Montreal: Filmline International is assembling its most ambitious feature film slate to date, with unconfirmed reports American movie legend Marlon Brando and director Yves Simoneau will shoot the $20 million suspense film Free Money on location this summer in Montreal.

Filmline president Nicolas Clermont says it’s too early to discuss details but negotiations on Free Money are well underway.

More immediately, filming starts this week in Montreal on This Is My Father, an official $13.5 million Canada/Ireland coproduction, with six additional weeks in Ireland through to July 27. A period romance coproduced with Hummingbird of Dublin, the film features the prominent filmmaking Quinn brothers, Aidan, Declan and Paul.

Paul Quinn will direct from his own screenplay, with Declan (Leaving Las Vegas, Kama Sutra) the film’s cinematographer and Aidan (Michael Collins, The Assignment) costarring with James Caan, John Cusack and Irish actor Stephen Rea.

Filmline opened its ’97 production slate with two features, Noose (working title) and The Peacekeeper.

Shooting wrapped May 31 in Boston on Noose, a contemporary us$11 million story set in that city’s Irish ghettos, with Ted Demme directing. An American production, the film is a coventure with Spanky Productions of New York, Demme’s company, and Ph’enician Films of Los Angeles. Cast includes Dennis Leary, Martin Sheen and Jean Triplehorn.

The Frederic Forestier action film The Peacekeeper, a $16 million feature starring Dolph Lundgren, Michael Sarrazin and Roy Scheider, is currently in post-production in Montreal.

TV plans

On the tv side, Clermont and Montreal producer Louise Gendron are developing the 13-hour Radio-Canada primetime series Reseau, based on a Rejean Tremblay screenplay. Tremblay’s credits include Scoop, Le Masque and Paparazzi. The production is earmarked to shoot this fall.

In addition to an unspecified mow slate for ’97, Filmline and France’s Gaumont are also shooting the sixth season of Highlander, The Series. Filming is taking place entirely on location in Paris (Vancouver in past years), with the Canadian share of the budget pegged at $5 million.

Filmline was acquired by Malofilm Communications early last fall. Malofilm recently announced a name change to Behaviour Communications.