MONTREAL: Actor/director Jacob Tierney has recruited some of Canada’s biggest stars to paint the town red in his upcoming comedy The Trotsky.

Currently shooting in Montreal, the $6.4-million film is written by Tierney and tells the tale of 17-year-old Leon, a high-school student who believes he’s the reincarnation of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky.

‘It’s about a kid growing up in a bourgeois Jewish family. But he has a French-Canadian stepmother. It’s very Montreal,’ says producer – and Jacob’s father – Kevin Tierney (Bon Cop, Bad Cop). ‘And it’s going to be hilarious. We have such incredible actors and the script is very good,’ adds Kevin, who is clearly impressed with his son’s talent.

‘I’m enjoying myself immensely,’ the successful producer says. Although the film is a comedy, he says it’s also got an auteur feel. ‘It’s stylistically interesting. It’s not as purely commercial a film as Bon Cop, Bad Cop.’

Montrealer Jay Baruchel (Tropic Thunder) stars as the wealthy and idealistic Leon, who is forced to go to public school after starting a hunger strike at his father’s clothing factory. At his new school, he’s determined to live out his pre-ordained destiny and rouse the masses to revolution.

The Trotsky is Jacob’s follow-up to his feature directorial debut Twist, a dark take on Oliver Twist that was lauded for its originality and made in 2004 when the director was only 24 years old.

A well-known actor, Tierney has appeared in This Is My Father, Walk All Over Me and St. Urbain’s Horseman.

The new film’s cast is impressive and includes Domini Blythe (More Tales of the City), Anne-Marie Cadieux (Maman Last Call), Geneviève Bujold (Dead Ringers), Colm Feore (Bon Cop, Bad Cop), Emily Hampshire (Snow Cake), David Julian Hirsh (Naked Josh), Michael Murphy (Away from Her), Jessica Paré (Bollywood/Hollywood) and Saul Rubinek (Wall Street).

The Trotsky will shoot in and around Montreal until Oct. 11. It is made with support from Telefilm Canada, SODEC and the federal and provincial tax credits programs.

The film, which will be released in the summer of 2009, will be distributed in Canada by Alliance Films and Alliance Vivafilm. International distributor is Entertainment One.