A TV movie about Celine's career

[zanif]

thanx for sharing the pics.

[Epoenah]

http://www.canoe.com/divertissement/tele-medias/galeries/2007/04/23/Celine_TV_008.jpg

 

i think this is the only pic that actually resembles celine & rene. i have to say that i am excited to see this movie though. i think its gonna be cute!

[stevethefan]

http://www.canoe.com/divertissement/tele-medias/galeries/2007/04/23/Celine_TV_008.jpg

 

i think this is the only pic that actually resembles celine & rene. i have to say that i am excited to see this movie though. i think its gonna be cute!

I agree. I wonder if this picture is supposed to be from the LV years. The people playing young Celine and her mother and father do not look even close to the real thing. If the film is good, I can overlook that.

[Ronny83]

Filming of 'Celine' coming to Cambridge

City doubles as superstar's hometown in TV movie

 

Ray Martin, Cambridge

 

(May 3, 2007)

 

Cambridge and Charlemagne, Quebec, have something in common - both can claim to be home to Canadian superstar Celine Dion.

 

While Charlemagne is the pop icon's childhood hometown, Cambridge will fill that role tomorrow as a new biopic on Dion's early years is filmed here.

 

The two-hour biopic, entitled Celine, is based on the life of Canadian Grammy and Juno award-winner Celine Dion.

 

A film crew from Barna-Alper Productions, one of Canada's leading independent production firms, will be in town tomorrow shooting in two locations.

 

During the day, the film crew will focus its attention on the home at 29 Henry St., being used as the backdrop for some outdoor scenes. At dusk, the film crew will move to the outskirts of the city to shoot a spectacular fire scene.

 

Debbie Fee, special projects manager for the City of Cambridge, is no novice when it comes to working with filmmakers. She has assisted in nearly a dozen films, documentaries and commercials being shot in Hollywood Cambridge.

 

"We've been working with these guys since the early part of April," she said. "They contacted us."

 

Cambridge was selected as one of the film's

 

shooting locations as the result of one member of the production company shooting here before.

 

"With the Henry Street location, they remembered us, came down and looked around. They knew exactly what they were looking for, found it and everything worked out," she said.

 

As for the second location, Fee said that was a little tougher.

 

"They were looking for a hotel, but when they said what they wanted to do with it (burn it down), it set us back a bit," Fee said. "I talked with the fire department and found out they have a barn they were going to use for training and burn down. The production company is now going to do some set dressing to make it look like a bar and use it for their fire."

 

Friday will be the second last day of shooting for the film and people in the neighbourhood surrounding the home on Henry Street already know about the movie shoot. That part of Henry Street will be closed to traffic intermittently Friday and there will be no parking on part of Birch Street. Filmmakers don't want newer model cars seen in a shot that supposedly takes place in the mid-1970s.

 

In addition to Cambridge, scenes for the film have been shot in Dundas, Hamilton and Toronto.

 

The movie is expected to air on CBC in early 2008.

 

Meanwhile, Fee is already in preliminary talks on a second movie that could come to Cambridge.

 

"We're still in the early stages. The pictures have been sent down to Los Angeles for approval and we're waiting to see what happens," she said.

 

According to promoters, Celine is a story about the power of a dream. The Dion family is blessed with musical talent and Celine, though an awkward little girl, has a voice that shines. When the family pub burns down, a decision is made to pursue Celine's dream to become a singer and she begins the long hard road to success.

[celinesounds]

http://www.canoe.com/divertissement/tele-medias/galeries/2007/04/23/Celine_TV_008.jpg

 

i think this is the only pic that actually resembles celine & rene. i have to say that i am excited to see this movie though. i think its gonna be cute!

 

 

she doesn't look like Celine

 

they are using Celine's songs?

[anewdayhascome]

i don't like it

[celinerific]

If someone gave me a picture of that without knowing what it was I'd look at it and shrug my shoulders. No resemblance whatsoever.

[Ronny83]

In 1970, three-year-old Celine Dion was hit by a car. She had been distracted by something and ran across the street in front of her family's home in Charlemagne, Que.

 

On Friday, it was quiet on the set at 29 Henry St. in Cambridge, as film reels rolled and Dion's childhood accident was recounted for the upcoming CBC-TV movie, Celine. The biopic tells the story of the chanteuse's early harrowing struggle and eventual breakthrough into musical stardom.

 

While it was the crew's last day of filming, the footage will actually be used for the movie's opening scene.

 

Executive producer Laszlo Barna grew up in Montreal and said Dion's life story has always been close to his heart.

 

Critics, film companies, and fans have scolded Barna for not filming Celine in French, the songstress's native language. But Barna said the language issue is far from the point of the movie.

 

"She's a Canadian hero," he said. "She represents a small-town girl, in any small town, who's got a dream."

 

Barna has admired Dion since her earliest years in the business and said her story is an important one to tell.

 

"I wasn't always powerful enough to get movies made," he said.

 

Barna, president and CEO of Toronto-based Barna-Alper Productions, also said he "would have like to work with an American budget". When asked what the budget for the movie was, he simply replied, "a Canadian one".

 

Cambridge resident Lynn Siembida, who lives near Henry Street, spent most of her morning watching scenes and mingling with other neighbourhood onlookers.

 

As the morning progressed, more and more people gathered around to watch and listen as directors, crew members, and actors worked through each scheduled scene.

 

"It's awesome," Siembida said. "Yeah, this is pretty exciting."

 

Cambridge resident Randy Butcher, of Reel Stunts Productions, is the movie's stunt co-ordinator. The professional stunt man and action director is also the stunt driver of the car that hits the young Dion - played by Riley Waldriff - when she runs into the street.

 

He said it was great to work in Cambridge because of the potential the city has for attracting movie makers.

 

"Why the city's not promoting (movie filming) more, I don't know," he said. "Cambridge has so much to offer the film industry."

 

Debbie Fee, the city's special projects co-ordinator, said having movies filmed in the city is a great way to "put Cambridge on the map" for potential future productions and "economic spinoffs".

 

Set location manager Robin Brinsmead, said filming went well on Henry Street, adding that Cambridge couldn't have been a better location for the shoot.

 

"The architecture, the tone of the house with the yellow, and the blue trim... and the houses with the old field stones really give a Quebec feel," said Brinsmead.

 

Temporary assistant location manager Randy Morgan, said Friday's sunny, warm weather was exactly what the film crew had hoped for the morning shoot.

 

Later Friday night, the crew moved to a location on Ripplewood Road in Cambridge to film a barn burning to the ground.

 

The abandoned structure was transformed into Le Vieux Baril (The Old Barrel) - a bar owned and operated by the Dion family - a place where the musically talented family of 14 children would perform when Celine was a young girl.

 

The structure was intended for Cambridge firefighters' training, but the local fire department agreed for the film crew to use it, with the department's supervision during the burn. Celine is scheduled to air on CBC in early 2008. Barna said it will later be available to purchase on DVD.

http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/cam/graphics/news/camt785019_5.jpg

Right: Cambridge resident Randy Butcher is the stunt co-ordinator for Celine.

 

http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/cam/graphics/news/camt785019_4.jpg

Film crews set up outside Freddi's Variety to film the car accident scene.

 

http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/cam/graphics/news/camt785019_6.jpg

Freddi's Variety was transformed into the "Depanneur" for another scene.

 

http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/cam/graphics/news/camt785019_1.jpg

Above: Riley Waldriff, playing three-year-old Celine Dion, prepares for her first take of the day. Far right:

 

http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/cam/graphics/news/camt785019_2.jpg

Cambridge was transformed into a small Quebec town.

[CSCfan]

Yeah, I knew it was going to be released on DVD..

[Tal]

priceless!!

[pepillo90]

Thanks! the little Celine is sooo cute

[krazy_kool_dude]

i never knew Celine got ran down by a car

[stevethefan]

Thanks for that article and those photos of the movie shoot. From the pictures the way they covered up the english street signs with french ones looks so cheap! It looks like they just hand drew them on cardboard! I could be wrong but it just has that look.

 

I have some doubts about this movie, but I still want to see it. They mentioned that they wished they had an American budget but they only got a Canadian one. At least the director is a big Celine fan and he seems to want to make a good movie.

[Andrei Dion]

I don't know what to say about this project..... I'll wait for when it's done and check it.....

[Dreamer]

ohh God i hated the pics, it seems so damn fake.

i hope their love story will not be shown as something banal

[Ronny83]

Celine & Rene: Why judge?

Biopic star Enrico Colantoni keeps an open mind

 

Celine Dion's husband Rene Angelil is far more controversial than Enrico Colantoni ever realized.

 

But Colantoni's neutrality helped as he took on the role of Angelil in the CBC biopic Celine. The bulk of shooting has been completed and the made-for-TV movie will hit the airwaves next season.

 

"I had no idea," said Colantoni, a 44-year-old Toronto native who is best known for his roles on TV shows Just Shoot Me and Veronica Mars, and movies such as the delightful Galaxy Quest. "I knew Celine Dion, of course, and I knew she was Canadian. But I wasn't aware of her relationship with Rene until I started reading about it."

 

Angelil is more than a quarter-century older than Dion. He became Dion's manager when she barely was a teenager, and 13 years later they got married.

 

If nothing else, it sets up Angelil for jokes. When Colantoni was told about an old Tina Fey zinger on Saturday Night Live, which suggested Dion and Angelil's baby was going to be up and dating his manager any day now, Colantoni laughed long and hard.

You dream it. We have it.

 

Still, Colantoni is open-minded.

 

"I still don't get the whole controversy thing, because I tried to talk to the French Canadian press about it, and they sort of have this mixed feeling about (Angelil)," Colantoni said. "According to the French press I'm detached in my opinion, but I think the proof is in the pudding.

 

"They've been married too long. You can't fake that. I can understand it probably being a true love."

 

And besides, as Colantoni pointed out, the big difference in age between Angelil and Dion is not automatically eyebrow-raising in other corners of the world.

 

"I imagine (Angelil) is a gentleman and well-mannered and all that stuff, he's French, he's of Middle Eastern descent, and he has a European sensibility," said Colantoni, who never has met Angelil. "In North America we tend to judge. In the rest of the world, it's like, 'Ah, whatever.'

 

"He must have a charm to him, to get things done in the entertainment business. I have nothing but respect and admiration for what Celine has achieved and what they have achieved together. Anything else, I'm completely unaware of. I can use my imagination, but why judge the man?"

 

Colantoni lives in Los Angeles, but he has been re-energized recently by the diversity of roles available to him in Canada.

 

"I have a new agent whose mission is to get me back to Canada more, and I love the idea of that, because first and foremost the quality of work is superior," Colantoni said. "I don't imagine getting rich up here, but you get to do different things.

 

"If I stay in the United States exclusively, I'll end up being the dad, the funny guy, and that's great. I don't plan on ever leaving that. But I also am lucky enough to have been born in Canada and have access to Canadian film and Canadian TV."

 

So, to sum up, Colantoni is thrilled to have landed the male lead in Celine, and he didn't enter the project with any preconceived notions or judgments about the manner in which Angelil became Dion's husband.

 

Be that as it may, Colantoni isn't above taking a little shot. All in good fun.

 

"I get to be in love with a young, attractive woman (Christine Ghawi as Dion) - that never sucks," Colantoni said with a chuckle. "And the key is, she actually loves me back. It's incredible.

 

"I'm sure Rene was going, 'What? If I marry you I get 50% commission? Oh ... okay!' "

http://torontosun.com/Entertainment/Televi...176439-sun.html

[Dreamer]

OHH GODD

you see, this Colantoni is soo damn stupid, i alrealdy hate him he is not worthy of making Rene's role, he just don't understand the story, he just DON'T get the feeling. And even if he understands it I don't think he would be able the express it, to have the feeling

 

In the pics I get the impress that he was justing wanting to make love with her, and this is soo not Rene

 

I hope, really hope I'm with a wrong idea and in the end the movie would be great

[stevethefan]

OHH GODD

you see, this Colantoni is soo damn stupid, i alrealdy hate him he is not worthy of making Rene's role, he just don't understand the story, he just DON'T get the feeling. And even if he understands it I don't think he would be able the express it, to have the feeling

 

In the pics I get the impress that he was justing wanting to make love with her, and this is soo not Rene

 

I hope, really hope I'm with a wrong idea and in the end the movie would be great

 

I've seen this actor on television and in movies in comic roles and he is funny and he can sort of look like Rene and he may be able to do this more serious role. The thing that kind of upsets me in this interview with him is that it sounds like he has not done much research on Rene. In that last posted interview he sounds like he is just finding out basic things about their relationship that are common knowledge that he could have found out in one of the Celine biographies. It sounds like he is just finding out these things now, at the end of filming.

[Epoenah]

heres christine ghawi talking about playing celine:

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=9kDi7pgLFaU

[kathyc25]

She dosn`t really look like her at all, but she has the movements down pretty good. Should be interesting to see

[Nando Férri]

Come on people, it will be nice! It's a tribute...

[Mozinha]

The guy who plays Rene is a total jerk. But the girl who plays Celine... she totally got it. I was very impressed with her interview, she totally did her homework, she completely got Celine, that's exactly this, congrats to her. Great job so far.

[tativale]

hehe I felt like I was watching a Celine from around 90-92 lol I like the girl!

[celinerific]

Awwwwe. The little Celine is so adorable!

 

If Celine saw the little Celine, she'd be like

"Awwwe! The little Celine is so adorable! What's your name little Celine? Is it Celine? Come give Celine a hug!"

 

And then of course, the little Celine would be like...

[VinnyT.]

[hide_me]

[/hide_me]

[Thomas]

That looks hilarious!

[Gorgeous]

Thanks!

[CelineTheBest5]

I love it

[DekaCano]

Merci

[bgcalde]

thanks