As acquisition discussions continue between Alliance Communications and distribution company Cineplex Odeon Films, Alliance chairman and ceo Robert Lantos confirms that if a deal goes through, his company’s intention is to keep cof as a separate operating entity.

‘If we do this deal, it is our intention to have cof as a second-track, or parallel operation which has its own capabilities and can thus augment our reach into the marketplace,’ said Lantos in a interview at the Toronto head office.

Alliance feels the proposed deal could mark a significant point of maturation in its 25-year history of Canadian distribution activities, allowing for the expansion of its Canadian operations while giving cof films a better shot at the global marketplace.

Adding to speculation on the imminence of a deal, Alliance’s Quebec distribution operation, Alliance Vivafilm, has been reissued its distributor’s permit from the Regie du cinema de Quebec, due in part to the appointment of former Cineplex Odeon gm of Quebec operations, Guy Gagnon, as president of Vivafilm.

‘Frankly, one of the attractions and one of the reasons we’re interested in this [deal] is because our ability to distribute more films as Alliance Releasing is limited – it’s capped,’ notes Lantos, who expects Alliance Releasing to garner about 11% to 12% of the Canadian distribution market with the theatrical release of approximately 75 films in Canada this year, including six or seven Canadian films.

‘If we were to make the deal,’ predicts Lantos, ‘the tremendous advantage for cof, and specifically the Canadian films it handles, is that those films will have the benefit of a worldwide organization that can take them to 100% of the world on a coordinated basis.’

And it is that worldwide perspective that allows Alliance Releasing’s upcoming Canadian distribution activities – which including television distribution account for between 20% and 25% of the company’s revenues – to be best described by the mantra of acting locally while thinking globally.

Lantos says that when Alliance obtains worldwide rights to a film, whether it be through production, acquisition or through financing in exchange for rights, a global release strategy is immediately developed to be tailored specifically for every film depending on Alliance’s perception of its potential.

‘The Canadian distribution of a film doesn’t happen in a vacuum,’ says Lantos, relighting a seemingly endless cigar. ‘We strategize how to handle the world on a film, which will determine how we handle Canada. To do Canada in isolation is quite frankly to the detriment of the film.’

When Alliance acquires worldwide rights to a film, Lantos says, some of the questions that Alliance distribution execs ponder include deciding which territories should be presold and which should be held until a u.s. deal with a distributor who will give the film a strong campaign is in place, thereby adding more value.

Another important territory for any film Alliance feels could do well on the festival circuit is France. ‘Whenever we think Cannes is a serious contender in the life of a film, we put our French deal in place first before we do anything else,’ says Lantos, who feels there are three or four French distributors who have enough moxie with the Cannes Film Festival to give a film maximum exposure and a shot at a prize. ‘These French distributors can work the press there, which has a lot of influence on the jury.’

In the u.k. territory, Alliance has its own distribution operation (Alliance Releasing), which will likely be bolstered this year by three unnamed pictures from Company Films of which Alliance owns one-third. Alliance has a first-look deal with the u.k. prodco, headed up by the former bbc one-off drama chief George Faber, and will retain worldwide rights to the films on the Company slate.

‘We are putting more effort into building up our British distribution business because that’s a way for us to further compete with the giants [the seven major u.s. studios] we compete with,’ Lantos explains.

‘The more territories in which we can self-distribute the films, the stronger we become. Britain is our current laboratory and in due course we may expand further into other countries.’

Lantos says that while other Canadian distributors seem focused on keeping up with Alliance, his intention is to steer his company in a direction to compete with the u.s. majors, which currently account for 85% of the Canadian market, worth roughly $1.5 billion a year.

‘To submit to the idea that our market is the 15% left over by the seven giant conglomerates is an extraordinarily colonized state of mind,’ he says.

Among the upcoming films from Alliance Releasing are the Norstar pickup Regeneration, which will open in a limited July release; Air Bud: Golden Receiver, which will score a wide release in Canadian theaters Aug. 14; and the Alliance production of Strike (formerly The Hairy Bird), in wide release Aug. 28.

Lantos says David Cronenberg’s $31-million futuristic thriller eXistenZ will open wide sometime between February and April ’99 in conjunction with the u.s. Dimension (Miramax) release.

‘It’s a big-budget movie,’ he says, ‘and the marketing for that movie is tailored to its size. It is not going to have the same pattern as The Sweet Hereafter; we are not going to go slow with it. We think you don’t make a movie of that size without having a shot at a wide audience.’

Some smaller films on the ’98 Alliance distribution slate include the Cannes Director’s Fortnight entry Babyface, the $300,000 budgeted Jack and Jill, and Robert Lepage’s next directorial effort, No. Quick to point out Alliance’s continuing support for Canadian film, Lantos says his company has invested $155 million in Canadian features over the years.

Alliance also recently picked up the worldwide rights to Tricia Fish’s New Waterford Girls, a coproduction between Halifax’s Imagex and Toronto’s Sienna Films that will shoot this summer in Atlantic Canada.

Quebec operation Vivafilm, has restructured since the Regie withdrew its permit in December ’97, when Alliance motion picture distribution president Victor Loewy moved from Montreal to Toronto.

Recently named Vivafilm president Guy Gagnon is one of four appointees to a new board. The other members are Emergence International producer Louise Gendron, Productions La Fete vp Kevin Tierney and Patrice Theroux, exec vp worldwide Motion Picture Distribution with Alliance Communications.

Vivafilm employs 25 at its downtown Place Ville-Marie offices and has been active in the Quebec distribution market for more than 25 years.