Two young Spanish productioncompanies, lazonafilms and Telespan 2000, have joined forces to back twofeature films from hot writer-director David Serrano.

The mastermind behind theenormously successful comedies The Other Side Of The Bed, which hescripted, and Football Days, which he wrote and directed, Serrano iscurrently at work on scripts with an eye to shooting the first of the twoaccorded films in early 2006.

Potential projects could bemusical romantic comedy With Or Without Love (Con O Sin Amor) or1950's-set comedy Stuck In The Mine (Encerrados En La Mina).

The lazonafilms-Telespanlink makes sense: Ignacio Salazar-Simpson, lazonafilms founding partneralongside Douglas Wilson and Gonzalo Salazar-Simpson, helped develop Serrano'sdebut films for Telespan while at broadcaster Telecinco.

The films will be among thefirst out of new outfit lazonafilms, which produced the successful stageadaptation of The Other Side Of The Bed and has more theatre pieces, aswell as a Monty Python-inspired television sitcom backed by Alex de laIglesia's Panico Films, in the works.

Feature film projectsinclude: Leonardo Sbaraglia-starrer The Contestant (Concursante), aEuros 3m black comedy shooting this autumn with Continental Producciones; and AtHome With A Neanderthal, a Euros 3.2m situation comedy shooting this summerwith Antena 3.