Stephen Daldry, in town to present today's competition screening of The Hours, is to executive produce two forthcoming films produced by the UK's Film & Music Entertainment (F&ME).

The company, which recently bought itself out from the now depleted German company F.A.M.E., is putting together an impressive slate of pictures, with a combined production budget of $40m. Daldry is chairman of F&ME, which is run by Mike Downey and Sam Taylor.

First off is Nobody Thinks Of Greenland, a MASH meets Catch 22 absurdist drama adapted by John Paul Chapple from the John Griesemer novel of the same title. The $5m picture will shoot later this winter in Canada as a collaboration with Chris Zimmer's Canadian production outfit IMX.

Next up will be Killer On The Road, an adaptation of the James Ellroy serial killer tale first published in 1990. The story sees the formation off an unholy alliance sparked when two serial killers meet on the road. It will be produced with UK producer-distributor Metro-Tartan and adapted by Stephen Johnston, who previously wrote Ed Gein and Ted Bundy for Metro Tartan.

The two are F&ME's first venture into North America, but are dwarfed in budget terms by the forthcoming FAKE!, a$15m-$20m story about a real life art-forger. The company has now signed Michael Kalesniko, whose credits include Private Parts and How To Kill Your Neighbour's Dog, to write the screenplay.

F&ME is also co-producing a trio of other Icelandic pictures Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's drama Niceland, and two from Icelandic Film Corp, drama Every Colour Of The Sea Is Cold and comedy The Silent Magician.

F&ME recently enjoyed success with Deathwatch, a WWI-set horror story starring Jamie Bell, which has so far grossed $1.65m in the UK and a further $600,000 in Hong Kong.