MONTREAL — Quebec film star Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge will draw on his real-life training as a parachutist as he throws himself into his latest project, Les pieds dans le vide (Jumping into the Void), which began shooting in and around Montreal this week.

Directed by first-time helmer Mariloup Wolfe, Les pieds dans le vide follows the lives of three twentysomethings who test their physical and emotional limits at a skydiving center: Rafaël, who wants to become a pilot but discovers he can’t; Manu, whose mother is sick with cancer; and the soul-searching Lundo.

Lemay-Thivierge (Nitro, Les 3 p’tits cochons) plays 30-year-old Charles, who owns the skydiving center where most of the action takes place. An expert parachutist, Lemay-Thivierge is the only actor who won’t be replaced by a stuntman for the skydiving scenes, Films Vision 4’s Claude Veillet tells Playback Daily.

‘Lemay-Thivierge is acting as a technical advisor for the film. He has 3,000 hours of parachuting under his belt and owns his own center in Joliette,’ says Veillet, who is coproducing with Lucie Veillet.

Parachuting is like a fourth character in the film, explains Veillet, who spent nearly four years trying to get the project off the ground. ‘It’s an excellent metaphor. These young people are looking for the balance between the sky and the earth, and they are searching for it with an extreme sport.’

Played by rising film star Laurence Leboeuf (Les Lavigueur, la vraie histoire, Ma fille, mon ange), 20-year-old Manu ultimately falls in love with Lemay-Thivierge’s character, who Veillet describes as somewhat of a beach bum.

The $4.3-million film received financial assistance from both Telefilm Canada and SODEC, although funding didn’t come through until the third try, explains Veillet. ‘We were really committed to getting this project off the ground. We worked very hard on the script.’

Films Vision 4 came up with the film’s original idea and brought Vincent Bolduc on board to write the script. Like director Wolfe, Bolduc is best known in Quebec as an actor; Les pieds dans le vide is his first feature as screenwriter.

Despite his relatively inexperienced writer/director team, Veillet is confident in his film. ‘Mariloup has proved herself. She has directed shorts and commercials. Her vision is both esthetic and emotional. I’m very happy to have her on board.’

Les pieds dans le vide is distributed by TVA Films and will be released in the summer of 2009. The shoot wraps Aug. 1.