Montreal: u.s. director Steve Robman is filming the biographical, three-hour abc miniseries Audrey Hepburn, with rising talent Jennifer Love-Hewitt (Party of Five, Can’t Hardly Wait) as the legendary English actress (1929-1993). Shooting goes from April 13 to May 29 on the us$7 million production, with Kay Hoffman producing and l.a.-based Robert Greenwald Productions exec producing.

The miniseries takes in the period from 1935 in Belgium where Hepburn was born to 1960, opening on the set of Breakfast at Tiffany’s in 1960. In flashbacks, the story returns to her youth, and to London where she was accompanied only by her mother, and later to Holland where they mistakenly seek refuge from the advancing German panzers.

‘She wanted to be a ballerina, that was her ambition, and unfortunately it didn’t happen. She kind of fell into acting by mistake,’ says Irene Litinsky, the miniseries’ line producer and pm. Hollywood comes calling by the early 1950s during Hepburn’s performance in the New York stage play Gigi.

‘We also deal with the film [Hepburn] shot in Africa with Sister Luke when she really found her passion in helping children,’ says Litinsky (Waking the Dead, Revenge of the Land). ‘After the ’60s, she did three or four other films but really devoted her life to unicef.’

Hepburn’s filmography includes Sabrina, My Fair Lady and Roman Holiday, for which she won an Oscar.

Craft credits on Audrey Hepburn go to production designer Jean-Baptiste Tard (Doris Duke Story), dop Pierre Letarte (Revenge of the Land, Dangerous Minds, Dieppe), sound recordist Patrick Rousseau and Genie-winning costume designer Renee April (The Red Violin). Rosina Bucci of Elite Productions is handling casting for close to 80 roles. The crew is stcvq.

*NFB’s ‘diversite culturelle’ opening

The ‘Societe et Sciences’ studio of the French Programme of the National Film Board is looking for young, visible minority filmmakers who wish to become directly involved in documentary film production.

Winning candidates are likely to have a genuine interest in developing a career in the documentary form, a couple of authoritative references, at least one year’s experience in film or tv production, and last but not least, an original point-of-view project proposal.

The pitches – including curriculum vitae, ‘motivational’ cover letter and the summary project description – should be directed to the studio’s ‘diversite culturelle’ coordinator before 5 p.m., March 19.

Veteran nfb producer Eric Michel heads up the Society and Sciences Studio. The allocation for the new filmmakers’ program is estimated to be in the $300,000 range.

*Amerique Film maps future

Like many other young, and not so young, Canadian movie producers, Amerique Film’s Martin Paul-Hus is pushing hard to develop new ways of financing domestic and coproduced feature projects.

In Paul-Hus’ case, he’s optioned a highly filmic Canadian literary property, Barbara Hodgson’s 1995 novel The Tattooed Map, and is currently looking for a distributor for The Furnace, a feature coproduction on the life and times of legendary Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein.

Published by Raincoast Books in Canada and Chronicle in the u.s., and translated in Spain, Germany, Italy and France, The Tattooed Map is a richly illustrated story of Lydia, a Vancouver woman who travels to North Africa where she discovers the mysterious marks on her hand have transformed into a sort of netherworld mapping spread across her entire body.

Both informed travelogue and post-feminist relationship diary, the story assumes an air of mystery when Lydia suddenly vanishes after being seen in the company of an older Moroccan man. When friend Chris realizes the man in question is known to have disappeared over 40 years ago, he embarks on a journey of self-examination and a search for Lydia in a place that may not exist.

Paul-Hus says he’s discussed the $3-million project with a couple of name Canadian directors, including Yves Simoneau (Free Money, 36 Hours To Die), and is currently looking for a coproducer for the design-driven story.

A participant at the recent IFFCON ’99 International Film Financing Conference in San Francisco, Paul-Hus says the project was the ‘buyers’ best pick’ following the Jan. 15-16 group/private pitch confab.

Other Canadian types who also showed up on iffcon panels included indie film boss Charlotte Mickie of Alliance Atlantis Communications, Clark Peterson of l.a.-based Behaviour Worldwide, and veteran doc distributor Jan Rofekamp of Films Transit International.

As for The Furnace, pitched as ‘the rise, fall and fatal redemption of Russian master Eisenstein (The Battleship Potemkin, Alexander Nevsky, Ivan the Terrible), it’s being developed as a coproduction with Adventure Pictures of London, Eng., producer of the saucy duplicato costume drama Orlando and Tango Lesson.

Montreal director Renny Bartlett (Dulan, Artikos) is scripting this Faustian tale with a little help from Canada Council, British Screen and the European Union’s media fund.

There’s interest in a rights acquisition by a Canadian distrib, according to the producer, who hopes to film on location in Mexico and the Ukraine later this year.

Amerique Film has produced several low-budget movies with first-time filmmakers including Olivier Asselin’s La Liberte d’une statue, voted best Quebec feature way back in 1991; Isabelle Hayeur’s La Bete de Foire; Isabelle Poissant’s drama La Fabrication d’un meurtrier, shot here and in Romania in 1996; and Hayeur’s soon-to-be-delivered, low-budget sci-fi feature Les Siamoises, distributed by Cinema Libre.

*Gabrielle Roy, fest favorite

A major winner at the past Banff Television Festival and the ACCT-Quebec Prix Gemeaux awards, the Lea Pool biographical doc Gabrielle Roy is in line for even more prizes this spring as part of the official competition at Montreal’s International Festival of Films on Art, March 9-14, and Toronto’s Hot Docs! showcase, May 5-9. The film is also on the program at the ‘Printemps du Quebec en France, edition ’99’ extravaganza.

A tribute to one of the truly compelling pioneers of contemporary Quebec literature, Gabrielle Roy is composed of dramatizations, readings and archival footage including interviews with the writer herself and noted biographer Francois Ricard, publisher Alain Stanke, novelist Carole Shields and former students and friends.

Gabrielle Roy is a Quebec/Manitoba coproduction between producer Phyllis Laing of Winnipeg’s Buffalo Gal Productions and Ian Boyd (Films de l’Ile) of Montreal’s Productions de l’Impatiente. Boyd says a fall theatrical release is anticipated.

*FCTVM salutes five

The Montreal chapter of Women in Film & Television/Femmes du Cinema de la Television et de la Video a Montreal will pay tribute to five outstanding industry women at its first-ever annual gala, April 22.

The honorees are director Manon Briand (2 Secondes, Cosmos), film and legit director/writer Denise Filiatreault (C’t’a ton tour, Laura Cadieux), Cinar vp live-action, production and development Patricia Lavoie (Lassie, Wimzie’s House), Emmy and Genie Award-winning costume designer Nicolette Massone (Margaret’s Museum, Big Bear) and Cite-Amerique president Lorraine Richard (Emporte-moi, Eldorado, Marguerite Volant).

fctvm president Ian Fichman says, ‘We’re putting women on center stage who are not only accomplished in their careers but who have also generously shared their knowledge by encouraging the professional development of other women in our industry.’

The March 24 entry in fctvm’s cocktail-hour ‘Knowledge is Power’ series takes a close look at the tres hot international coproduction scene, with Cinar vp and legal eagle Marie-Josee Corbeil among the invited speakers.