EXCLUSIVE: Veteran Portuguese producer and sales agent Paulo Branco has revealed further details of his new projects with Mathieu Amalric and Monte Hellman through his company Alfama Films.

Love Or Die, the new $5m film from cult American auteur Hellman (Two Lane Backdrop), will shoot in Lisbon next winter.

Branco bills it as “a romantic thriller” in the vein of Heaven Can Wait. It tells the story of a man and woman who fail to meet during their lifetime but are sent back to earth to fulfill their love.

Alfama boss Branco revealed that Moliere award winning actress Léa Drucker has come on board The Blue Room, the latest feature from auteur (and ex Bond villain) Amalric.

Three years ago, Amalric won Best Director in Cannes for his film On Tour. He will also appear in The Blue Room as will his co-writer Stephanie Cleau.

The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by George Simenon about a couple who meet secretly to make love in the blue room at the Hotel des Voyageurs. They exchange what they think are innocent words after sex but their encounter has very bloody consequences.

Branco’s Alfama is also working with The Film Gallery’s Robert Schwentke on Muffrika, a drama based on an astonishing story identity theft in Germany at the end of the Second World War.