Film Finance Corporation Australia has provisionallypromised funding to three features, including writer-director Christina Andreef's adaptation of the novel Shiver, one of 18 projects in Cannes' scriptdevelopment program L'Atelier.

The other two dramas are Two Fists One Heart, to be directed by NewYork-based Australian John Polson (Swimfan, Hide and Seek),and the German-Australian-Chinese period co-production The Children of Huang Shi, directed by the UK's Roger Spottiswoode, who previously directed films including Tomorrow Never Dies.

David Elfick is producing Two Fists, about an Italian-Australian boy's journey into manhood.Publicist Fiona Nix serve as a first-time executiveproducer.

The film was inspired by an original script by former boxer Rai Fazio, with Jan Sardi and Tim Michin alsowriting.

The FFC committed production finance to Two Fists One Heart in early2005 when Sardi, Shine's writer, attached to direct. Then,as now, HanWay Films and Buena Vista International wereattached.

The Children of Huang Shi is about theJapanese occupation of China. Should it getthrough the contracting phase, it will be the first official co-productionbetween the three countries.

Jane Hawksley wrote the project. Arthur Cohn, Weiland Schulz-Kiel, Peter Loehrand Jonathan Shteinman will produce. Partners includeCapitol Films, Sony Classics, Quixinran and Australia's Becker/DendyFilms.

Shteinman, the Australian producer, isalso executive producer on the documentary feature Not Quite Hollywood, which also got what the FFC calls a "letter ofintent."

Directed by Mark Hartley and produced by Craig Griffin and MichaelLynch, it revisits the sex- and horror-filled Australian films of the 1970s and1980s.

The book of Shiver was writtenby Nikki Gemmel before she wrote the best-selling The Bride Stripped Bare. It tells of ayoung woman's emotional awakening during a dangerous sea voyage to Antarctica with 100 men and20 women.

"It is so exciting that the FFC is going in to bat for Shiver...It's a big and difficultfilm," said producer Helen Bowden, who is planning to shoot in Antarctica, New Zealand and, to a lesserextent, Australia.

Bowden also produced Andreef's only otherfeature Soft Fruit. Sony is attachedlocally to Shiver.

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