Gilles de Maistre is set to make another feature about captivating wild animals! The Cinemaholic can reveal that the French director will helm ‘Melody for a Bear,’ an adventure film written by Prune de Maistre and developed at Pathé Films. The project will start filming in and around Montreal, Québec, in May 2025. The cast of the movie has not yet been finalized, but one of the stars will be, interestingly, a real bear cub.
The plot revolves around Melody, a thirteen-year-old child from California, who learns about her father, Mickael, only after her mother’s untimely death. Mickael is a reclusive activist living deep in the Canadian wilderness with his fiancée, who is from the Kitasoo First Nation. Although their first interactions are rocky, Melody soon finds solace in an unexpected bond she creates with an orphaned bear cub whom she names Heaven. The rare cub is known as a Spirit Bear or Kermode and is considered magical by the Kitasoo First Nation community. As the teenager becomes increasingly attached to Heaven, she is drawn into her father’s world, where the fight to protect wildlife takes center stage.
Gilles de Maistre is a French journalist turned filmmaker with a notable career focused on heartfelt films that often blend documentary realism with adventure. Many of his recent works are similar to ‘Melody for a Bear’ since they explore the relationship between humans and animals. These films include ‘Mia and the White Lion,’ ‘The Wolf and the Lion,’ and ‘Autumn and the Black Jaguar.’
Like ‘Melody for A Bear,’ these movies are aimed at families and younger audiences with children as the protagonists. The narratives of Gilles’ films often highlight the message of sustainability and wildlife conservation. His other credits include ‘Big Five,’ ‘Forward,’ and ‘The Quest of Alain Ducasse.’ Prune de Maistre is the filmmaker’s wife and has written screenplays exclusively for his films.
Montreal and the surrounding Québec wilderness are expected to provide ideal backdrops for the adventure film. The team has dedicated the months of March and April 2025 for the performers to become familiar with the bear cub before the shoot. They are considering two filming scenarios to depict the bear cub’s growth over the course of the movie. In the first, they will use two bear cubs, one year apart in age, and conclude filming by June 2025. In the second scenario, they will pause filming in June 2025, wait one year for the bear cub to mature, and shoot with the same cub in May 2026.
As a prominent film hub, Montreal has a long-standing reputation for supporting large and small productions with diverse landscapes and studio locations. In addition to many of Gilles de Maistre’s wildlife-oriented films, renowned projects shot in and around the city include CBS’ ‘Ghosts’ and HBO’s ‘Euphoria.’
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