WHERE THE ACTION IS
Latest sequel is Nitro Rush
It appears that Quebec’s filmmakers have decided sequels are the surest way to break out of the box-office doldrums that have plagued local films for the past year or two.
The biggest made-in-Quebec hit of the year so far is Les 3 p’tits cochons 2, the sequel to the 2007 money-making comedy about three brothers with infidelity issues.
Next up is Nitro Rush, the sequel to Nitro, another hit from 2007 — kind of a Québécois Fast and the Furious. There are two other major sequels in the making: De père en flic 2, a followup to the 2009 blockbuster starring Louis-José Houde and Michel Côté, and Bon Cop Bad Cop 2, la suite to the 2006 bilingual comic drama featuring Patrick Huard and Colm Feore as cops solving crimes and trying to bridge Canada’s linguistic divide.
If there’s anyone who should be able to explain the Quebec film milieu’s sudden infatuation with sequels, it’s Alain DesRochers. He is the director of both Nitro Rush and Bon Cop Bad Cop 2.
But during the recent Montreal press junket for Nitro Rush, which opens across the province Wednesday, Aug. 31, DesRochers seemed a little on the defensive when asked about making sequels.
“If Nitro Rush exists, it’s because the producer Antonello Cozzolino and the distributor Patrick Roy told me: ‘Look, Alain, the public liked Nitro. Why don’t we do a second one?’ And if the public likes the second Nitro and they ask me to do a third one, I will. And if they ask me to do a fourth one, I’ll do a fourth one. If I’m inspired, obviously. I have no problem with that. A story is a story.
“It’s all a question of supply and demand. The public wants these sequels. I make films so people can see them, and if the public wants to see a second Nitro, I say: ‘Let’s go.’
“People ask me why I don’t make original films. And I do have projects for original films that aren’t sequels, and Nitro Rush is an original film because it comes from my original idea.”
When they first asked DesRochers about making a sequel to Nitro, the filmmaker wasn’t sure and told them he wouldn’t sign on until he’d come up with an exciting new idea. It was only three years later that he came back and said he was ready to do it.
The idea for Nitro Rush was then transformed into a screenplay by Martin Girard. The new film is really quite different from the first one. Racing around in fast cars is a huge part of Nitro, but it’s hardly present at all in Nitro Rush, with the exception of one scene that’s essentially an homage to the original film.
In the new film, Max (Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge) decides he has to break out of prison to come to the rescue of his son Théo (Antoine DesRochers, the director’s son), who is part of a criminal gang that’s intent on getting their hands on a dangerous new drug called Nitro Rush. The nefarious crew is run by a seductive crime boss, Daphné (Madeleine Péloquin), who appears to have Max’s kid mesmerized.
“What I like about my character is that he’s forced in the film to do something that he’s good at but which goes against his ethics,” Thivierge said. “It’s like seeing a boxer fight even though he doesn’t want to be in the fight. But he’ll do whatever he has to to win. When he agrees to take part in what his son is doing, it’s totally opposed to everything he believes in, but he’ll do it and do it well to get back the support of his son.”
Péloquin said it was a great opportunity as an actress to do an action movie.
“To have a feminine role that’s badass, you don’t see that that often,” she said. “She’s a James Bond girl type of character. So she’s the vamp. She’s really charismatic, but she wants to be independent. She’s craving power. So she’s not a good girl. And she’ll do anything. She’ll seduce. But she’ll also kick ass to get what she wants.”
DesRochers was also excited to make an action movie, but he makes the case that it’s not simply an empty commercial flick.
“When I made the first Nitro, I was wondering: Why is it that the films that really draw the big crowds here are American films? Why can’t we do action films? That’s really where the idea came from,” DesRochers said. “I said: ‘OK, we’ll do an action film.’
“I like auteur films. In 2000, I made a film called La Bouteille. It’s an idea of mine, directed by me, and at the time, we considered that an auteur film. Well, Nitro, it’s my idea, it’s directed by me, but oddly enough, we don’t consider it an auteur film. But I’m the same director who made La Bouteille, which everyone called an auteur film.”
AT A GLANCE
Nitro Rush opens in cinemas Wednesday, Aug. 31.