The three ladies of Elite Productions really are the heart and soul of Montreal’s growing English production community.

From their seventh floor offices on trendy St-Laurent Boulevard, Vera Miller, Rosina Bucci and Nadia Rona have been casting big and small shoots since 1979. After the downturn in ’92, when they worried they might have to close shop, business has really taken off for Elite, with assignments on dozens of major feature films, mows, television series and stage plays.

Recent feature credits include Rene Daalder’s Habitat, Sidney Furie’s Iron Eagle IV, Stuart Margolin’s Salt Water Moose, Rob Allan’s Jungle Ground (the latter three for Toronto-based Norstar Entertainment), Bob Hoskins’ ground-breaking, high-definition feature Rainbow, Andy Morahan’s Highlander III: The Socerer and John Flynn’s sci-fi thriller Brainscan, shot in Montreal for Coral and Columbia Pictures.

In tv series and mows, Elite’s credits include Telescene’s Sirens; King St. Entertainment’s Boogie Diner; two Cinepix films, George Mihalka’s Bullets to Beijing and Doug Jackson’s Midnight in St. Petersburg; Lee Grant’s Reunion, shot for Robert Halmi and cbs; two films in Cinevideo Plus’ Tales of the Wild collection; and two mows shot in Toronto, Eric Till’s Falling For You, produced for cbs, and Jorge Montesi’s Bloodknot, produced for Showtime.

Miller et al have a special feeling for young actors.

They cast 50 roles in John N. Smith’s The Boys of St. Vincent, including lead Johnny Morina who had no previous experience. They also helped a talented kid named Jacob Tierney get an international career in gear eight years ago on projects like Ford: The Man and The Machine, the much-missed tv series Extra! Extra! and the creepy thriller Pin. Since then, Tierney has won big roles in films such as Castle Rock’s Josh and S.A.M. and Filmline International’s hd movie Rainbow.

Sisters Miller and Bucci and partner Rona, who keeps a pied a terre in Toronto, met 15 years ago in a theater workshop.

Casting for film and tv was a sideline 13 years ago when the ladies got their first break with a request from then-Filmline producer Pieter Kroonenberg to cast the extras on the Paul Lynch film Cross-Country.

Miller cast unknown actor Kris Holdenried in the role of Ivanhoe, and then got him a big part in Habitat, a $13 million sci-fi hd feature film currently shooting in Montreal.

‘Kris is a very talented new discovery from Montreal,’ she says.

Other local talent who scored leading roles in Young Ivanhoe include Polly Shannon and Phillippe Ross, ‘a totally bilingual actor who played the young Connecticut Yankee.’

‘Casting is strictly about the feeling and knowledge of acting talent,’ says Miller. ‘It’s not just a question of queuing up people for auditions. You have to know who is right for a specific character and present choices to the director in an organized and professional environment. It’s a big job.’

Elite cast some 40 actors in Rainbow, all roles other than the American leads, and was asked to cast about two dozen parts in Habitat.

Miller says she and her partners have never not delivered on a casting request from a producer.

‘Our talent files include every possible actor that’s working or not working in Montreal,’ she says.

Like other local casting houses, Elite is serviced by a dozen or so agents who represent an acting pool estimated at 1,000.

‘There are at least 3,000 people (in Montreal) who can play bit roles and extras. Strictly among anglophones, there are probably 500 who are serious actors. Then there are many more francophones who can work in English,’ she says.

Casting kids is a rigorous blend of art and science, says Miller, but special effects movies like Highlander III and Habitat are also big challenges.

‘Habitat is a film with a lot of special effects, so you need special people who have the right physicality about them,’ she says.

Elite cast 18-year-old Vancouver native Laura Harris (Highlander: The Series) as one of the leads in Habitat after putting in a call to Tracy Services, a Toronto clearing house for talent agents across the country.

‘Laura was sent a scene from the film and then went to the studio and did a demo tape,’ says Miller. ‘We thought she was the right person, so Rene Daalder, the director, went to interview her in Vancouver.’

Miller says Elite hopes to expand by plugging into the huge Toronto talent scene.

‘We can’t keep ourselves in just one city. There is so much talent in Toronto; we feel it’s an advantage for Montreal producers to have this information,’ she says.