montreal: Producer Roger Frappier and distributor Pierre Latour are loosening the ties that bind with the goal of expanding their business opportunities.

Frappier has opened a new uptown office and sold his 50% interest in export company Max Films International to Latour. Latour has changed the name of his wholly owned domestic film distribution company from Max Films Communications to Film Tonic.

Latour, distributor of films such as Denys Arcand’s Love and Human Remains, Francois Girard’s Thirty-two Short Films About Glenn Gould and Micheline Lanctot’s Deux Actrices, says the new arrangement opens the door to new business with other Canadian feature film producers, including domestic and foreign distribution of projects produced in Toronto.

Tonic recently acquired distribution rights to Fish Tale Soup, an Actuality Films/National Film Board feature from Toronto director Annette Maagard.

Latour and Frappier have been partners since 1988, teaming up with producer Pierre Gendron for the release of Arcand’s Jesus de Montreal.

Frappier will continue to produce features through his own company, Max Films.

Frappier told Playback he has a variety of feature projects in development, including English-track movies. He says the split with Latour is the result of a need for a wider range of back-end options.

‘I have increased my production capacity, and because we shared different visions on distribution, it will be easier for me if our new projects have an expanded access to distributors,’ he says.

Frappier adds he and Latour will continue to do business together on a project-by-project basis.

Both Robert Menard’s $3.2 million feature L’Enfant d’eau, coproduced by Frappier, and Pierre Gang’s $2 million Le Sous-sol, a Max Films feature currently in production, will be distributed by Tonic. ‘It shows there are no hard feelings,’ says Frappier.

Latour says Tonic will ‘concentrate on the domestic and international distribution of a limited number of quality Canadian films.’

‘Foreign film is a difficult market, because quite simply more u.s. indies, not the majors but companies like Sony and Miramax, are buying up North American rights and fewer good films are available,’ says Latour.

In the past year, Frappier has spent a fair portion of his time in Los Angeles, and says he’ll have a full development slate in place by the fall.

In foreign distribution, the two former partners chalked up an enviable track record.

Arcand’s Love and Human Remains has earned just over $800,000 in u.s. theaters after three months of limited release, and earned close to $1 million at the box office in Germany, according Latour. The film’s u.s. distributor, Sony Pictures Classics, has confirmed bookings through to November.

Girard’s Thirty-two Short Films About Glenn Gould has been sold to 20 countries, earning over $1 million, while u.s. box office receipts for distributor Samuel Goldwyn Company are pegged at $2 million.