The most popular screenwriter on Quebec television at the moment is a complete stranger. You have never seen him. I’ve never seen it in the flesh, neither in pixels nor in Zoom.
Yet this talented author signs popular series like After at Radio-Canada, Trapped on addikTV and Campus at Vrak. A thick cloud of mystery surrounds this man called François Pagé who refuses to grant interviews or show his face.
In the small world of Quebec showbiz, a handful of people met him face-to-face, as they say in 2021. François Pagé jealously protects his privacy. He does not attend programming launches and never visits television series film sets. The actors who play his lyrics don’t know who he is or where he comes from.
And don’t waste your time Googling his name: there aren’t any recent photos of François Pagé circulating. His employers, including Radio-Canada, Bell Media and TVA Group – he works for all broadcasters – do not even have a business snapshot they could provide to the media.
Like a Réjean Ducharme, François Pagé only exists in the intrigues that he imagines. The author, who has no agent, never posts comments on the Facebook pages of his shows as Anne Boyer does for The blue Hour, for example. It doesn’t feed a Twitter account either. At least, no official Twitter account.
The meteoric rise of François Pagé, who also co-wrote the spy thriller Classified secret which will be released this winter on addikTV, raised eyebrows from his fellow authors. But who is this anonymous screenwriter who created four series simultaneously for the Duo Productions company? There is much to ask questions, really. All the more so as it pours into the big drama (After), the youth series (Campus), the spy thriller (Classified secret) and the genre series (Trapped). He can do everything! Not bad for a beginner.
A persistent rumor even wanted François Pagé to be in fact the figurehead for a collective of authors. This is not the case. To dispel the professional haze that envelops François Pagé, I contacted several of his current collaborators, including his producer Michel d’Astous at Duo Productions, who swears that François Pagé is not a pen name.
“He really exists. Its story is more a matter of discretion than of mystery. He’s a shy guy who doesn’t want to be part of public life. I’ve been developing projects with François for over six years and I’ve never been to his place. He is not a hermit, but he has a very reduced bodyguard, ”explains author and producer Michel d’Astous.
Having arrived in the profession very late, François Pagé, in his early sixties, had a thousand jobs before devoting himself to writing.
And how was it discovered? In the most classic way in the world. François Pagé submitted various projects to various producers and it was Michel d’Astous from Duo Productions who spotted him the fastest.
Before devoting himself solely to his scenarios, François Pagé worked in crisis management, public relations, police, teaching, hotels, agriculture, IT and documentary research, according to various sources.
As an advisor specializing in terrorism, urban violence and crowd control, François Pagé has trained police officers, here and in the United States, in addition to working with the Ministère de la Sécurité publique and the Sûreté du Québec on so-called sensitive files. .
It is this delicate and important part of his career that would “force” François Pagé to remain in the shadows. His safety could be compromised if he exposed himself too much, I am told. It feels like Blue moon.
One thing is certain, François Pagé knows a lot of useful tips for making stories about double agents and power games.
By reading the texts of the miniseries Trapped, which contain very realistic torture scenes, the actor Jean-Philippe Perras immediately understood that the author knew what he was talking about. “François knows business weird, in particular on the interrogation techniques of which he speaks in Trapped. His writing is very detailed. I was told that he would have worked in the police or the secret service, but I never met him. What I do know is that he is curious and sensitive. He is super invested in his projects ”, indicates the actor Jean-Philippe Perras, alias the real estate broker Charles in Trapped.
Before accepting contracts, François Pagé makes sure that his colleagues will respect his visceral desire to stay away from the spotlight. It is a non-negotiable clause. Result ? The few people around him hesitate to confide in him, for fear of betraying his trust or putting him in trouble. “François is a good Jack, a good author, and as I have a lot of affection for him, I respect his desire to preserve his anonymity”, notes the director of Trapped, Yannick Savard.
Louis Choquette, director ofAfter, continues: “I made a commitment not to speak about him. What I can say is that François is a quiet force. He expresses himself very well. He’s a scholar. He is very open. ”
He’s the kind of guy who writes personal letters to all the actors after watching the first few rushes. I had never seen that before.
Louis Choquette, director ofAfter
Star of the miniseries After, which ended Wednesday evening on Radio-Canada, Karine Vanasse received a long letter of thanks from François Pagé. The gesture touched her a lot. “A letter with many beautiful things”, says Karine Vanasse simply, without revealing the contents of the letter.
After a few days of filming on the thriller Classified secret from addikTV, François Pagé also sent a touching email to the headliner of the series, Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin. “An incredibly inspiring letter. It is very benevolent, generous and reassuring ”, underlines Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, who would unveil a punch of Classified secret by spreading here the words of François Pagé.
The virtual postman also visited the Trapped. “He wrote to all of us, he thanked us for our work. We were so moved, ”recalls Jean-Philippe Perras.
People who have seen François Pagé describe him as a tough guy, a tough guy. Again, details on his physical appearance are scarce, because the sources interviewed for this article do not want to harm this author for whom discretion is essential.
Radio-Canada’s director of drama programs, André Béraud, has met François Pagé a few times.
He is very serious, very good at his business, very intelligent, very pleasant and always available if you need him. His talent was evident from the first reading of his texts. He has a talent for dialogue. It is certain that we want to work with him again.
André Béraud, director of dramatic programs for Radio-Canada
If ever François Pagé wins a Gemini prize, he will not go on stage to pick it up, slices his producer Michel d’Astous. Another example of the screenwriter’s absolute incognito status?
At the end of September, his miniseries After was crowned best foreign francophone fiction at the Festival de fiction de La Rochelle, in France. This is a prestigious award. Allergic to the honors that would uproot him from his hiding place, François Pagé did not even make the trip to Europe.
He stayed in Quebec with his dog and his partner, far from microphones and cameras. Like a ghost. Like the boss of the secret service in District 31.