Elisabeth Murdoch's Shine Entertainment and Greenroom Digital, the production company of The Hole director Nick Hamm and his brother Jon, are to co-produce a slate of horror films under the banner 'The Dark'.

Shine and Greenroom aim to shoot the films back to back, starting late next year. The films will range from black comedies and spoofs to psychological thrillers and supernatural chillers.

"The strength of any project is in the material, so we built this from the ground up by carefully choosing the writers and ideas, and making specific commissions," Nick Hamm said. "This has given us a strong base from which to work and created an ideal relationship between the two companies."

Writers already signed up include Mike Marshall-Smith (Spares, One of Us), David Wolstencroft (Psychos, Jerusalem, Spooks), Cris Cole (Night & Day, The Good Times Are Killing Me) and Nick Cornwell (Single & Single, A Journal of the Flood Year). Nick Hamm is also sourcing writers in the US to complete the package.

Shine film head Erica Motley, formerly at HBO in New York, and Kenton Allen will executive produce the films.