Newly-launched River Valley Films has its first feature film in development, The Folk Singer, by Alberta-based writer/director Eric Pauls.

River Valley, run by film producers Avi Federgreen and Guy Lavallee, last March heard a series of film script pitches in Edmonton.

That pitchfest has led to the acquisition of Pauls’ coming-­of-­age road trip movie about a young man pursuing his dream of becoming a folk singer.

“Going into development on a great script by one of Alberta’s hottest young writers is exactly what we want this company to be all about,” Federgreen said in a statement.

Pauls runs Hundred Million Pictures as a filmmaking partnership with Paige Bonnetta.