Montreal: The new Luc Dionne drama series Le Bunker is one of the season’s most ambitious shoots, filming over 90 days in St. Hubert and Montreal locations, beginning the second week of March through to mid-August.

Le Bunker, a Zone 3 production for Radio-Canada, is an unusual satire where rumor and innuendo take on a life of their own among the characters who use and abuse political power. The series’ title refers to the governmental complex in Quebec City where the premier and top staff hold out, an opaque, virtually windowless structure which serves as the province’s political nerve centre.

The $10-million, 11-hour production brings together the same award-winning creative team behind the first two seasons of Omerta – director Pierre Houle, producer Francine Forest and screenwriter Dionne, a former real-life political attachee.

Leading players include Paul Savoie as a powerful financier who owns not one but two TV networks, Denis Mercier in the role of a former banker who becomes premier, and David Boutin as the bunker’s pivotal communications boss. Also featured are Raymond Bouchard, Paul Ahmarani, Remy Girard, Micheline Lanctot, Valerie Gagne, Louise Marleau as the premier’s boozy wife and Michel Dumont and Marie Brassard as competing print and TV scribes.

Le Bunker is crewed by the STCVQ. Ginette Hardy is supervising producer/PM. DOP Louis De Ernsted is shooting on 16mm film. Post-production director is Paul Dion and the art director is Normand Sarrazin. Funding comes from Telefilm Canada and CTF.

L’Empire Larouche

THERE appears to be no end in sight to writer/producer Fabienne Larouche’s masterful domination of Quebec primetime TV. Larouche first surfaced as a cowriter with La Presse columnist Rejean Tremblay on the Radio-Canada newsroom drama Scoop. She’s also penned an unbelievable 500-plus episodes of the popular feminist teleroman Virginie.

Larouche and her production house Aetios are the producers behind the award-winning Reseau TVA crime drama Fortier. The show stars Sophie Lorain in the role of the criminal profiler Anne Fortier. Lorain, recently voted MetroStar actress and female personality of the year, won the Prix Gemeaux for best dramatic actress last October and attended MIP-TV, where she and director Francois Gingras pitched the show to buyers.

Fortier, one of the few domestic dramas still originated on film, recently completed its second season, with a season-high audience rating of 2.1 million. Season three is slated to start filming early in July.

Aetios and sportscaster/screenwriter Paul Houde are in development on a big-budget drama called Faux Depart, set in the world of athletics, with sprinter Bruny Surin on board as technical director.

Larouche has also scripted Music-Hall, a contemporary drama for the new SRC season, starring the popular Veronique Cloutier (La Fureur) and Claude Blanchard. Alain DesRoches (La Bouteille) is directing, with principal photography set for mid-June.

Remarkable run

for 4 et demi

QUEBEC’S top-rated teleroman 4 et demi recently completed a remarkable seven-year run on Radio-Canada. SRC marked the occasion with a special two-hour episode preceded by a ‘making of’ highlight segment hosted by the show’s writers, Sylvie Lussier and Pierre Poirier.

Initially launched as a half-hour dramatic comedy in ’94/95, the show became a one-hour primetime locomotive for the broadcaster in the ’96/97 season, going on to average a remarkable 1.8 million viewers a week over the past three seasons (ranked number one by Nielsen Media for the week of Feb. 19-25 with a network audience of 1.94 million).

4 et demi chronicled the lives of a young couple (they move into their first apartment, a cozy four-and-a-half) played by Robert Brouillette and Isabelle Brossard, their professional careers as dedicated veterinarians, and the ups and downs of some 50-plus characters (and pets).

4 et demi was produced in-house by Radio-Canada under director/co-ordinator Christian Martineau.

INIS deadline is May 21

QUEBEC’S advanced film school, l’Institut national de l’image et du son, recently introduced a number of program changes which reduce the length of the training period while making programs more individualized and specialized.

INIS, under director-general Louise Spickler, offers two training programs – in film and television – with specialization in screenwriting, directing or production. A maximum of eight positions is available in each specialization module. The TV program runs from March to June. The application deadline for the cinema or film program, starting this coming September, is May 21.

Production is underway on seven INIS short films.

They are crewed by freelance film technicians from the STCVQ and professional advisors are attached to each production.

Projects under the supervision of producer Jean-Roch Marcotte and screenwriter Isabelle Raynauld are:

* Mathieu Arsenault’s La Pudeur, scripted by Mariana Santillan and produced by Richard Lacombe – advisor, Benoit Pilon;

* Olivier de Gaspe Asselin’s Lilith, written by Francois Lhuillier and produced by Alexandre Villeneuve – advisor, Charles Biname;

* Genevieve Poulette’s Jingle, scripted by Yannick Beaubien and produced by Alexandre Villeneuve – advisor Erik Canuel; and

* Anais Barbeau-Lavalette’s Le Vieux Cahier, written by Arnaud Bouquet and produced by Stephanie Verrier – advisor, Marquis Lepage.

The three other projects, under the supervision of producer Ginette Petit and director/screenwriter Hubert-Yves Rose, are:

* Stephane Cuierrier’s L’Eau de la pierre, scripted by Marianne Mavrakis and produced by Richard Haddad – advisor, Jean Beaudry;

* Marielle Chagnon’s Anne et Myrna, written by Simon Gravel and produced by Stephanie Verrier – advisor, Robert Menard; and

* Vincent Audet-Nadeau’s Marcel, scripted by Guy Boutin and produced by Richard Haddad – advisor, Micheline Lanctot.

For more info: www.inis.qc.ca *