Berlin-based production house Red Beat Pictures has announced an ambitious slate of ten feature projects after almost two years dedicated to project development since its launch in April 2000 by partners Herbert Gehr, Michael Helfrich and Ali Eckert.

This year should see a May start on production at locations in Berlin, Glasgow and Rotterdam for writer-director Cynthia Beatt's Euros 1.9m drama A House In Berlin, which is to be co-produced by Heartbeatt Pictures, Scots production outfit Freedonia Films and Rotterdam-based De Productie and already has commitments from Tilda Swinton, Lars Rudolph (Run Lola Run) and Isy Metzstein (Late Night Shopping).

Principal photography is also scheduled to start in spring 2002 on the $5.5m mystery thriller Too Tough To Die, about a Faustian pact set in the world of punk bands, to be directed by JoAnn Jansen and Ali Eckert at locations in Los Angeles, Utah and New York, with cameos already committed by such groups as Motorhead, Pearl Jam, Die Toten Hosen and Bad Religion.

In addition, Red Beat will serve as co-producer with LA-based Sideshow Inc. on the $4.8m romantic noir thriller Cover By Night by writer-director Ramin Niami (Somewhere In The City) which is set to star Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and Peter Stormare (Dancer In The Dark) at locations in New York and Berlin from the autumn.

Other Red Beat projects in development include: Charlotte Brandstrom's thriller Harry & Grace, based on a true story of a Swedish steelworker's custody battle for his Asian daughter, to be co-produced with Sweden's UnoFilm and Moviemakers; Rave Macbeth director Klaus Knoesel's Euros 2.3m thriller X-Treme, to be shot at Icelandic locations with Stefan Jonas' Framewerk; two feature projects by Angelika Moenning - the East European-set thriller Jagdfieber and her New York-based love story Toxin; the adventure drama CRACKs, based on a true story of a group of friends from Germany settling in Costa Rica and falling victim to the drug crack with fatal consequences; Heinz Emigholz's "sarcastic, de-constructivist road movie" Second Nature, to be shot on digital video at locations around the globe; and the DV romantic comedy The Pogos by directorial duo Daniel Acht and Ali Eckert; and an adaptation of Myra Cakan's scifi novel When The Music's Over.