In this survey story, Playback interviews five prominent Quebec film and TV producers, among the busiest in the business this season. Topics range from the need to explore new strategies, good and bad coproduction news from Europe, Canadian programming and the tightening TV market in the U.S.

Distrib coup for Turbulence

Max Films producer Roger Frappier has signed an important coproduction and distribution deal with French producer Luc Besson for the new Manon Briand feature La Turbulence des Fluides. The producer says what’s important is that Besson’s Europa Distribution will distribute the film in France.

Besson’s Europa Corp. is only in for 10% of the $6.2-million production budget, but Frappier says Besson’s company is committed to investing in the distribution.

‘The problem with Europe isn’t doing the movie, it’s finding a distributor willing to put in the effort, backing and money. And with Europa, we know they will take good care of putting the movie on the screen.’

Frappier traveled to Paris many times to discuss Briand’s script. Europa is managing the film’s sound post-production. ‘We also have a French actress, Julie Gayet, a rising star and fantastic actress.’

Frappier says all the European producers who read the screenplay wanted to coproduce. ‘So for the first time in my life I had a choice. The others were great producers, but the difference [in addition to the distribution deal] is that I’ve known Pierre-Ange Le Pogram, Luc Besson’s associate, for 10 years.’

Frappier (Love and Human Remains, Le Declin de l’empire americaine) estimates that Europa Distribution is second only to Vivendi Universal in terms of leverage in the French theatrical market.

Besson’s (Le Grand bleu, Nikita, Taxi) latest, the Jet Li/Bridget Fonda action film Kiss of the Dragon, which he wrote and produced, drew more than 500,000 admissions in France in its first week of distribution early this month.

‘If this experience goes well it will be important for the future of Max Films,’ says Frappier. ‘Our link with Europe is becoming even more important, on the English side also, but on the French side it has always been more difficult, and for us it’s important to open doors and see the future in a different way.’

Turbulence is being shot by one of the top DOPs in the business, David Franco (3000 Miles to Graceland, The Whole Nine Yards). ‘David is really incredible. It’s the first time we’re working together. We came close to working together on Briand’s first movie 2 Secondes, but finally he wasn’t available. I would say about 80% of the movie’s [setups] are exteriors, and so there is a lot of work and balance to be done,’ says Frappier.

Richard Comeau (Maelstrom, 2 Secondes) is the picture editor. Digital visual effects are being produced under the supervision of Richard Ostiguy (L’Ange de Goudron) of Voodoo Arts. Covitec/Technicolor is handling lab duties. Le Pogram and Luc Vandal of Max Films are also producing.

Frappier is the only producer with four films on the CFFF reserved envelope list (La Vie Apres l’Amour, Maelstrom, Matroni et Moi, 2 Secondes). ‘I am interested in producing in English but it has to be the right film,’ he says. ‘If it’s a good film with the right subject in English then there’s greater capacity to penetrate foreign markets. But it’s not necessarily because a film is in English that it opens [the right] doors.’

Briand’s Turbulence is primarily set in Baie Comeau where for some time the seas have been stilled, and fears of an earthquake abound. The film’s dense narrative deals with subjects as diverse as love and high technology, the paranormal and human destiny. The young filmmaker’s 2 Secondes won the Air Canada Award for most popular film at the Montreal World Film Festival in 1998. Other credits include the MOW Heart: The Marilyn Bell Story.

Turbulence stars Pascale Bussieres as an investigating scientist, Gayet as friend Alice, Jean-Nicolas Verreault and Genevieve Bujold. Aslo featured are Jean Pierre Ronfard, Gabriel Arcand, Norman Helms and Suzanne Garceau.

Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm is distributing in Canada and internationally. Europa Corp. has France, Switzerland and Belgium.

Turbulence is being shot over 42 days on location in Baie Comeau, Montreal and Toyko for a week. Filming wraps in the third week of September.

Coproduction tightens

Michael Prupas, president of Muse Entertainment Enterprises, says coproduction is an excellent way to access funding for content projects with some Canadian control. ‘The challenges of qualifying projects for coproduction status seem to be getting a little heavier each year,’ he says. ‘There are both content and financing issues. British coproduction used to be more flexible in terms of content and now the British authorities are looking to ensure the amount of [U.K.] money spent on British [content] elements is equal to the amount of financing brought by the British parties.

‘On the TV side, I have been disappointed this year by the lack of receptiveness by U.S. broadcasters to some of the projects we’ve developed. There seems to be an increasing desire on the part of American networks to tell [only] American stories and wave the American flag,’ says Prupas.

Muse and Dupuis Films of Paris are coproducing Largo Winch (13 episodes at $16 million). Paramount Television International is the international distrib. The broadcaster in Canada is Global Television. Exec producers are Leon Perahia and Prupas. Creative exec producer is David Patterson.

Coming production includes The Investigation, the story of the RCMP investigation of serial killer Clifford Olsen, to be directed by Anne Wheeler and coproduced with Alberta Filmworks and Jamie Brown of Studio 8 in London, Eng. It just opened prepro in Calgary and is licensed by CTV. The budget is $4.4 million, with financial support from the CFRN Fund (CTV) in Alberta.

Savage Messiah, to be directed by Mario Azzopardi, is based on a script by Sharon Riis. It’s the story of the murderous cult leader Roch Theriault. Broadcasters include Showcase Television, Series+, The Movie Network and Super Channel. The budget is close to $4.2 million. Muse Distribution is selling both MOWs internationally.

Muse and German partners are also coproducing the $20-million family fantasy The Neverending Story.

Muse’s top-line production activity this year is in the order of $125 million, approximately $75 million in content production. Service clients include CBS, USA Network and a new project called The Color of Water, a big-budget MOW for ABC.

On the recent suspension of production on the 13-hour series University, Prupas says, ‘If you don’t have a champion of your project inside the network [in this case Hallmark Channel] you end up becoming an orphan.’ Prupas isn’t sure what lies ahead for the project, but says the four filmed episodes will be posted and pitched to Canadian broadcasters, hopefully as a pilot for series programming.

One of the difficulties with Canadian TV, he says, is the lack of notion of ‘pilot.’ ‘We work with network executives, we revise scripts, we struggle with the government agencies to get our funding together, but we don’t check out [what’s going to air] with audiences.’

High tide at Transfilm

Transfilm and producer Claude Leger (Quest For Fire, Agaguk) are having perhaps their busiest year ever with five international coproductions in production or preproduction. Aggregate budget for the copros is more than $130 million, including the $55-million, eight-hour historical drama Napoleon.

‘We have 30% of Napoleon and so we are minority [in financing], but we are majority in terms of creation,’ says Leger. ‘Yves Simoneau is the director. Guy Dufaux and the entire camera team are Canadian. Editing [Yves Langlois] and the music [Richard Gregoire] is Canadian. And we have seven or eight [Canadian] actors in there, too.’

Leger says coproduction is the most likely way for Canadian producers to finance bigger-budget projects with international potential, but in many instances the creative participation by the minority partner is strictly limited, which is not the case with Napoleon.

The shoot moves from Europe to Quebec in October for three weeks, on location and in studio at Mel’s Cite du Cinema, as well as a couple of days in New Brunswick. ‘Canada lends itself very well as a stand-in for the Russian countryside,’ says Leger.

Napoleon, starring Christian Clavier in the title role, John Malkovich, Gerard Depardieu and Isabella Rossellini, has been licensed by A&E Networks in the U.S., Kirchmedia in Germany, France 2 in France and RAI in Italy.

The other coproductions at Transfilm are:

* The Jacob Berger road movie Aime ton pere, budgeted at $9 million and starring Gerard Depardieu. Coproducers are Splice Factory of the U.K. and GMT Productions, a subsidiary of powerful Hachette media group.

* The late 17th century drama L’Enfant des lumieres, a three-hour TV miniseries starring Nathalie Baye. It’ll shoot next month in France, England and Canada.

* Polyesterday, a $14-million Canada/U.K. coproduction between Transfilm and Richard Sadler of Montreal’s Film Stock International and the U.K. It’s described as a thriller with funny, sexy and violent relief. Tim Roth is directing. It’s slated to be shot entirely in Montreal later this fall, and the producer promises a cast of many Quebec and English-Canadian actors.

Earlier this summer, Transfilm wrapped shooting in Montreal on Heist, a $20-million extreme-action story directed by Gerard Pires. The financing is French, but the film was shot in English.

Transfilm is also developing (for 2002) the $25-million prehistoric adventure Ada. The project, inspired by the Paul Ohl novel L’Enfant fossil, is set one million years back in time and will be directed by Pierre Magny. Leger says it will require coproduction partners and international financing.

The Favorite Game

‘Leonard Cohen wished us good luck and gave us carte blanche [on The Favourite Game],’ recalls Michel Ouellette, producer at Montreal’s Cine Qua Non Films, where he has a 50% interest in the production company with director Bernar Hebert. ‘We bought the rights to adapt his book, The Favourite Game, in 1995, and he just visited the set last Sunday to give his blessing.’

Filming on The Favorite Game started July 19 and wraps with a two-day shoot in New York at the end of August. The film stars Vancouver actor J.R. Bourne and Michele-Barbara Pelletier as the romantic leads in Cohen’s coming-of-age tale about a writer torn between his first love, pursuing Bohemia and buckling down to practice his craft.

‘Leonard didn’t want any input in the film,’ says Ouellette. ‘Other producers, someone in Toronto, tried to adapt the book before, but the option expired.’

Cine Qua Non has invested in the $3-million production along with Telefilm Canada, SODEC and distributor Film Tonic.

The biggest challenge, says Ouellette, was adapting the novel itself. ‘There are too many ideas in the book about life and love to do a literal adaptation. You can’t cover them all. Bernar wrote a few drafts and then decided to focus on topics of artistic inspiration and the writer’s fascination with women.’

International distribution is still open.

‘We own the rights, so our company is also investing,’ says Ouellette.

Ouellette and Hebert opened Cine Qua Non in 1982. Hebert is best known for his audacious film Le Petit Musee de Velasquez (1994), featuring Quebec dance sensation La La La Human Steps. His last collaboration with Ouellette was Immortal Soul (1999), about Beethoven, for A&E and Bravo!.

Louis Fournier, youth and animation president at TVA International, says there’s a significant market correction underway in the kids business.

‘The market conditions are such that you need to be aligned with something big, and right now the biggest problem is that offer outstrips demand.’

Fournier says consolidation in the U.S. has created what is ‘basically three big players’ that have in-house capability and keep getting bigger – AOL/Time-Warner, which controls Cartoon Network and Kids WB; Viacom, which controls Nickelodeon and MTV; and Disney, which controls ABC’s children’s block and the newly acquired Fox Family (and Fox Kids Worldwide).

‘That leaves few very few players and very few doors to knock on in the U.S. You have PBS with its logjam of preschool shows and Discovery Kids in a more limited fashion.

‘When you look at coproduction, at Europe, the picture is not that rosy either,’ says Fournier. The German market has few outlets for kids shows, and German broadcasters aren’t prebuying. U.K. kids coproduction is limited to 10 to 12 (largely preschool) projects a year, and Fournier says producers need to be on the ground in the U.K. to maximize financing.

‘From year to year you have about 25 projects [with France – TF1, France 2 and France 3, and M6] commissioned for coproduction. I don’t know how many players there are in France, but there are way too many producers. There’s too much offer for the real demand, and the French tend to produce for less money these days.’

At least the biggest corporate players don’t have a monopoly on creativity and marketable ideas, he says.

TVA, which operates distribution and youth/animation divisions, is in the midst of an extended transition period as it considers the options of selling and/or developing new strategic partnerships.

New production at TVA includes the animated series The Boys, budgeted at $325,000 an episode and sold to France’s M6 and YTV, and Bell Flower Bunnies, four half-hours based on a book series and minority coproduced with Proteca, a subsidiary of TF1 International. A U.S. partner, Feature Films For Families, has telemarketing rights. ‘We’re talking about doing more of those,’ says Fournier.

TVA and France’s Ellipse Anime are coproducing 26 half-hours of the 3D animation series Xcalibur, with negotiations underway for 14 more episodes. YTV is the Canadian broadcaster. TVA has Canadian and U.S. rights on this ambitious series.

TVA is a minority partner on the 3D motion-control animated sci-fi feature film Axis (formerly Gaina), in partnership with French producer Chaman, Studio Canal and Japanese players. TVA will distribute this $11-million ‘teen’ property in Canada (voice-overs by Anjelica Huston and Richard Harris), with negotiations with various U.S. ‘mini-majors’ underway.

‘It’ll be a better story than Final Fantasy,’ says Fournier. *

WITH files from JOANNE LATIMER.