Bon Cop Bad Cop 2, the sequel to one of the most successful films ever in Canada, will begin filming in Montreal later this month.

The original film, released in 2006, starred Colm Feore and Patrick Huard as Martin Ward and David Bouchard, two bilingual detectives working with the Ontario Provincial Police and the Sûreté du Québec, respectively.

Alain DesRochers will direct the pair for their new film.

Huard said it's tough to reprise a role after so long and imagine how a character has evolved.

"You're trying to keep the essence of the [character], but it's 10 years later. You have to figure out where he is in his life," he said.

In the first film, Ward and Bouchard work together to investigate after a man is found dead on the border of their two provinces.

In the sequel, Bouchard will be taking orders from Ward, who has since become an RCMP officer. They will be tasked with dismantling a car theft ring that turns out to be a front for a bigger operation.

"This time around they think they know each other, and then they realize they don't. They discover new stuff about themselves," Huard said.

The buddy comedy, which played on the differences between Canada's so-called two solitudes, brought in $12 million in Canadian box office sales.

Feore said the sequel won't be as direct in using the differences between English and French Canada for laughs. While the first film literally focused on the intersection of the two cultures, the second film brings Americans into the mix so they wanted to move past those kinds of jokes.

"If anything, [the humour] is maybe a little bit more sophisticated. It's the blended view of the French and English looking out at the rest of the world," he said.

Challenges of making movies in Canada

Huard, a veteran Quebec actor, says every Canadian movie that's released is a "miracle."

The issue is money. He said there are amazing scripts being produced in this country, but financial constraints mean not all of them can be made. Huard added that Canadian films are judged by the same standard as American films but don't have the same multimillion-dollar budgets.

"If we succeed to do it as I want, if I show this movie to a producer in the United States, they won't believe we did that movie for the money that we had," he said.

Filming for Bon Cop Bad Cop 2 will begin May 22, with the movie slated for release in summer 2017.