LA and Asia-basedproducer/investor Bigfoot Entertainment plans to invest in Singapore-producedfeatures through its Bigfoot Partners Film Fund.

The fund, which aims tosupport high-quality independent productions from emerging and established filmmakers,will pump between $200,000 and $2m into individual Singapore projects.

According to Bigfoot directorof creative development, Timothy Doolen, the fund is looking for Asia-themedprojects, preferably English language, as the films are meant for the world audience.

"Our goal is to showcase Asia as an emerging force to the world," said Doolen speaking at a pressconference in Singapore yesterday. "We've seen Hong Kong, Tokyo and Shanghai on film. Singapore is ripe for more exposure."

Seto Lok Yin, director of industrydevelopment at Singapore's Media Development Authority, said the fund "will help address some of the financinggaps of the local media industry".

Since its launch in 2004,the Bigfoot Partners Film Fund has invested around $6m in six projects whichit partially funded or fully produced. These include 3 Needles, for which Thom Fitzgerald won best director at the 2005Atlantic Film Festival, and psychological thriller Irreversi, which marks the directorial debut of Bigfoot chairman MichaelGleissner. Some of these projects feature Asian cast and were filmed in Asia.

"Bigfoot is committed tofacilitating additional resources to raise the production value for localfilms," said Gleissner. "We are convinced that there are film-makers in Singapore who deserve access to capital specifically dedicatedto feature films."

Bigfoot has committed afurther $3m on six projects which are due to start shooting in the next four toeight months, two of which - romantic comedy Cockfight and an action adventure about lost gold - will be shot inCebu in the Philippines.

The company has set up astudio and film school in Cebu. Since its first fully financed production, The Curiosity Of Chance in 2005, it hasrequired all its projects to carry out post-production work in the Philippines. Irreversiand its Chinese version Huilu, whichwas shot at the same time in Hong Kong, are currently in postat the studio.