CANNES — Jennifer Weiss and Simone Urdl of Toronto’s The Film Farm will produce Atom Egoyan’s next picture and the two next pictures from Brian De Palma. The duo produced Egoyan’s Cannes competitor Adoration, which screens here on Friday, and De Palma’s 2007 title Redacted, and also coproduced, with Danny Iron of Foundry Films, Sarah Polley’s Oscar contender Away from Her.

Egoyan’s feature, based on his original screenplay, will also be produced under the director’s Ego Arts Films shingle, though the budget will be much larger this time around. Speaking in Cannes exclusively to Playback Daily, Urdl estimated a budget in the $15-million to $20-million range.

‘The plot involves the Seven Wonders of the World, so you can just imagine the travel budget,’ she added.

The first De Palma title will be Print the Legend, an Iraq war drama in the same style and purpose of Redacted: re-engaging the truism that the first casualty of war is the truth. In this case, the plot will echo the experience of Private Jessica Lynch, the young American soldier whose own story of capture and escape was itself a casualty. Pentagon spin masters painted a picture of a battle bravely fought, but the actuality was later revealed to be far different. Weiss says the budget will likely be between $5 million and $10 million.

The second, yet to be titled, is a political thriller with a budget between $15 million and $20 million.

The triple coup comes as the producers, partners since 1998, revealed they are the grateful recipients of a private equity development fund backed by Toronto-based Aver Media LP, the go-to company for interim and gap financing for Canadian producers headed by Brad Sherman and ex-Alliance Atlantis exec Peter Sussman.

Weiss says the new money is ‘tremendously encouraging,’ as it comes from people ‘who expect to make their money back.’ The development money, she says, will make the company more nimble, by allowing the pair to acquire projects without having to wait for funding deadlines as well as opening avenues to participation in non-Canadian-content projects. Both principals are quick to say they still want to work with Canadians.

Says Urdl: ‘It just will be nice to have more options.’