Start-up Singapore production company Cinemancer has unveiled its first production, Avatar Exile, which it claims is Singapore's first foray into the sci-fi genre.

Cinemancer's Kuo Jian Hong is directing the $3.6m project will also produce alongside Anthony Fu. Local multimedia outfit Cruxible is backing the film. Australia's Leeanna Walsman (Star Wars: Episode II, Searching For Alibrandi) is in final talks to play the female lead, while local actor Lim Kay Siu (Anna And The King, The Monkey King) will play a supporting role.

The film is set in the near future in the Asian city-state Sintawan, where everyone's identity is recorded in the vast CyberLink system. A young bounty hunter who tracks down illegal identities finds herself joining forces with a police detective to investigate corruption within the system itself.

Creative Technology and its subsidiary Silicon Illusions will create visual effects for the film. Production starts April 2001 for release early 2002.