Montreal: Marina Orsini and Karl Pruner star in the 10-hour Productions La Fete tv series L’Or, an international saga of gold fever, a small Quebec producer and rich Chinese investors and their impact on an isolated rural community.

The series is scripted by Michele Allen (Lobby) based on an original idea from Andre Petrowski. The director is Jean-Claude Lord.

The 75-day, digital video shoot opened in Montreal last month with additional photography in rural Abitibi, and moves on in October for 10 more days in Shanghai, with a wrap set for Vancouver Oct. 26.

La Fete’s Rock Demers, who’s producing the $9-million series with Pierre Gendron (Quadra, Jasmine), met the show’s Chinese service supplier The Paradise Film Group, an exhibition, distribution and production company, during one of his many trips to the Far East.

Demers says it’s a service deal because ‘we don’t quite have the same terms of reference for a coproduction’ – namely, a treaty coprod would have required a 20% minority financial investment.

L’Or’s cast includes Normand D’Amour, Alyssa Labelle, France Castel, Dino Tavarone, Michel Dumont, Jean-Marc Parent and Annie Dufresne.

Financing on L’Or comes from broadcaster Radio-Canada, Telefilm Canada, the Canadian Television Fund Licence Fee Program and La Fete.

In other news, La Fete has launched a ‘new wave’ of its Tales For All collection of family movies.

First up is My Little Devil, which premiers at the Montreal World Film Festival, Aug. 25 to Sept. 4. The film is a coproduction with the National Film Development Corp. of Mumbai, India, and was shot in India by director Gopi Desai. The leading player is Om Puri (East is East, Such a Long Journey).

Next one up is Roger Cantin’s La Fortresse suspendue. The Cantin film is financed with support from sodec, and is slated to begin shooting on location in Montreal at the end of the month.

‘We plan to produce 10 new Tales for All over the next three years. The films will be 100% Canadian and coproduced,’ says Demers. The new series will have a per-film average cost of $3.5 million.

La Fete Group animation subsidiary Mimosa and veteran children’s producer Henri Desclez are in the late stages of production on 26 half-hours of Turtle Island, a series developed by Desclez prior to the takeover by Malofilm, and subsequently Beaviour. The show is budgeted at $10.5 million and is licensed in Canada by Canal Famille, with a minimum European guarantee from Ravensburger. Delivery is slated for late October.

Industry veteran Demers says he’s in fine form, and hasn’t felt as fit in many years.

*Goldstein shoots Dorian

Allan Goldstein (2001 – A Space Travesty, Maximillian Glick) is directing the Cinema 4 Films Canada/u.k. coproduction Dorian, a contemporary feature film reworking of the Oscar Wilde classic, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Set in the high-fashion and literati world of New York’s rich and infamous, Ethan Erickson (The In-Crowd) plays Dorian to Malcolm McDowell’s deal-making devil.

Cinema 4 is a joint-venture partnership between Luciano Lisi (Island of the Dead) and Christine Kavanagh of A-List Productions and Goldstein and Charmaine Carvalho of new production house Danger. Harry Allan Towers of Towers of London is the u.k. coproducer.

Remstar Distribution has Canadian rights. u.s. rights remain open, while Germany has been presold to Tele-Munchen Gmbh. Quantum Entertainment of l.a. is handling international sales.

Dorian is budgeted at us$4 million and films over 22 days through to Aug. 19.

*Preproduction action

Projects in prep for starts this month and early September include the Taurus 7 Film Corp. feature Love Story from director Julie Dash and producer Claudio Castravelli. It shoots from Aug. 21 to Sept. 16.

The u.s. prison drama/tv movie Atikka shoots here on location from Aug. 21 to Sept. 21, with Daniele Rohrbach producing and Euzhan Palcy directing. The dop is Johnny Simmons. Francois Lamontagne is the art director.

New stcvq film action includes the Spelling Television Quebec series All Souls, a Muse Productions service shoot from exec producers Stuart Gillard and Mark Frost. Muse’s Irene Litinsky (Audrey Hepburn, Waking the Dead) is producing. Gillard is the director, Tom Burstyn is the dop and Collin Niemi is the designer.

Litinsky’s busy agenda this season includes the $4.7-million Canadian tv movie The Hound of the Baskervilles; the tv movie Cut to the Heart, a service deal for Odyssey Network and Hallmark Entertainment; and All Souls, a six-hour tv series budgeted at us$1.6 million per hour.

Quatre Par Quatre producers Joseph Hillel and Luc Dery begin filming Aug. 28 on director/dop Andre Turpin’s latest feature J’ai un crab dans la tete. A highly mobile crew will film over 40 days through to early November. Film Tonic is the distrib. Broadcast licencees for the $1.7-million movie include Radio-Canada and Tele-Quebec.

Quatre Par Quatre also produced Philippe Falardeau’s La Moitie gauche du frigo, which is set to premier at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Sept. 7-16.

Blackwatch Film Productions producer Kimberley Berlin and exec producer William Mariani have several tv movie projects in prep through to early 2001, including Life in the Balance, slated to start principal photography at the end of August. Adam Weissman is directing. Bruno Philip is the dop and Donna Noonan is the production designer.

A Films Atomic entry, The Growing Pains Movie, shoots here from Aug. 14 to Sept. 12. Alan Metter is directing for exec producers Jim Green, Allan Epstein and Mark Bacino. Andre Rouleau is supervising producer and Yves Belanger (The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne) is the cinematographer.

The Productions Thalie feature La Ciel sur la tete is the story of a young blind girl and her experiences in the tiny Quebec village of St. Armand. Screenwriter Genevieve Lefebvre and Andre Melancon are codirecting. Filming takes place from Aug. 7 to Sept. 15 with cinematographer Thomas Vamos on board. *