After earlier Cannesannouncements to back the next films from Michael Winterbottom and Ken Loach,FilmFour has announced another new film on its slate.

The Channel 4 feature filmarm is working with Kudos Pictures, run by former FilmFour head Paul Webster,to co-finance Death Of A Ladies Man.The black comedy, with a budget under $5.6m (£3m), will reunite the team behindThe Proposition: director JohnHillcoat, writer Nick Cave and actor Ray Winstone. Webster will produce.

Winstone plays asex-addicted travelling salesman who has to takes his young son on the roadafter his wife commits suicide. The shoot will start in mid-October in Londonand the Southern coast of England.

"I was consumed by theway [Hillcoat] made The Proposition,"Film Four head Tessa Ross said. "We've almost never had a script whereeveryone in the office said, 'This is the best script I've read in two to threeyears.' With this script and having seen The Proposition, it was quite difficult to say no to."

Added Peter Carlton, head ofFilmFour Lab: "It's got that kind of seminal quality to it."

In other FilmFourdevelopments, Pawel Pawlikowski's long-planned adaptation of DBC Pierre'sBooker-winning novel Vernon God Little now has US backing as well. FilmFour is co-developing and co-financingwith Marc Turtletaub and Peter Saraf's production company Big Beach Films.Aimee Peyronnet's Wild Child Films with produce the 2007 shoot with Mike Whiteand Jack Black's Black and White Productions. Pawlikowski's usual producerTanya Seghatchian will also produce the story, set in the aftermath of violencein an American high school.

FilmFour's other projects inthe works include Sarah Gavron's Brick Lane, with a budget of less than $5.6m (£3m), whichstarts shooting in June in India and the UK and is still finalising casting.FilmFour said it is cash flowing the new UK film tax credit in order to getthat project off the ground in a timely manner.

FilmFour is also working onMike Leigh's next film to shoot in late summer, also casting now.

The company also has three documentariesin the works: Jerry Rothwell's Deep Water, which should be completed by autumn; Michael Apted's football project,which will continue its shoot at the World Cup; and Julien Temple's Strummer, about The Clash's Joe Strummer.

The company has a strongslate of literary adaptations being developed now, including Peter Jackson'sawaited big-screen version of Alice Sebold's best-seller The Lovely Bones, Thomas Vinterberg's How I Live Now based on the Meg Rosoff novel, and Peter Straughan'sadaptation of Toby Young's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

FilmFour is also involved inHarmony Korine's Mr Lonely, forwhich they pre-bought UK TV rights.

Topics