Firming up its reputation as a wellspring for new talent in Spain, start-up Tesela Producciones is prepping four new films for its second-year slate headlined by writer-director Achero Manas' follow-up to his multiple award-winning debut feature Pellet (El Bola).

Manas, who won four of Spain's top Goya awards and the EFA's Fassbinder Award for Pellet (2000), will shoot the Euros 3m drama November (Noviembre) in August. Casting is underway for dozens of young actors to star in the story of the damaged idealism of the members of an independent theatre group.

Other films on Tesela's slate may be delayed by what chief Jose Antonio Felez calls the "worrying situation" of acquisitions cutbacks at Spanish pay TV, but are being prepped to shoot in late 2002 or early 2003.

Eva Lesmes, director of Carmen Maura-starrer El Palo, is developing drama Trapis based on a prize-winning screenplay by Javier Gancedo. Nicolas Munoz (Rewind) is developing satirical comedy Balls about football obsession among Spanish boys and their fathers.

Finally, Santi Amodeo - one half of the writing-directing team behind last year's London-set The Pilgrim Factor - is developing psycho-thriller Banks about a young woman who gets caught up in plans for a bank heist. Amodeo's Pilgrim partner Alberto Rodriguez is currently editing his second effort, Tesela-backed The Suit (El Traje) for an autumn release.

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