Montreal: With Bon Cop/Bad Cop, Montreal producer Kevin Tierney (Varian’s War) is hoping to unite Canada’s two linguistic solitudes at the box office. Touted as the first time a Canadian film will be ‘completely bilingual,’ the murder-mystery and cop-buddy flick will attempt to ride the current wave of success in Quebec’s film industry across language lines.

A Park Ex Pictures/Sortie 22 Production to be released next summer by Alliance Atlantis, Bon Cop/Bad Cop is the brainchild of popular Quebec actor Patrick Huard (Au nom de la loi). The story starts when a corpse is discovered lying halfway between the Ontario-Quebec border. A sophisticated Ontario cop (Colm Feore) teams up with a hardened Montreal lawman (Huard) to solve the crime. This, says Tierney, will allow for both the action and the comedy that the cop-buddy genre film demands.

Tierney doesn’t deny he has high hopes for the $8.1-million production, slated to complete its 33-day shoot in Montreal on Nov. 1.

‘Quebec has been doing very well lately, in terms of attracting large audiences to the cinemas,’ he notes. ‘We want to get English Canadians in to see this movie as well.’

Upping the Canadiana quotient, the officers eventually learn that the crime is hockey-related.

‘If there are two things French Canadians have an opinion on, it’s hockey and English Canadians,’ says Tierney. ‘If there are two things English Canadians have opinions on, it’s hockey and French Canadians.’

Erik Canuel (Le Dernier tunnel, Le Survenant) directs, joined by DOP Bruce Chun and production designer Jean Bécotte. Bon Cop/Bad Cop will also feature Rick Mercer as a badly dressed, loud-mouthed hockey broadcaster, as well as Gilles Renaud (Gaz Bar Blues) and Lucie Laurier (La Grande séduction).