Artist House, the US-Japanese group behind the adaptation of The Tesseract is to launch a new film fund in conjunction with Peter Anshin's Asia Entertainment Finance Associates (AEFA).

Tokyo-based Anshin, who also represents Comerica, said: "Artist House group will manage the fund, which will be used to support the group's rights acquisition, production and distribution business. In the long term, it may also provide funds to third parties. The fund will aim to raise investment from both domestic and international investors and to leverage its equity with debt finance."

Adapted from the Alex Garland novel, The Tesseract is produced by Artist House Inc and Artist Film Inc in co-production with Aoi Advertising Promotion and Toshiba Digital Frontiers Inc in Japan. Artist House will release the film in Thailand in early 2004