Montreal: It’s quickly becoming Montreal’s premiere production house for Anglo thrillers. On May 25, JB Media started production on its tenth MOW, a $4-million feature called Over the Edge, starring Laura Leighton (Melrose Place, The Sky is Falling) and Canadians Al Goulem (Silent Night) and Frank Schorpion (Monica la mitraille).

Director Richard Roy (Cafe Ole!) is helming this 18-day Canadian shoot, produced in association with the U.K.’s Cypress Point Production and Power Television of California. JB Media’s Jean Bureau and Stephen Greenberg are serving as executive producers, along with Gerald W. Abrams of Cypress Point and Justin Bodle, CEO of Power. Bureau and Josee Mauffette are producing.

‘Thrillers with a female lead have been very successful, as a formula, with viewers around the world,’ says Bureau (View of Terror, Nightwaves). ‘We’ve built that brand and we have international recognition in that genre… Our films are always prebought and paid for before they’re made.’

And why, exactly, is it such a winning formula?

‘Both men and women like to see an attractive woman in the lead, triumphing over some adversity,’ explains Bureau. ‘They’re stories about female empowerment.’

The collaboration will be the first in a slate of JB Media movies to be produced in association with Power, including three more to go to camera this year. Next up will be False Pretenses, scheduled for a July shoot under director Jason Hreno (Wicked Minds), followed by Deadly Isolation and Child of Mine. JB Media and Power will partner on five more films in 2005, although details are pending.

Over the Edge is an original script from American writer Duane Poole. It’s about a divorced single mom, Leighton, who nearly kills a stranger in a late-night traffic accident. The stranger (Goulem) becomes obsessed with revenge and stalks Leighton’s character and her 13-year-old son (Daniel Magder of Guilt by Association).

Over the Edge is being shot on film in Montreal, near the Lachine Canal, on Nun’s Island and near the Mirabel airport. JB Media uses a strict 18-day shooting schedule for its MOWs. ‘The 18-day shoot is a challenge, but, at the end of the day, directors know that their film will be seen in primetime, worldwide,’ says Bureau.