Neuigkeiten

Welsh actor Alexander Vlahos, known for his roles in TV series such as “Merlin,” “Outlander” and “Versailles,” is set to play a British ornithologist who, during a field trip to Sicily, gets involved in more than mere birdwatching.

Shooting is underway in Sicily on the indie drama “Hearts of Salt,” the first feature by London-based line producer Rosa Russo. The passion project is structured as a three-way co-production between Italy, the U.K. and Tunisia, with shooting also planned in the North African country. Tunisia will serve as a second location besides the Italian island.

Though plot details are scarce, “Hearts of Salt” will see Vlahos — who will soon be seen opposite Lindsay Lohan in the Netflix rom-com “Irish Wish” — arrive in Sicily on a mission to study the effects of climate change on bird migrations. However, the ornithologist will soon have to abandon his role as a detached observer...

It’s been a great long while since we’ve heard from Rachelle Laferve so it’s truly delightful to hear her speak briefly with The Province during the Whistler Film Festival earlier in the month. We find out what she’s been up to and how involved she was in the Whistler Film Festival and how thrilled she was to get some time to hit the slopes, something she’s not been able to do much since moving from her native Canada to California.

Actor Rachelle Lefevre is having a busy weekend, watching eight movies as a juror for the Whistler Film Festival’s Borsos competition for best Canadian film, and doing interviews for her own movie, the Quebecois crime drama Omertà.

So she’s eating and talking at the same time, pausing to offer me a bite of her ham and cheese crepe. The movie is a French-language feature sequel to a 1990s crime series that starred Michel Côté as a tough cop. Côté reprises his role for the feature, with Lefevre along as an undercover cop and Patrick Huard as a mysterious newcomer to the story.

Playing a mob boss in the feature is René Angelil — yes the husband-manager of mega-singer Celine Dion.

“You know, it’s interesting, because it sounds like stunt casting but there was such beautiful logic behind it,” says Lefevre, adding she asked director Luc Dionne about that choice before shooting started. “I said he’s not an actor. He said ‘I know he can do it, because he just has to play himself . . . there’s a presence.’ And the other thing Luc said is, ‘I have Patrick Huard and Michel Côté who are the biggest stars in Quebec. They’re both real men and they’ve had experience in the industry for so long, and they need to be intimidated by this character. If I hire just some actor, they aren’t going to be intimidated. I actually need to hire somebody who in real life is more powerful than them.’ And it worked.”

The movie is already the year’s box-office winner in its home province, before it’s even played a screen in English Canada.

It’s been busy times this year for Lefevre, who is just on a break from the final weeks of filming White House Down for director Roland Emmerich (2012, Independence Day). The Montreal-filmed thriller imagines a terrorist take-over of the White House, with Jamie Foxx as the president, Channing Tatum as an FBI agent and Lefevre as Tatum’s ex-wife “and his baby mama, we have a child together.”

Typical of director Emmerich, everyone gets in on the action, even Lefevre’s baby mama.

“It’s a little contained, but the White House is a large place with a lot of rooms to play in, a lot of underground and a lot of lawn. There’s no shortage of action.”

Channing wrapped his role before People magazine named him its sexiest man alive.

“Channing is so normal, anyone who knows him, probably wouldn’t reference it a whole lot,” she says. “He is gorgeous, but the sexiest man alive is the antithesis to who he is as a person.”

Montreal-born but now L.A.-based, Lefevre was shuttling this fall between Montreal and New Orleans, juggling roles in White House Down and the New Orleans-filmed thriller Homefront, which just wrapped before the festival.

It’s an indie film but the cast is extraordinary. Gary Fleder directing, Sly Stallone wrote the script, and it’s Jason Statham, James Franco, Winona Ryder, Kate Bosworth. It’s gritty — I call it a modernd-day western, super action-y. But it’s beautifully shot, it gets kind of noir.”

She’s get some time Saturday to do some skiing at Whistler. It’s her first time up to the resort but she skied back home as a kid. “I’m an intermediate — blue square but I used to be a black diamond. Haven’t done it as much living in California.”

Skiing in Quebec, meanwhil, sounds scary the way Lefevre tells it.

The Province...

Omertà

Directed by Luc Dionne

Written by Luc Dionne

Canada, 2012

The Québec film industry is often lauded for the exuberant creativity and artistic merit of many films it produces each and every year. Every so often though, a little bit more money is invested in a project, one that, much like its Hollywood counterparts, hopes achieve success beyond critical acclaim. Cast some familiar stars, write a reasonably easy script for the masses to understand and appreciate, and hopefully the endeavour shall reap box office benefits in addition to the much desired warm public and critical reception. The Rocket (2005) was one such film, as were the summer hits Bond Cop, Bad Cop (2006) and De Père en flic (Father and Guns, 2009). The summer of 2012 brings back an important title that should be very familiar to Québec television fans: Omertà, which was a Sopranos-like cop and mobsters drama which aired from 1996 to 1999. Creator...