  We study the exclusive reactions pi- p -> l+ l- n and pi+ n -> l+ l- p$ in
view of possible future experiments with high-intensity pion beams. For large
invariant mass of the lepton pair l+ l- and small squared momentum transfer to
the nucleon these are hard-scattering processes providing access to generalized
parton distributions. We estimate the cross section for these reactions,
explore their connection with the pion form factor, and discuss the role they
can play in improving our understanding of the relevant reaction mechanisms.
