Target Entertainment and Pink Sands are kicking off their new partnership with Kfir Yefet's The Smell Of Apples, which will start shooting in early 2008 starring Gillian Anderson and Julian McMahon.

Producers are Kate McCreery and Charles Finch of Pink Sands.

The Smell of Apples is a coming-of-age story set in 1970s Cape Town, adapted from the novel by Mark Behr.

Yefet, a theatre veteran, is also directing Anderson on stage in The Doll's House in London later in 2008.

Target, which has worked on TV since its launch in 1998, is attending the AFM for the first time.

Target also has world rights to Jonothan Cullinane's New Zealand tax-office comedy We're Here To Help and is handling global licensing for Andrei Konchalovsky's Nutcracker: The Untold Story. Target is also in post-production on Jan Dunn's The Calling starring Brenda Blethyn.

The Target-Pink Sands slate also includes Bleeding London, based on the Geoff Nicholson book which McCreery is producing with Finch alongside JC Conklin; Ten Per Cent, written by Richard Burman and Olivia Glazebrook, Stalin's Gold by writer David Solomons, and Bushman written by Eric Ransdell and produced with Alisdair Flind.

McCreery is also working with Andy Noble, Finch and Sarah Radclyffe to produce Jim Threapleton's next project Exposure.

'Our new partnership with Pink Sands demonstrates that Target is serious about its commitment to investing in film production and development,' said Chris Rayson of Target Entertainment. 'Kfir's film under Kate's expert guidance is a perfect reflection of our desire to work with highly creative talent and the AFM is an important moment to announce our intentions to grow this side of our business.'

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