Canadian prodcos New Metric Media and Encore strike bilingual content pact

Mark Montefiore and Julie Provençal

Toronto-based New Metric Media and Quebec’s Encore have agreed to jointly develop and produce scripted and unscripted programming in English and French.

As part of the deal, the companies will explore adapting the other company’s content for their respective markets.

New Metric, which is behind the Letterkenny comedy franchise, and Encore, producer of series including Bête noire (Dark Soul) and Fugueuse (Runaway), said they are currently identifying projects on which to collaborate.

The announcement of the partnership comes after the companies revealed earlier this year that they were teaming on a bilingual English-French heist romantic comedy, based on a concept created by New Metric founder and CEO Mark Montefiore. The writing team for the project includes Andrew DeAngelis (Children Ruin Everything, The Lake) and Erika Soucy (Les Perles, Léo).

“This is an important and innovative collaboration focused on highlighting one of the most unique aspects of our beautiful country, our cultural and language diversity,” said Montefiore.

Encore president Julie Provençal added: “We are confident that this strong alliance will enable broadcasters to feature unique and distinctive content projects, as they will be developed and produced with the perspectives of both cultures, in at least two languages and with the unified strength of New Metric Media and Encore.”