Montreal: Filming began Aug. 28 and goes through to Nov. 9 on the Productions Videofilms dramatic miniseries Jean Duceppe: L’Homme de theatre. Duceppe is one of the giants of modern Quebec culture and a pioneer in theatre and television. The company he founded, Compagnie Jean Duceppe, continues to showcase its productions at Place des Arts.

The six-hour miniseries from director/producer Robert Menard (Le Polock, Cruising Bar) and producer Claude Bonin (Omerta III, Dr. Lucille), marks a welcome return to drama for broadcaster Tele-Quebec. In recent years, the broadcaster’s drama commissions have been limited to tele-theatre or stageplay adaptations. Extended drama on Tele-Quebec goes back a decade or more to series like Bombardier and Desjardins.

The story from screenwriter/associate producer Claire Wojas chronicles Duceppe’s youth (he was raised by his sister), his teen and young adult years in vaudeville, and his subsequent rise to prominence as a self-made man and an outspoken figure on radio, TV (La Famille Plouffe) and in theatre.

Leading players include Paul Doucet as Duceppe, Suzanne Clement as his wife, actress Helene Rowley, and Sylvie Drapeau as the legendary actress Denise Pelletier. Blaise Tradif, Genevieve Neron, Josee Beaulieu, Frederick Degrandpre, Denis Lavalou as the still very active Jean-Louis Roux, Denis Lamontagne in the role of Gratien Gelinas and Sebastien Delorme as writer Marcel Dube are part of the huge supporting cast, many of whom play famous Quebec show business personalities, living and deceased.

Pierre Duceppe, Duceppe’s son and one of the characters in the miniseries, is a well-known industry figure and senior manager with Covitec/Technicolor.

Duceppe is being shot over 54 days on 35mm film by DOP Daniel Jobin. Francois Lamontagne is the art director and Valerie Allard is the PM.

Duceppe is budgeted at $925,000 an episode, with funding from Telefilm Canada, SODEC and the CTF Licence Fee Program. Tele-Quebec will broadcast in the fall of 2002.

Menard and Videofilms are also preparing a six-hour follow-up to Gemeaux-winning drama Chartrand et Simonne, also commissioned by Tele-Quebec.

Price shoots Summer

DIRECTOR/producer Phil Price of new prodco Philms is shooting his first feature, Summer, a story compared to John Hughes’ evocative teen films from the 1980s – a slice-of-life drama about friends fresh out of university forced to deal with their impending futures.

Leads include Montreal talent Amy Sloan, Michael Ribenfeld, Joe Cobden and Karen Cliche. DOP John Ashmore is originating on 35mm film. Oliver Sasse is doing the music, which includes great pop acts like Bran Van 3000, Moist, turntable artist Kid Koala, Miguel Graca, Jaffa and Skyjuice.

The 22-day shoot is budgeted at just over $500,000, with a surprise $200,000 ‘award’ coming from Telefilm. Price won’t reveal the name of the film’s Canadian TV rights buyer and says he’s negotiating theatrical and foreign sales.

The young filmmaker has an upbeat take on the market. ‘Summer is a Canadian film that won’t feel too ‘Canadian.’ Everything about it is Montreal, except that it is geared to a general North American audience and that it will be diffused, marketed and blitzed throughout the continent.’

It’s Laughter in the Dark for Cardinal

Producer Roger Cardinal (My Lost Daughter, Au Nom du pere et du fils) has started the search for a production office for the feature film Laughter in the Dark, an adaptation of the Vladimir Nabokov novel.

The film is a contemporary black comedy from L.A.’s Magellan Filmed Entertainment and producers Michel Shane (Rennie’s Landing) and Anthony Romano. Leads include Alfred Molina (Chocolat). Gregory Mosher is directing.

Cardinal, an established director, has known Shane for many years and was instrumental in bringing the production to Montreal. He will serve as the movie’s producer in charge of production. Eric Nish has signed on as PM, and Cardinal says all the shoot’s key department heads and crew will be Quebecois. Filming is slated to go over seven weeks later this fall. An Oct. 15 start date was pushed back until actors’ schedules have been ironed out.

Shane is one of the exec producers on the upcoming Steven Spielberg film Catch Me If You Can, a DreamWorks Pictures production starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Notices for Au Hasard

More news from the digital indie filmmaking front in the form of Au Hasard l’Amour/Love on the Run, a 55-minute ‘Nouvelle Vague’-style mini-feature from first-time director Stephane Gehami and producer Julian Ferrera of Ferrescope Productions.

A lyrical story about a young filmmaker’s search for love, the film preemed at the Montreal World Film Festival, later screened at the Cinematheque Quebecoise, and has received seven international festival invitations to date. It’s also slated to air on Tele-Quebec.

Marie-France Marcotte (Tribu.Com), Alexis Jolis-Desautels (Tag, Deux Freres) and Julie Le Breton (Watatatow) star. The musical score, including a string quartet recorded directly to hard disk, is by Robert M. Lepage and Petter Molvaer.

Au Hasard was shot for a modest $60,000 in mini-DV and digitally posted at Global Vision. Montage Metaphore’s proprietary film-look treatment (powered by Softimage DS) removed the edge and electronic texture associated with analog and digital video formats, helping to create a professional-level look, says Ferrera. Predictably, ‘not a single dollar went to lawyers, nor accountants nor bankers,’ says the producer.

With his new calling card in hand, Ferrera attended the Toronto International Film Festival looking for financing on two feature projects, a film noir entry called Shallow Creek and a contemporary thriller called Digiteyes.