Director Daniel Roby began filming the film on Sunday Villeneuve: the rise of a champion, his highly anticipated biographical sports drama about the life of famous Quebec racing driver Gilles Villeneuve.
• Also read: Rémi Goulet will play Gilles Villeneuve in the cinema
This first part of the filming of the film, which aims to include winter scenes and snowmobile racing, will take place in Valcourt, Saint-Rémi and Joliette until March 2nd. The majority of filming for the feature film will take place this coming summer and fall.
“We have a dozen days of filming this winter and we’ll have about thirty more next summer and fall,” producer Christian Larouche (Louis Cyr, Confessions) told the Journal.
Remember that it is the actor Rémi Goulet who gives Gilles Villeneuve his facial features. Rosalie Bonenfant plays Joann Villeneuve, the wife and accomplice of the late and legendary pilot. The cast also includes Fabien Cloutier, Paul Doucet and Étienne Galloy.
Rémi Goulet Photo Sébastien Sauvage
The making of a champion
On Monday, director Daniel Roby (Louis Cyr, suspect number one) and his team were in Valcourt in Estrie to film the scenes of a snowmobile race won by Gilles Villeneuve at the wheel of his famous snowmobile in the early 1970s. La Bibitte”.
“When filming began on Sunday, there were 160 people on set including crew and extras,” says Christian Larouche. It was impressive! We are doing something that has never been done before in Quebec!”
Written by Daniel Roby and Guillaume Lonergan, Villeneuve: The Rise of a Champion focuses on the early years of Gilles Villeneuve's career, when the young rider from Berthierville dominated snowmobile, Formula Ford and Formula Atlantic racing . The film ends in 1977 when Enzo Ferrari offers Villeneuve a steering wheel in Formula 1.
Rémi Goulet has been preparing for the role of Gilles Villeneuve over the last few months, primarily through physical training.
“Above all, I want us to feel his energy, the passion in his eyes, his love of speed and his willingness to fight on the slopes,” the actor confided to the Journal last May.
“I also want us to understand what brought him to this sport. I think it will be an exciting film that Quebecers will recognize themselves in.”
► Villeneuve: the rise of a champion will be on display in summer 2025.