1979: Rhombus Media is formed in Toronto specifically to make a film about famed classical pianist Glenn Gould.

Niv Fichman recalls that he and fellow Rhombus founders Barbara Willis Sweete and Larry Weinstein had earlier met as students at York University in Toronto. After class, Sweete worked part-time behind the bar at Glenn Gould's Toronto hotel, The Hampton Court. There she hovered whenever possible around the Canadian-born pianist, often with Fichman and Weinstein in tow.

Fichman recalls the three aimed at knowing more about Gould and filmmaking. "He was our greatest hero. So we thought we would have to make a few short films before we approached Gould to make one about him."

But suddenly, in 1982, Gould died at the age of 50, forcing Rhombus to shelve its project.

December 1990: Fichman and Quebec director Francois Girard pick up prizes for their recent work Le Dortoir, and consider another collaboration. Girard, self-taught on the piano, began his career in music videos. He ventures that Gould might make a fine biographical subject. That sets Fichman's head swirling with memories. Both agree that a Gould project would be perfect for television.

February-July 1991: With Rhombus funding his research in-house, Girard listens to and watches everything by and about Gould.

July to December 1991: Researcher Chantal Neveau helps Girard continue wading through 110 hours of music that Gould recorded, books and articles written by or about him, and dozens of hours of video and film.

The duo also spent time at the National Library in Ottawa poring over 6,000 letters that Gould had written during his lifetime to friends and associates. In addition, his private papers, considered classified, are for the first time laid open for view.

The Quebec director decides at this time to model his script on Bach's Goldberg Variations, among Gould's most famous piano interpretations. This would entail 32 vignettes offering variations on the musician's life from age four until his death.

He will aim at showing Gould the genius as enigmatic, but not strangely eccentric as popular lore often holds. "That side of him was overexposed," Girard argues. "I wanted to show him more as a powerful intellectual musician, who also possessed a simple sense of humor."

The film would, in essence, offer little films and invite viewers to connect the dots, and not simply tell all. "We never pretended to draw a single picture of the artist and show that to viewers, and say this is what you have to know about Gould and understand about him. The big challenge was not being reductive. We wanted to give a range of Glenn Gould's talents, and the way to do that was to present 32 fragments of his life."

December 1991-February 1992: Fichman pitches the television project, with an anticipated $1.8 million budget, to European co-production partners. He secures partial funding from NOS Television (Holland), RTP Portugal, and OY Yleisradio AB (Finland). Later, funding will come from the bbc (Britain) and arte, a joint French-German broadcaster.