Singer-songwriters Chantal Kreviazuk and Raine Maida (Our Lady Peace) have partnered with producer Amy Green (Sam’s Lake) to form ARC49 Entertainment.

A boutique film and television production company based in both Toronto and Los Angeles, it will develop and produce projects in which original music is a major component.

ARC49’s first project is musical feature film Mental, based on Canadian stage play Mental: The Musical, written by Fiona Hogan and Courtney Kramer. Catherine Streeter adapted the screenplay from the stage book, and Kreviazuk and Maida wrote the original music and lyrics for the project.

Green, Maida and Kreviazuk will produce, with Justin Hogan (Climate Refugees), who produced the stage play, exec producing.

Green tells Playback that she and Kreviazuk first connected over their appreciation for films with memorable music, like Magnolia and Reality Bites. After also meeting with Maida, the three started discussing storytelling through music and film. The ideas lead to forming the professional partnership, and taking on Mental, which Green had been thinking about optioning, as their first project.

Kreviazuk and Maida will both produce and guide the musical aspects of ARC49 projects, with Green producing.

Also on company’s development slate is an untitled project in which Kreviazuk and Maida will both star and write music for, along with other scripted and unscripted TV projects.

And Green says the company is open to projects from outside.

“In addition to the original projects we are creating together, we are of course open to collaborating with other producers and writers. Character-driven stories with challenging and inspiring themes tends to be what we respond to the most,” she explains.

While they haven’t met with distributors yet, Green says they will start doing so during the Toronto International Film Festival next month.

Based in both Canada and the U.S., the trio say they can look to both sides of the border for collaboration.

“As both recording artists and songwriters, we have great working relationships with other talented writers such as Dan Wilson and Windy Wagner, Tawgs Salter among others who we will be able to collaborate with on our projects,” Kreviazuk and Maida tell Playback.

“I just have to say, it’s amazing how many Canadians live in L.A. We all have relationships on both sides of the border, and enjoy maintaining those in person as much as possible,” says Green.

Photo: From Contact Music