Le Pacte has hopped aboard Quebec director Daniel Roby’s biopic Villeneuve: Rise Of A Champion about the early years of Formula One legend Gilles Villeneuve.
The film starts shooting next week in Canada and will focus on Villeneuve’s early years, his snowmobiling career, his start in motor racing and success before signing with Ferrari.
Set in Quebec starting in 1970, Rémi Goulet will play the titular Villeneuve as he rises from a modest background. Rosalie Bonenfant stars as his wife.
Villeneuve: Rise Of A Champion is produced by Christian Larouche at Christal Films, with Le Pacte on board to co-produce, release in France and handle international sales in collaboration with Les Films Opale.
It is being billed as one of the most expensive productions in recent Quebec cinema history. “It’s an ambitious project, but if there’s one Quebecer who can generate as much excitement around the world, it’s Gilles Villeneuve, still recognized today as the most spectacular driver in the history of Formula 1. And we are proud to count on the trust and collaboration of the Villeneuve family to produce this biopic,” Larouche said of the film, also being co-financed by SODEC and Telefilm Canada, with support from the Quebec and Canadian tax credits, and national television broadcaster Radio-Canada. Les Films Opale will release the film in Canada.
Production will be split into two parts with winter scenes shot from Feb. 18 before resuming again at the end of summer through Fall and set for a summer 2025 delivery.
Romain Rancurel, head of International Sales at Le Pacte called the film “an epic journey of a young man striving for greatness who, without coming from money, carved his way into the select world of speed racing based solely on his sheer talent and the unyielding support of his family.”
Roby’s credits include TIFF and Genie award-winning White Skin, TIFF-premiering Funkytown, Jutra award-winning Louis Cyr and multiple Canadian Screen award-nominated Just a Breath Away.
Le Pacte will launch a script for buyers at EFM. The Paris-based company will also launch sales at EFM on Unicorn Wars director Alberto Vázquez’s upcoming animated feature Decorado, a feature adaptation of his Goya-winning existential comedy, and debut feature Dead Man’s Boots from Yohann Gloaguen, co-writer of Cannes-premiering Bloody Oranges and former AD to David Lynch and Wong Kar Wai, about an Uber driver transformed into a flamboyant gangster when he slips on the flashy shoes of a man who dies in the back of his car. It also market premieres Emilie Noblet’s high concept comedy Latin for All produced by Why Not Productions and Topshot Films and Nessim Chikhaoui’s social comedy from Albertine Productions, Striking the Palace.
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