Coote/Hayes Productions has added two high-profile TV movies to its expanding slate of film and TV productions and has confirmed Bruce Beresford as director of its four-hour miniseries The Fatal Shore.

Jeffrey Hayes, Coote/Hayes Prods co-founder, revealed that the firm has optioned Bio Hazard, a novel written by Russian scientist Ken Alibek that will be filmed under the title Soft Kill. It charts the Cold War collision course than nearly led Russia to releasing anthrax in the US.

Coote/Hayes is also developing a biopic of billionaire property developer Donald Trump. It is being written from a variety of source materials. On both films, which have budgets of $2.5m, Coote/Hayes is in discussions with leading cable firms as potential partners and financiers.

Then outfit, formed 15 months ago as a buyout from Warner Bros' TV distribution arm, is also looking for partners for its $10m-plus Fatal Shore miniseries. Previously set up with Village Roadshow and at TNT, Coote/Hayes is now turning to the international markets to get the project off the ground. 'With Bruce's name and the recent success of Double Jeopardy, I'm quite confident that we will be able to raise the money this way. It lends itself well to being a UK-Australian co-production and we have begun talks with possible partners,' said Hayes.

The project may also be offered to Alliance-Atlantis, with which Coote/Hayes has a first look deal and which it co-produced the recent hit series Beastmaster.