Danish writer-director Susanne Bier is gearing up to shoot her new film, Brothers (working title), based on a script co-written with the prolific Anders Thomas Jensen.

Set to shoot in the autumn, the contemporary drama centres on two brothers and follows in the vein of last year's collaboration with Jensen, the international hit Open Hearts.

"There were things we started in Open Hearts, but didn't quite finish," Bier told ScreenDaily.com. "So you could say that this film, theme-wise, is a continuation. We are very interested in the conditions of love in our modern lives. How to handle it and the ways it seems so very easy, but really isn't."

In an unusual move, Zentropa frontman Peter Aalbaek Jensen will return to his roots as a producer on the film, in close collaboration with Sisse Graum Olsen.

"I know that I promised never to produce another film, because I have been so bad at it in my time," says Aalbaek, "but now I'm taking the risk that it might mean that this film will only sell 50.000 tickets."

Zentropa producer Vibeke Windeloev, who produced Open Hearts, is busy preparing Lars von Trier's Manderlay, and Sisse Graum Olsen, who produced Lone Scherfig's Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself, is in pre-production with Thomas Vinterberg's Dear Wendy.

Since the late 90s Aalbaek Jensen has primarily acted as managing director of Zentropa and has taken executive producers credit on the many films produced by the company.

Cast has yet to be determined on the Danish-language Brothers, which has an estimated budget of US$2.9m (DKR19m), and will be released in March-April 2004 by Nordisk Film. Trust Film Sales handles international sales.