Award-winning Bosnian directors Danis Tanovic (No Man's Land) and Pjer Zalica (Fuse) are preparing English-language features as their next projects.

Tanovic, who received the Foreign Language Oscar for No Man's Land last year, is preparing the spy love story Ship High In Transit for shooting from December in Morocco with Italian actress Monica Bellucci in the female lead.

According to some sources, the expression "Ship High In Transit" and the acronym S.H.I.T. originated from the days when manure was transported by ship. The bundles were stamped with these four letters so that the ship's crew would ensure that the manure did not come into contact with water and trigger the potentially explosive production of methane.

Producer Cedomir Kolar who developed the project with Tanovic in their joint company ASAP (previously known as 4Productions) describes the film as "Casablanca meets North By Northwest".

Meanwhile, Pjer Zalica, who walked away with a Silver Leopard from Locarno and six awards from Sarajevo for his feature debut Fuse (Gori Vatra), is developing a second feature Bajram In Brooklyn to be shot in English, Spanish and Bosnian on location in Brooklyn (New York) and Bosnia by the Sarajevo-based production house Refresh Production.

Zalica told ScreenDaily.com that the new project about a Bosnian refugee coming to terms with being a Muslim in Brooklyn post-September 11 would be a mixture of comedy and serious elements.

Refresh, which Zalica founded with fellow directors Ademir Kenovic and Srdan Vuletic, will have its first two features - Fuse and Vuletic's debut Summer In The Golden Valley (Ljeto U Zlatno Dolini) - also screening at the forthcoming Toronto International Film Festival.