New Zealand production outfit First Sun has unveiled its debut feature development slate which includes an adaptation of Michelanne Forster's play Castle Of Lies.

The play, set in the 1890s, revolves around the true story of charismatic politician William Larnach who blew his brains out in the New Zealand Parliament, an action partly driven by his much younger wife falling in love with his son. Yvonne Mackay is set to direct the project from a script by UK writer Emma Frost. Frost's adaptation is based on the female character's point of view, whereas the play's focus is a man being cuckolded by his son.

"This is not a Jane Austen film or a comedy of manners. It will reflect the fact that New Zealand was a brave new world in which religion and manners were slipping away," said Mackay. "It was one of the first countries to give women the vote but they were still stuck in corsets and without contraception."

First Sun, which will premiere its debut feature, The Irrefutable Truth About Demons, at Cannes, is also developing Mandarin Summer, a psycho-sexual drama set just after World War II. Dave Gibson has written the screenplay from Dame Fiona Kidman's novel about a young woman who is removed from boarding school by her father, and put into service with a family. It is also likely to be directed by MacKay.

First Sun is the feature film offshoot of TV producer The Gibson Group, jointly owned by Mackay and Gibson. The company has been quietly developing features for about five years and hopes to produce one every 18 months. The company's second strand of development comprises the work of Demons' writer-director Glenn Standring who plans to resume work on This Virtual Life, a project that predates Demons but was deemed too ambitious and difficult to finance as a debut film. The project is an adaptation of short film, Lenny Minute, which was in competition in Cannes in 1993.