURNED-FBI MOST WANTED FUGITIVE AND ALLEGED DRUG LORD RYAN WEDDING
LONDON, TORONTO, NEW YORK, MEXICO CITY (17 MARCH 2025) – London-based documentary specialist Dogwoof, Toronto-based production company Visitor Media, New York’s Rolling Stone Films, CBC (Canada's national public broadcaster) and filmmakers Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna’s Mexico City-based production company La Corriente del Golfo have joined forces in the development of the docuseries SNOW KING: From Olympian to Narco. The series, which draws from the comprehensive investigative reporting of Rolling Stone and the Toronto Star, charts the astonishing journey of Ryan Wedding – a former Olympic snowboarder who is now one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted fugitives, accused of running a violent, billion-dollar drug empire for Mexico’s most notorious cartel. The verité-driven documentary series takes viewers inside the hunt to uncover how Wedding transformed from national hero to alleged cartel boss and international fugitive.
The Department of State is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Wedding, who is wanted by the FBI for multiple charges, including orchestrating the murders of four people in Ontario, Canada. Since January, the team has been filming across Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., working alongside expert journalists and investigators - including Rolling Stone’s Jesse Hyde, the Toronto Star’s Calvi Leon and operatives in Mexico - as well as current and former FBI agents and law enforcement officials. Together, they trace Ryan Wedding’s shocking transformation from Canadian snowboarding prodigy into alleged drug kingpin. As the hunt for Wedding escalates, SNOW KING incorporates firsthand accounts from the people whose lives have been irrevocably changed by the crimes he and his co-conspirators have been charged with, creating a visceral, story-driven portrait of the international drug trade – and its devastating human costs.
SNOW KING is a co-production between Dogwoof and Visitor Media that is being developed in partnership with CBC, Rolling Stone Films and La Corriente del Golfo. Dogwoof senior development exec Nico Wasserman initially developed the project and is executive producer. Dogwoof CEO Anna Godas and Visitor Media President Sean O’Neill are producers. Rolling Stone CEO Gus Wenner, Rolling Stone Films SVP Jason Fine, journalist Jesse Hyde and La Corriente del Golfo’s Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna are executive producers. For CBC, Sally Catto is General Manager of Entertainment, Factual, & Sports; Jennifer Dettman is Executive Director, Unscripted Content; Sandra Kleinfeld is Senior Director, Documentary; and Michelle McCree is Executive in Charge of Production, CBC Docs. The project is the first in a multi-year development partnership between Dogwoof and Visitor Media, formed following the success of the 2024 documentary feature and CBC series Swan Song.
Dogwoof’s Anna Godas states: ”When we first came across the story last year, we instantly knew it could become an incredible series that elevates the true crime genre by going deeper into what drives people to make certain choices, much like BREAKING BAD. I also knew Sean O’Neill was the right person to develop this with as he’s truly aligned to Dogwoof’s taste and ethos, and we had a great experience with SWAN SONG.”
“This story is epic in scope, with shocking turns and devastating impacts. I’m thrilled to collaborate with Dogwoof, the CBC and our extraordinary partners at Rolling Stone and La Corriente del Golfo to create a series that’s as cinematically vital and thematically rich as it is propulsive and engrossing to watch,” adds Visitor’s Sean O’Neill.
“For more than a decade, Rolling Stone has been tracking the saga of Ryan Wedding,” said Jason Fine, SVP, Rolling Stone Films. “We are thrilled to partner with this incredible team to delve deeper and bring to screen this sensational story at the intersection of sports and crime.”
“Snow King will offer crucial insights into a stranger-than-fiction Canadian story that will no doubt capture the attention of audiences across the country and around the world. We look forward to working with our recent Swan Song partners Dogwoof and Visitor Media to bring this unbelievable personal journey to the screen,” said Jennifer Dettman, Executive Director, Unscripted Content, CBC.
About Dogwoof
Dogwoof is a London-based documentary film company integrating production, sales, and theatrical distribution. Dogwoof has released 37 Oscar-nominated documentaries, including seven winners, alongside five BAFTA-winning films. Notable titles include 2025's Oscar-winning No Other Land, 2024 Oscar- and BAFTA-winning 20 Days in Mariupol, the 2023 Oscar- and BAFTA-winning Navalny, the Oscar- and BAFTA-winning Free Solo, the BAFTA-nominated Apollo 11, and the Oscar- and BAFTA-nominated Fire of Love and All That Breathes. Other highlights include the BAFTA-winning The Act of Killing and Blackfish.
Dogwoof has been ramping up its production activities, with titles it has financed and produced including Every Little Thing (Sundance 2024), McEnroe (Tribeca 2022, Showtime and NBC Universal), The Lost Leonardo (Tribeca 2021, Sony Pictures Classics), Citizen Ashe (Telluride 2021, CNN/HBO Max), Copa 71 (TIFF 2023), and Playing with Sharks (Sundance 2021, National Geographic).
Recent titles include Oscar and BAFTA-nominated documentary feature films such as Black Box Diaries (sold to MTV Documentary Films) plus the Oscar-nominated Sugarcane (National Geographic). Dogwoof starts 2025 with the Sundance U.S. Documentary Competition title Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, World Cinema Documentary Competition-selected 2000 Meters to Andriivka, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov (20 Days in Mariupol) and One to One: John & Yoko from Oscar-winning filmmaker, Kevin Macdonald.
About Visitor Media
Visitor Media makes film, television and digital media in collaboration with visionary filmmakers spanning documentary and scripted formats. The Toronto-based production company was founded in 2020 and has since produced a series of award-winning projects, including the feature documentary Crystal Pite: Angels’ Atlas (VIFF 2022, Showcase Audience Award); the CBC Gem variety series Lido TV (TIFF 2022) and Swan Song (TIFF 2023), a feature film and four-part CBC documentary series following the creation of ballet legend Karen Kain’s farewell production of Swan Lake. Swan Song screened at TIFF, BFI London Film Festival, Lincoln Center and CPH: DOX, and won the $50,000 Toronto Film Critics Association Rogers Prize for Best Canadian Documentary in 2024.
About Rolling Stone Films
Five decades since its founding, Rolling Stone remains the leading authority in music, entertainment and pop culture, reaching a global audience of more than 60 million readers, viewers and listeners each month. Rolling Stone Films embraces and expands the mission of the publication, leveraging a rich archive of IP and original storytelling to illuminate the culture of our times, with premium documentary and scripted films, television series and podcasts. Their 2023 production, Little Richard: I Am Everything, aired on CNN/Max and won an Emmy for “Outstanding Arts & Culture Documentary”, as well as was nominated for a Grammy in the “Best Music Film” category. The team is led by Rolling Stone veteran, Jason Fine, and former HBO Max executive, Alex Dale. Other recent productions include The Fall of Diddy for Max, Supervillain: The Making of Tekashi 6ix9ine for Showtime and Rolling Stone: Stories From the Edge for HBO. In the fall of 2024, they also premiered five original short documentaries in partnership with Doc+ and XTR.
About La Corriente del Golfo
La Corriente del Golfo is a production company based in Mexico, founded by Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal, focused on films, series and podcasts. The production company’s first audiovisual projects are Chicuarotes, directed by Gael García Bernal, and released at the Festival de Cannes; the series Here on Earth, by Gael García Bernal and Kyzza Terrazas; the series and specials of Bread and Circus, by Diego Luna, which won two Daytime Emmy Awards; as well as the web series The Issue, directed by Santiago Maza; Everything Will Be Fine, directed by Diego Luna; Cassandro, starring Gael García Bernal; the series La Máquina, starring Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna and Eiza González, directed by Gabriel Ripstein; and Thesis on a Domestication, feature film directed by Javier Van de Couter, starring Camila Sosa Villada and Alfonso Herrera; and the documentary State of Silence, directed by Santiago Maza.
About Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna
Gael García Bernal is an internationally recognized actor, director, and producer. Born in Mexico, he began his career by acting in theatrical productions alongside his parents and later moved to London, where he studied at the Central School for Speech and Drama. Gael has made an indelible mark on the film industry with his performances movies such as "Amores Perros," "Babel," "Y tú mamá también," "El Crimen del Padre Amaro," "Diarios de Motocicleta," and "Coco." He has also showcased his versatility in the world of television series, standing out in "Mozart in the Jungle" and "Station Eleven," among others. Gael has also ventured into directing, with feature films like "Déficit", "Chicuarotes," as well as documentary short films like "Los invisibles". He is the co-founder and director of Ambulante, a non-profit documentary festival that promotes documentary cinema in Mexico and abroad.
Diego Luna is an actor, director and producer for theater, film and television. He gained international recognition in 2001 with the film Y tu mamá también, directed by Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón. Since then, he has participated in more than 30 films produced in Mexico, Spain, the United States, England and Germany, with directors such as David Trueba, Steven Spielberg, Harmony Korine, Gus van Sant and Woody Allen. In 2007 he directed his first feature lm, the documentary J.C. Chávez; and he has since directed the features Abel (2010), César Chávez (2014) and Mr. Pig (2016). In 2016 he had a breakthrough in the English speaking market with his role in Star Wars: Rogue One, and in 2018 he starred in the Netflix series, Narcos: México, for which he was nominated for the Critic Choice Awards. In 2022, he starred in and produced the Disney+ series, Andor, for which he was nominated for the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards in the category of best actor in a television series. In 2024, he joined the cast of Kiss of the Spider Woman, directed by Bill Condon. That same year, Diego starred alongside Gael Garcia Bernal in Hulu’s new T.V series, La Máquina, for which he was nominated to a Golden Globe in the category of best supporting actor.
About CBC/Radio-Canada
CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster. Through our mandate to inform, enlighten, and entertain, we play a central role in strengthening Canadian culture. As Canada’s trusted news source, we offer a uniquely Canadian perspective on news, current affairs, and world affairs. Our distinctively homegrown entertainment programming draws audiences from across the country. Deeply rooted in communities, CBC/Radio-Canada offers diverse content in English, French, and eight Indigenous languages. We also deliver content in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Punjabi, and Tagalog, as well as both official languages, through Radio Canada International (RCI). We are leading the transformation to meet the needs of Canadians in a digital world.
For more information:
Frances Bedford, CBC PR
