Montréal, February 2, 2015 – Club illico is celebrating its second anniversary in spectacular fashion by announcing that it will air Blue Moon, an exclusive original series featuring Québec movie star Karine Vanasse in the lead role, in 2016. Produced by Fabienne Larouche and AETIOS Productions, the series will be written by Luc Dionne and directed by Yves-Christian Fournier.
The story line of Blue Moon revolves around the character Justine Laurier (Karine Vanasse), who is on a mission with the Canadian army in Africa when she learns that her father has died in an accident. In his will, he has left her his business, Blue Moon, a private security firm that carries out assignments for government agencies. The company is growing fast and flush with cash. Justine's life has just taken an unexpected and very dangerous turn.
Series producer Fabienne Larouche comments, Im a binge watcher of TV series myself, so Im delighted to be creating Blue Moon for Club illico. I should also point out that AETIOs' partnership with Club illico will open new channels to help bring the work of Québec producers to a wider audience.
Blue Moon: big names working with Fabienne Larouche
With Blue Moon, Luc Dionne returns to series-writing with a splash after 10 prolific years of movie-making, directing such films as Monica la mitraille, Aurore and L'enfant prodige. Prior to that, he was the creator of Omertà, one of the most popular series in the history of Québec television.
Blue Moon will also benefit from the talents of director-screenwriter Yves-Christian Fournier. The recipient of numerous industry awards, he made his name with the film Tout est parfait (Everything Is Fine) along with several documentary series and reports that have aired in recent years, such as La Course destination monde, Bons baisers d'Amérique, Taxi pour l'Amérique and Mission Zed.
We were captivated by Blue Moon, said France Lauzière, Senior Vice-President, Content of QMI Content. Fabienne Larouche has put together a talented and passionate team. We are honoured to have the likes of Luc, Karine, Yves-Christian and Fabienne creating a top-quality series for us.
At the announcement, France Lauzière also noted that the series has been designed to accommodate changing viewing habits, in particular the way audiences watch TV series. Blue Moon is definitely for binge watchers. Club illico will let fans embrace Blue Moon and watch it at their pace.
Major commitment to the industry
As Videotron President and CEO Manon Brouillette explained at the launch, Club illico was the first and remains the only subscription video-on-demand service in Canada to commit to producing original Québec series, in French, that are available exclusively to its subscribers, and we are very proud of that. With our major investments in such series over the past two years, and the financial commitment to Blue Moon that we are announcing today, Club illico is once again showing its determination to remain the industry leader, with a new series that is going to wow its subscribers.
In just two years, Club illico has made its mark on Québec's cultural landscape, as witness the 50 million views that it has logged to date. A number of Québec series have contributed to this success, including Mensonges – Seasons 1 and 2, Les beaux malaises – Season 2, and Lance et compte. The series Le Dôme (Under the Dome) – Season 2 and 24 heures : vivre un autre jour (24: Live Another Day) have also been very popular.
At the Blue Moon launch, Manon Brouillette also mentioned that other projects will be announced in the coming months.
About Club illico
Club illico, launched in spring 2013, offers the largest selection of French-language content of any subscription video-on-demand service in Québec for only $9.99 per month. It is available on illico TV new generation (channel 900), on the Web (illico.tv) and on iPad and Android tablets (through the illico app). Club illico provides unlimited access to an impressive catalogue of movies, first-run television series, children's programs, documentaries and concerts from the largest Québec and foreign studios, updated weekly. All Québec and Ontario residents can subscribe, whether or not they are Videotron customers, by calling Videotron Customer Service at 1 888 433-6876. Videotron customers can also subscribe at illico.tv/club or channel 900 on their illico TV new generation set-top box.
For more details on Club illico, visit https://illicoweb.videotron.com/channels/Primeurs-Club-illico.
About QMI Content
QMI Content, a wholly owned business unit of Quebecor Media Inc., creates, develops, acquires, distributes and exports distinctive, high-quality audio-visual content, providing consumers with a multi-platform experience via Videotron and TVA Group services and promoting Quebec artists at home and abroad.
Videotron (www.videotron.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., is an integrated communications company engaged in cable television, interactive multimedia development, Internet access, cable telephone and mobile telephone services. Videotron is a leader in new technologies with its illico interactive television service and its broadband network, which supports high-speed cable Internet access, analog and digital cable television, and other services. As of September 30, 2014, Videotron was serving 1,796,300 cable television customers, including 1,549,000 Digital TV subscribers. Videotron is also the Québec leader in high-speed Internet access, with 1,432,300 subscribers to its cable service as of September 30, 2014. As of the same date, Videotron had 589,400 subscriber connections to its mobile telephone service and was providing cable telephone service to 1,286,200 Québec households and organizations. For the ninth consecutive year, Videotron was ranked as Québec's most respected telecommunications company, based on a Léger survey.
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