A slate of international coproductions and original homegrown content are keeping revenues up at Muse Entertainment this spring.

Nonetheless, last spring’s skyrocketing loonie and then-new U.S. tax credits killed service production for the Montreal-based producer of critically acclaimed hits such as Durham County and Human Trafficking.

‘The parity with the U.S. dollar really affected us,’ says Jesse Prupas, Muse’s VP of development and distribution. ‘We went from doing 10 service productions to doing zero. We don’t want to be dependent on U.S. or British producers for our livelihood. We are focusing on developing TV series and movies that we produce ourselves.’

Prupas points to Muse’s joint venture with the Just for Laughs’ empire, aptly called Just Amuse, as an example of its original content-oriented development model: ‘We will be creating seven half-hour sitcoms and one feature,’ explains the executive.

Just Amuse is also working on the feature O’Cannabis (with Telefilm Canada support), a comedy about life in Canada following the fictitious legalization of marijuana.

Muse has always worked with Canadian creators, but Prupas says the company’s original TV movies and series also include shows for American networks such as An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving (2008) and the 2 x 90 miniseries Impact for ABC, about a meteor that hits the moon and threatens life on earth. Muse is also coproducing the thriller Unstable (for Lifetime TV and Granada Inernational), which shot in Toronto in February.

Although the U.S. networks are generous in terms of financing, it’s the Canadian Television Fund projects that are ‘the best ones financially’ for the company, says Prupas.