Montreal: Remstar Corp. has signed an exclusive two-year output deal for Canada with Interlight Entertainment of Los Angeles and announced plans to move into production and production financing.

Maxime Remillard, cochair of Remstar and responsible for the 18-month-old company’s production and financing operations, says $15 million in new financing is available immediately.

Remstar says it will finance its own productions and coproductions as well as third-party projects.

‘We see there’s a potential in the Canadian market, and with the subdistribution office we are going to open in Toronto, we’ll have a window on production in English Canada,’ says Julian Remillard, president of Remstar Distribution and cochair and company owner with brother Maxime.

‘It’s a significant amount of money but we are going to be careful, select high-profile product and work with experienced people,’ says Maxime Remillard.

Remstar intends to acquire a production company.

‘We are in the process of building ties with Europe because we think astronomical sums of money are going to be invested in English-language feature films by the Europeans,’ says Julian Remillard. ‘So that’s the next market.’

‘The Toronto office will have two functions, distribution and [acquisition], because we want to have good relations with producers,’ says Maxime Remillard.

The company is currently negotiating a lease for its Toronto office.

Remstar’s strategic plan is to become a studio/resource facility for producers, drawing production through financing and distribution, as well as creative and day-to-day operational services including office space in the company’s building in Old Montreal.

The output deal with Nile Niami and Patrick Shoi of Interlight includes Russell Mulcahy’s Resurrection, starring Christopher Lambert and currently shooting in Toronto; The Patriot, a $35-million feature starring action hero Steven Segal; Justice, with James Belushi and Cathy Moriarty; and Too Tired To Die, featuring Mira Sorvino and Takeshi Kaneshiro.

‘We should get four to six films a year [from Interlight],’ says Julian Remillard.

The company also has an output deal with Montreal producer Claude Leger of Transfilm, which includes Remstar’s biggest acquisition, the $45-million historical feature drama Grey Owl.

New product from Leger includes Laszio Papas’ Inside Job, Georges Fodor’s Southern Cross and Allan Goldstein’s Home Team.

Remstar expects to release 10 to 12 films in Quebec theaters this fall and winter including two Canadian films, Jean-Pierre Lefebvre’s Aujourd’hui ou jamais and Michka Saal’s La Position de l’Escargot.

Also on the program, two films from Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Le Silence and La Pomme, Daniel Calparsoro’s La Femme Assassin, Carlos Sauras’ Petit Oiseau Solitaire and Christophe Ruggia’s Le Gone de Chaaba (The Kid from Chaaba).