Yet more evidence of consolidation in the Canadian distribution sector with news Alliance Atlantis Releasing nationally and Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm in Quebec will handle theatrical and video/DVD release and marketing for all Remstar Distribution films effective in early 2003. Remstar will continue to acquire 10 to 12 films a year. Upcoming Remstar titles to be contracted through AAV include French director Gerard Pire’s Steal and Bob Rafelson’s No Good Deed, co-ventured by Remstar and starring Samuel L. Jackson and Milla Jovovich.

Remstar, under president Maxime Remillard, will concentrate on production.

After a period of uncertainty, the house is in preproduction on the pre-WW II romance drama Head in the Clouds, starring Penelope Cruz, Natalie Portman and Hugh Grant. The majority Canada/U.K. coproduction shoots in Paris this month and moves to Montreal for six more weeks of filming in early February.

In other Canadian distribution news, Alliance Atlantis has renewed it output agreement with Focus Features, a specialty films unit of Universal Pictures. The deal covers all media in Canada through to Dec. 31, 2005.

New product from Focus includes Todd Haynes’ Far From Heaven, Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s 21 Grams, starring Benicio Del Toro and Sean Penn, and Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, to star Jim Carrey.

Playback has also learned acquisition offers are under review for control of distributor Film Tonic, majority-controlled by Montreal entrepreneur Daniel Langlois.

In other news, Canada’s federal Competition Bureau has dropped a two-year-old investigation into allegations the country’s two largest exhibitors, Famous Players and Cineplex Odeon, colluded to deny first-run studio product to independent movie chains. The formal complaint was filed by Montreal-based Cinemas Guzzo and other parties.