UK regional screen agency Screen East has announced more than $1.58m in investment in three new feature films to shoot in the East of England. Screen East's new Content Investment Fund is backed by the European Regional Development Fund.

The three films backed are Toa Fraser's Dean Spanley starring Peter O'Toole, Avie Luthra's Mad, Bad and Sad starring Meera Syal, and Justin Kerrigan's I Know You Know starring Robert Carlyle.

Sheryl Crown, Screen East's Executive Producer said: 'We are thrilled and excited to have such a wide variety of talent including actors of the calibre of Peter O'Toole, Sam Neill, Robert Carlyle and Meera Syall, coming here to work with us in the East of England. We have some great directors and producers working across a truly innovative and distinctive range of international feature films.'