File 13 (film)
File 13 is a Canadian crime comedy film, directed by Patrick Huard and released in 2010. The film centres on Thomas, Benoît and Jean-François, three bumbling police officers who unexpectedly stumble into an opportunity to try to capture Fecteau, a high-ranking figure in the sponsorship scandal who has managed to elude arrest for several years.
The supporting cast includes Élisabeth Locas, Marie Turgeon, Anik Jean, André Sauvé, Sharlene Royer, Laurent Paquin, Carmen Ferlan, Monique Spaziani, Luc Senay, Jean Petitclerc, Annick Léger, Widemir Normil, Daniel Boucher and Emmanuel Auger.
Production
The film was made by the same production team, and featured the same three primary stars, as The 3 L'il Pigs , but was not a sequel.It was originally slated to be directed by Louis Choquette, under the title Operation Tablet, with Huard coming in as director after Choquette dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Choquette had cast Legault as Jean-François and Lemay-Thivierge as Thomas, with Huard choosing to swap their roles as he felt they fit the actors better.
It went into production in Montreal in fall 2009.
Release
The film had been slated to premiere on August 6, 2010, with its premiere advanced to August 4 at the last minute.Although the film was commercially successful, surpassing the $1 million benchmark for commercial success in the Quebec market within 10 days of its release, it was poorly received by critics, who virtually all compared it directly to The 3 L'il Pigs and asserted that it had failed to capture the same qualities that made the earlier film successful. It has not been publicly stated whether the critical failure of File 13 was a factor in Huard not returning as director of The 3 L'il Pigs 2 in 2016.