When Prime Video wanted to adapt Louise Penny’s novels to the screen, the author had one very specific condition: that the filming be done entirely in Quebec, and with a majority local distribution.
• Read also: On Prime Video: Quebec as a backdrop for the series “The Village of Three Pines”
“What’s the point of adapting my books if it’s to be done elsewhere? The voices of Quebecers were absolutely vital to the project,” insists the Toronto-born novelist.
For more than 15 years, Inspector Armand Gamache has been elucidating investigations and mysteries in the region of Three Pines, in the Eastern Townships, thanks to the pen of Louise Penny. The success has been constant and unyielding, both with readers and critics. The author therefore does not hide it, the idea of seeing her work transposed to the screen was first “terrifying”.
“These are characters I’m very attached to – I’ve written over two million words about them – so it’s absolutely terrifying to leave them in the hands of other people,” Louise Penny said during a meeting with The newspaper.
Alfred Molina
She also remembers having breathed her first “sigh of relief” when she learned that the actor of British origin Alfred Molina had been chosen to play Inspector Armand Gamache.
“I knew he was capable of doing extraordinary work,” breathes the author.
Around him evolves an exclusively Canadian and Quebec distribution. In addition to Vancouver actor Rossif Sutherland, viewers will be able to recognize local talents Marie-France Lambert, Sarah Booth, Frédéric-Antoine Guimond and other Marie-Josée Bélanger throughout the eight episodes of Three Pinesuploaded to the Prime Video platform twice a week starting December 2.
And even before the start of the broadcast, Louise Penny is already proclaiming loud and clear her desire to see Inspector Gamache return to service for one, or even several additional seasons.
“With Alfred Molina in the lead role, a production company like Left Bank and Quebec as the backdrop, how could anyone want to stop after just one season? she lets out.
Series Three Pines will debut on December 2 on Prime Video.