Mel’s Cite du Cinema took two big slices of the Quebec studio pie over the holidays, inking a deal to buy Cine Cite Montreal and the Ice Storm Studio in nearby St. Hubert.

Both facilities went on the block late last year when the previous owner Groupe Moliflex-White applied for bankruptcy protection – at which point court-appointed trustee PricewaterhouseCoopers went looking for buyers. The deal, through which Mel’s affiliate Locations Michel Trudel will take over all assets of Moliflex-White and its subsidiary Productions Luc Dussault, including both Montreal-area studios and the companies’ production and video equipment divisions, was announced Dec. 24. No price was disclosed.

Cine Cite has six stages totaling 159,350 square feet, and recently hosted shoots for Timeline, Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension and Rollerball, but has struggled to draw business to suburban St. Hubert, some 25 minutes from downtown Montreal, on the unfashionable side of the river. Cite du Cinema CEO Mel Hoppenheim has been critical of the location, but president Michel Trudel recently said the site could be better suited for long-term TV shoots.

Cite du Cinema now has 23 soundstages, further securing its position as the major studio owner in Quebec and one of the biggest operations in the country. The company recently hosted the Halle Berry thriller Gothika, the disaster pic The Day After Tomorrow and Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator.

-www.micheltrudel.tv

-www.cinecitemontreal.com

Sean Davidson