A sample of 1996 Quebec independent film and tv production, confirmed and otherwise, includes:

– Productions sda’s Omerta 2, a $10.4 million, 13-hour drama series that starts shooting in July in two blocks through to June ’97. In July, sda will also shoot Montagne, a Canada/France telefilm thriller penned by Pierre Billon. The company is developing international documentary series and will continue producing its established children’s programs.

– From Prisma Productions, season two of the top-rated medical drama Urgences 2; Platinum, a $20 million 13-hour pop music drama series (plus two-hour special) to be shot this fall and coproduced with the u.k./Germany and Showtime in the u.s.; and more episodes of Anna Banana.

– New at Sovimage is Lobby, an eight-hour, $6.4 million tv series from director Jean-Claude Lord (director on the Bloom Films/ Verseau International police series Jasmine) set in the nether world of political lobbyists; the 13-hour crime anthology Des Crimes et des Hommes, to be broadcast by Canal D and Tele-Metropole; and a new mystery miniseries for tqs.

– Coming up at Telefiction is the second four-hour round of the cop miniseries 10-07, to be directed by Richard Ciupka. The company has a new children’s series, Tiny Tots, 65 half-hours, and a 10-hour Canal d docu-series called Monde et Mysteres.

– At Cinevideo Plus, To the Death, a feature thriller from producer Justine Heroux and veteran director Max Fischer, is set for an August startup. Tales of the Wild 3, a series of four tv movies, is also slated for the fall, and Quest For Water, a series of four to six tv movies will be shot in the uae and coproduced with Carrere Television, Paris.

– Transfilm has Fossil Child, a $20 million-plus period adventure feature from producer Claude Leger, director/writer Pierre Magny and production designer Wolf Kroeger. The film is slated to shoot this fall in China, France, the Alberta badlands and in-studio in Montreal. Les Milles Merveilles de l’Univers, an $11.5 million Canada/ France fantasy feature coproduced with egm, and at least two other feature films and family tv series are also on the slate.

– Coming up at Cinemaginaire is Le Jour et la Nuit, a feature film coproduction with Spain, France and Belgium starring Alain Delon and Lauren Bacall. Production on the $10 million shoot starts next month in Mexico under the direction of Bernard-Henri Levy.

Other projects include Le Seige de l’ame, a feature film from director Olivier Asselin, and Le Pain des Oiseaux, a Radio-Canada mow from director Denys Arcand. Arcand is also writing an English-language feature financed and distributed by Alliance Communications and produced by Denise Robert.

– Filmline International’s slate includes Tears From Heaven, a theatrical feature film adaptation of the life of notorious American gangster Pretty Boy Floyd, slated for the fall with second unit photography in Calgary; Primal Scream, a pay-tv thriller from director Doug Jackson slated for May and distributed by Astral Distribution; and the fifth and final season of Highlander: The Series, 18 hours coproduced with Gaumont Television for a total of 106 hours. Also in the offing are two additional feature films and a new area of activity, family tv series production with European partners.

– Malofilm Productions and Rose Films are coproducing J’en Suis, a theatrical feature scripted by Marie-Josee Raymond and Claude Fournier that’s slated to shoot shortly, with Fournier directing.

Malofilm’s fall slate includes Turning Blue, a $12 million police comedy; Scanners iv, the most ambitious of the Scanners series shot by Malofilm; and The Last Chocolate Maker, a family film skedded for December. Malofilm subsidiary Desclez Productions has more episodes of the $10 million children’s series Little Star and is prepping 26 half-hours of Turtle Island, an animation series, and Mirob, a 3D children’s series.

– On tap at Verseau International is l’Ordre du Temple Solaire, a four-hour international miniseries/tv movie from writer Guy Fournier.

– Communications Claude Heroux International plans a fall shoot for Les Batisseurs d’eau, a six-hour, $4.5 million Radio-Canada miniseries.

– Telescene Communications has a healthy ’96 slate that includes four two-hour mows in the majority Canada/u.k. Jack Higgins series. The films are budgeted at $3 million each and star Rob Lowe. Shooting is slated for summer and fall. And preproduction starts in early May on Escape from Wild Canyon, a $2.4 million u.s. feature film from director Jimmy Kaufman.

– Kingsborough Greenlight Pictures has a number of features on the go including The Call of the Wild, a $5.5 million adaptation of the classic Jack London story from director Peter Svatek and producer Pieter Kroonenberg, and Jump the Pocket Sumo, a gangster/suspense comedy from director George Mihalka. Also on the feature front are Hemoglobin, Warriors of the Rainbow and The Cancer Industry.

– Stage is a new GPA Films feature from director Jean-Marc Vallee and writer Sylvain Guy, the writer/director team on the box office hit Liste Noire.

– Stock Film International’s slate includes La Ciel est a nous, a minority Canada/France feature. Producer Richard Sadler (Caboose, Louis 19) is also looking to a fall shoot for Nowhere in Texas, a feature from writer Michel Bouchard.

– acpav has two major documentaries in the works, Jean-Claude Coulbois’ Un mirror sur la scene and Suzanne Guy’s Le Pire et le meilleur de nous. acpav is also developing a new Pierre Falardeau feature film which might go in ’96.

– From Allegro Films’ spring lineup, Jackal from director Christian Duguay, distributed worldwide by Triumph Films, and Stranger in the House, a Filmo Bandito mow thriller from producer Elizabeth Gimber and director Rodney Gibbons, set for June.