form new company

Montreal: Two of Quebec’s most active producers, Louise Gendron and Claude Heroux have formed a new television production company, VideoTheme.

The new entity will produce in various media, but will specialize in video production.

Heroux (Lance et compte, Videodrome, The First Circle, Le Sorcier) remains as president of Communications Claude Heroux International and Gendron (Being at Home with Claude, Shehaweh) continues as president of Productions du Cerf.

Gendron says VideoTheme will produce $8 million worth of projects in its first year of operation, rising to $20 million over two years.

The company has also announced a long-term coproduction agreement with France’s Cipango, headed by Jacques Dercourt, one of Heroux’s regular coproducing partners.

VideoTheme’s 1994/95 tv production slate includes:

– V.J., an extended series based on a group of young people who work as video-jockeys in a pop music station. Jacques Savoie is the screenwriter. Tele-Metropole is the broadcaster.

– Maud Graham, detective, an extended series adapted from the Chrystine Brouillette novels for broadcaster Radio-Canada. Scriptwriters are Paule Turgeon and Francine Ruel.

– Parents malgre tout, a four-hour miniseries dramatizing the experience of would-be parents on the international child adoption market, scripted by Bernard Montas and Dominique Drouin. The broadcaster is Television Quatre Saisons.

– La Societe des Anges gardiens, a tv concept series in the development stage where ‘guardian angels’ intercede on behalf of ordinary people swamped by everyday challenges. LRB