Brendan Gleeson and Taylor Kitsch will star in The Grand Seduction, which Don McKellar is directing from a screenplay by Michael Dowse and Ken Scott. Scott scripted the 2003 French original Le Grande Seduction. Cast will also include Gorden Pinsent, Mary Walsh, Cathy Jones and Liane Balaban. Casting is by Heidi Leivitt and Lucie Robitaille.
Roger Frappier produced the original and is back for the remake, producing with Barbara Doran. Shooting is just getting underway in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada and in various outport communities around Trinity Bay, Red Cliff, New Bonaventure and Port Rexton.
The film centers on the small harbor of Tickle Cove, which is in dire need of a doctor so the town can land a contract to secure a factory that will save the town from financial ruin. Village resident Murray French (Gleeson) leads the search, and when he finds Dr. Paul Lewis (Kitsch) he employs — along with the whole town — tactics to seduce the doctor to stay permanently.
The $12.7M budget is financed by Telefilm Canada, Sodec, The Newfoundland and Labrador Film development corporation, Max Films, Vision Globale and Morag Loves Company. Grand Seduction is a co-production between Frappier’s Max Films and Morag Loves Company. Jeff Sackmann, Mark Slone and Joe Iacono are executive producers. The film will be distributed in Canada by Alliance Films and Voltage Pictures will handle foreign sales.