Summit Entertainment has boarded Heart Of Love, a broad comedy from the film-making team behind The Blair Witch Project. Summit will act as international sales agent on the film and will introduce it to buyers this month at Cannes.

Haxan Entertainment's Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick have written and will produce and direct the film, an off-kilter comic creation which they themselves have described as "Monty Python meets Airplane". Shooting is set to start towards the end of the year.

"It's an updated Monty Python story with an American sensibility," agreed Summit's president and CEO Patrick Wachsberger, who said it was budgeted under $20m. While he was keeping mum on the storyline, he did offer that it was a single story about one man's quest for love and not, as previously reported, a series of vignettes or historical anecdotes. "I think it will do for comedy what The Blair Witch Project did for horror," he added.

Artisan Entertainment has domestic rights to the film, which it acquired as a negative pickup, but Haxan has arranged financing for the picture itself. Although Summit acts as sales agent for Artisan films, this picture does not fall into any Artisan output deals and is available in all territories through Summit.

At Cannes, Summit will be presenting a teaser to buyers of Haxan's The Blair Witch Project 2 (which is an Artisan movie worldwide) although this will not be the same trailer that will hit US theatres on Memorial Day weekend.

Sanchez and Myrick are executive producing the second film which is being directed by noted documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger. After Heart Of Love, the duo plan to write and direct The Blair Witch Project 3 which will be a prequel of sorts to the original blockbuster, exploring the ancient mythology behind the legendary witch.

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