Former Applause co-founder Teddy Chen has unveiled the debut slate of his start-up production outfit, Jin Chuan Pictures, including Aubrey Lam's romantic drama Hidden Track.

The film, which started shooting on July 25 in Hong Kong and mainland China, stars mainland newcomer Popo and a host of Hong Kong stars including Shawn Yue, Daniel Wu and Eason Chan. It tells the story of a mainland girl who moves to Hong Kong after her boyfriend disappears - and finds herself dating a series of self-obsessed music fans.

Also on Jin Chuan's slate is US$8.5m action drama Dark October, to be directed by Chen; sci-fi thriller Tunnelling, to be directed by Taiwan's Su Chao-Pin, whose writing credits include Double Vision and Three - Going Home; mainland comedy Prenuptial Experiment, comprised of three short films by different directors, and Wilson Yip's comedy drama The Enchanter.

Chen, whose directing credits include action pictures Purple Storm and The Accidental Spy starring Jackie Chan, was one of the co-founders of Hong Kong's Applause Pictures - along with director Peter Ho-Sun Chan and distributor Allan Fung - which was established in 2000 to produce pan-Asian films.

However, Chen left the company last year to launch Jin Chuan with the aim of bringing together talent from the Greater China region. Chen planned to hold a launch press conference for the new company in April, but the event was cancelled due to the outbreak of SARS in Hong Kong.

Dark October, Chen's next film as director, was also hit by the SARS outbreak. The action drama was scheduled to crank up in April but as the major location, the mainland city of Guangzhou, was at the epicentre of the virus, Chen was forced to postpone production. He is now trying to reschedule the film which is set to star Chang Chen, Tony Leung Ka-Fai and Ekin Cheng.

The film is a fictionalised account of the visit of the founding father of modern China - Sun Yat-Sen - to Hong Kong in 1905, and the five martial arts experts who were dispatched to protect him.

Jin Chuan, which has offices in Hong Kong and Taipei, already has one film under its belt - Leon Dai's youth-oriented drama Twenty Something Taipei which was released last year in Taiwan. Hidden Track is its second production.