Montreal: This year’s movie slate from high-rolling producer Richard Goudreau of Melenny Productions includes La Louve, an ambitious $20-million Canada/France coproduction with Yves Simoneau signed to direct, and La Balade des dangereux, a $6-million crime-caper comedy from Les Boys director Louis Saia.

La Louve (working title, translation, She-Wolf) tells the haunting story of the legendary 18th century Quebecoise La Corriveau, accused under the Old French regime of murdering two husbands and later hung by the English.

Goudreau says La Louve, 80% Canadian, will have an international French/English cast. He has distribution offers for France and two solid offers from international sales agents. The deal calls for the coproducers to split all major territories, including France with a population of 60 million, on the same basis as the financing, effectively giving Goudreau a real shot at theatrical revenues in Europe.

The 70-day shoot is slated to start mid-August, although the location, Quebec or possibly the Czech Republic, is still to be determined.

The screenplay is by Pierre Billon and Simoneau (Napoleon, Nuremberg, Free Money). Napoleon designer Guy Lalande and DOP Guy Dufaux are also signed on.

La Balade des dangereux, a 34-day shoot starting May 15, is a Snatch-style comedy set in a criminal milieu starring popular standup comic Stephane Rousseau. Screenwriters are Stephane St-Denis and Sylvain Rate. The budget is $6 million.

Christal Films Distribution, distributor on Les Boys, will release both La Louve and La Balade, the latter during the Christmas holidays.

With the extension of Melenny’s 2001/02 performance envelope, the house has an unprecedented $7 million in reserved CFFF financing for this year’s production slate.

Goudreau says talk of a U.S. remake of Les Boys ‘is serious.’ A screenplay has been crafted – the U.S. setting will be football with ample doses of patriotism, not hockey. The producer is talking to two U.S. parties (a studio and an indie producer) about a coventure, not a rights sell-off, budgeted at over $20 million. Goudreau flew to L.A. Feb. 23 for more talks.

Goudreau is also developing Star 69, a thriller and U.K. coproduction from director Paul Hills.

Once the 2002/03 movies are produced, Goudreau says he plans to revisit the truly remarkable Les Boys franchise for a fourth film. Boys III won this year’s Billet d’Or prize ($5.3 million in box office after three months), and to date, the cumulative (Quebec only) box office for the three Les Boys films is $17.3 million.

International dealings at Pixcom

Pixcom Productions and France’s Transparences Productions and 17 Juin Media have formalized a coproduction agreement for A Species’ Odyssey, a three-hour international doc saga (including multiple shorter versions for primetime broadcast) on the origins of human beings – from the primordial savannas of Africa to the dawning of early agricultural societies some 40,000 years ago.

The $3.6-million series incorporates extensive 3D images, about 30 minutes worth, dramatic recreations and archival elements, with location filming in South Africa, Israel, China and Canada. Shooting, started Feb. 13 in South Africa, moves to Montreal next month, and finishes up in China and Israel this summer.

Presales include Radio-Canada, Discovery Canada, France 3 and the U.K.’s Channel 4. It’s Pixcom’s first deal with the important U.K. broadcaster, says producer Mary Armstrong, head of international production at Pixcom. Armstrong’s credits include Technopolis, licensed by Discovery and Canal D, and the international HD series Insectia.

Dominique Champagne, senior editor at Quartzz, a division of Pixcom International, will travel to France to edit the French-language version. Visual and sound post-production in English will be done in Montreal. Delivery is for late 2002.

Pixcom is also in production on Performance, a $2.5-million, 13-hour doc series on the science of sports, also licensed to Discovery and Canal D, an Astral Media specialty channel. Funding sources include Telefilm Canada and the Licence Fee Program.

‘International is really taking off,’ says Armstrong. ‘We’ve just hired Chantal Bowen to line produce Odyssey and Donna Barton [line producer] for Performance.’ Nicola Merola is director of presales and distribution.

Using a lacy bra as a pitch prop at last month’s RealScreen Summit in Washington, D.C., Armstrong garnered favorable reviews for a 10-hour factual series project called The Secret Science of Everyday Things. Developed with the support of Discovery Canada and Telefilm, the series examines the lesser unknown realities of stuff like lingerie, cosmetics, glass, cardboard, rubber and poisons.

A team of 20 engineers and technicians with Pixcom International, including company president and founder Jacquelin Bouchard, spent five weeks in Salt Lake City providing technical broadcast services for the 19th Winter Olympics to France 2 (France Television) and Eurosport. It’s Pixcom’s fourth Olympic performance, following Atlanta, Nagano and Sydney. The company’s international technical division launched in 1994 when it provided the World Cup of Soccer feed for TF1 from Dallas, TX.

Pixcom produces a wide range of Quebec TV shows such as Les Choix de Sophie, Fred-Dy, ID Maison and the high-tech mag La Revanche des NerdZ, broadcast on Z.

Upcoming film action

Upcoming STCVQ film action includes Tag…l’Epilogue, a Zone3 sequel to Radio-Canada’s gritty street-side youth drama series Tag. Francine Forest is producing and Pierre Houle is the director. Shooting goes from April 8 to late June.

Producer Iain Paterson of VTruth Productions and director Bryan Spicer are in town to shoot the ABC pilot Veritas. Michael Joy is the production designer. Jean Bouret is art director. B.C.-based Joel Ransom is the DOP and Pierre Laberge is PM. Veritas shoots from March 14 to April 18.

Kekchi Films Productions and French director Pierre Aknine are in town March 9-20 to shoot Jean Moulin, a TV movie/miniseries on the legendary French resistance figure. The film’s producers, Jean-Pierre Guerin and Veronique Marchat of GMT Productions, Paris, are coproducers on the $55-million miniseries Napoleon, produced in Canada by Claude Leger of Transfilm in association with A&E Networks. Director Yves Simoneau and cast, Gerard Depardieu, John Malkovich, Christian Clavier in the title role, Isabella Rossellini and Canadian actors Jessica Pare and David La Haye, filmed in various Quebec locations over a few short days last month, including Yamaska Park, which stood in for the snowbound battlefields of Russia. Remstar Distribution has Canadian rights.

Bernard Emond’s (La Femme qui boit) second feature 20h17, starring Luc Picard, starts seven weeks of filming March 25. Bernardette Payeur of ACPAV is producing. Real Chabot is supervising producer/PM and J.P. St-Louis is the cinematographer. Andre-Line Beauparlant (Mariages) is the art director.

And director Ziad Touma and Couzin Films are tenatively slated to shoot the low-budget feature Saved by the Belles early this spring.