Montreal: The new owner of Avanti Cine Video, one of Quebec’s most successful primetime program suppliers, has plans to break into the English-language market in the near future. ‘I would like to try a pilot or a coproduction next year,’ says Luc Wiseman, Avanti’s president and ceo. Asked if he’s open to partnering with a Toronto producer, Wiseman says, ‘No problem.’

Avanti series are consistently among the top 10 in Quebec primetime. In this fall’s bbm sweeps, Avanti had an unprecedented three series in the top 10 – the sitcom Un Gars, Une Fille, the Jean Beaudin miniseries Willie and repeats of the zany Claude Meunier sitcom La Petite Vie.

Wiseman recently bought out partners Jean Bissonnette and Jean Claude L’Esperance for an undisclosed sum, and now holds 100% of Avanti’s shares.

Launched in 1989, the house has annual top-line production revenues of between $12 million and $18 million a year. Production this year is in the order of $16 million to $17 million.

Avanti has so far refused all offers of private investment. ‘I’m not interested for the moment, but it doesn’t mean we won’t at some point in the future if we want to go more international or develop more in the English market,’ says Wiseman.

Avanti’s impressive 2000/01 production slate includes the Radio-Canada sitcoms Un Gars, Une Fille (22 half-hours) and Catherine, the variety show L’Ecuyer (26 one-hours) and the game show Detecteurs de Mensonges (160 half-hours).

Format business

Format seller Michel Rodrigue of Distraction Format recently sold Detecteurs to Finland. Un Gars, Une Fille has been sold to France, Switzerland and Greece, with options sold to Spain, Germany and others. But Wiseman says he can’t understand why a hip show like Un Gars, Une Fille hasn’t been optioned in English Canada. src has renewed the show for next year, its seventh season.

Avanti productions on Reseau tva this season include the five-hour, $4.9-million miniseries Willie and the eighth and final season of the game show Piment Fort (160 half-hours). Shows sold to Television Quatre Saisons include the service series Fils a Papa (160 one-hours coproduced with Serdy Video), and the comedy series Les Mecs Comiques.

Wiseman says Avanti has a teleroman and a comedy show in development for tva for 2002, but no drama series in the pipeline for next season.

Avanti has 20 fulltime employees and more than 3,000 freelance employees hired this year for productions. *