Sandrew Metronome has picked up all Scandinavian rights (except for Finnish TV rights) for first-time Finnish director Aj Annila's kung fu-fantasy-comedy Jade Warrior which was presented to international producers at this week's Mannheim Meetings co-production market.

Blind Spot Pictures, the Finnish co-producer of Lars von Trier's Dancer In The Dark, plans to shoot the Euros 1.5m production in Chinese and Finnish from autumn 2003 in Lapland and Tampere (Screendaily.com, May 3 2002).

Speaking after holding 25 one-to-one meetings in Mannheim for the project with potential partners, Blind Spot's co-founder Tero Kaukomaa said that an 8 ' minute showreel shot by Annila was very persuasive. 'When they see the footage, people quickly say 'I want to be part of this project', 'he observed.

Kaukomaa reported 'a lot of interest' mainly from Germany, France, Canada but also from the UK, although he pointed out that he will resume talks 'once the script is ready by the end of the year.'

He admitted that the budget seemed very low for such an action film (although the average Finnish feature budget hovers around Euros 1.1m-1.2m), but the crew will be working for less than official tariffs; the film will be shot in Super 16; and the special effects will be handled by the young Tampere-based posthouse Offworld Graphics whose background has been in FX for music videos and would now like to have a chance to show the film world what they are capable of.