French stars Daniel Auteuil and Anna Mouglalis are currently working on the set of an Italian film, A Strange Crime, which is being shot entirely in French and produced by The Hundred Steps producer Fabrizio Mosca.

The Euros 6m thriller is directed by acclaimed stage director Roberto Ando, whose first feature, The Prince's Manuscript was a critical hit in 2000. It tells the story of a successful writer who travels to Capri to attend his step-son's wedding, when he meets another woman and has a passionate one-night stand with her, marking the beginning a web of revenge and intrigue.

Written by Ando and Salvatore Marcarelli, A Strange Crime is a produced by Mosca's Rome outfit, Titti Film, and Fabrizio Chiesa.

Co-producers are Ruth Waldburger of Switzerland's Vega Film and Italian mini-major Medusa, who will distribute the picture in Italy.

The thriller, which also stars Greta Scacchi, has also received funds from Eurimages and the Italian government's Fondo di Garanzia.

The 10-week shoot is currently wrapping in Capri after eight weeks production in the centre of Prague and in Geneva.

Mosca says the decision to shoot in French was dictated by the script: One of the main characters is of Polish descent but studies in France and the other characters are all French or Swiss. "It was a natural decision to make it in French. We wanted Daniel [Auteuil] to act in his own language. And we also thought it would give the film an international feel. It was going to be a European film, both because of its cast, as well as the film's structure," Mosca told Screen International.

Mosca was propelled into the limelight after his first film, Marco Tullio Giordana's mafia tale, The Hundred Steps, became Italy's Oscar candidate in 2001.

He is currently developing several other pictures: Return To Haifa, an English language film about Middle East tensions, which is based on a book by a leading Palestinian author, Ghassan Kanafani, who was killed by Mossad twenty years ago.

Mosca is also lining up an Italian thriller entitled The Silent One (Voci Dal Vuoto), which is set among the world of "extreme" divers who jump of the cliffs in Sardinia.

Also in the works is an urban black comedy to be directed by newcomer Volfango de Biasi, and a feature debut by Daniele Pignatelli.

Topics