Forward Films foundersTracy Brimm and Kate Myers are working on their firstslate of 10 features in development, with directors including Peter Cattaneo, John Crowley, David Yates and Nigel Cole.

Brimm and Myers quietly startedthe London-based production company in January 2004 after meeting years earlieras colleagues at ICM -- Brimm in Los Angeles andMyers in London -- before Brimm was president of TFIUSA, and Myers went on to work in development for Guy Ritchie's Ska Films and with Jonathan Glazer's Academy Features.

Brimm says they hope to fill aniche in terms of close relationships with directors as well as working onprojects that show modern UK life. "We really wantedto have a company that concentrates on working with directors from day one," Brimm says. "We started asking directors we know what wasmissing from the producers' side, and what kind of projects they wanted to do,and why they were leaving [the UK] to go work with Hollywood and what we coulddo to stop that."

Danish director Kristian Levring, who made Dogme film The KingIs Alive, has become a partner in Forward and also a founder.

Forward has a developmentdeal with the UK arm of Pathe as part of the distributor's UK Film Council slatefinancing.

Forward's two films indevelopment with Pathe are John Crowley's Home, a story written by former Pathe executive Richard Warlowabout a liberal middle class family in Hampstead who are taken hostage by ayouth gang. Brimm says that one could start shootingbefore 2007, on a budget of under $5.2m (£3m).

Also with Pathe is Nigel Cole's Blackout,written by Ben Richards, about how lives intersect during a London blackout.

Otherwise, Forward is developing David Yates's Harry Potter follow-up TheBride Stripped Bare, adapted by Andrew Bovellfrom Nikki Gemmell's novel. Brimmcalls the film a "provocative" look at the anatomy of a marriage from a woman'spoint of view.

The first Forward projectlikely to shoot this autumn will be BeachParty, a comedy about a single mother living on a council estate whosechildren try to find her a husband. Rowan Joffe (Roland's son) wrote thescript, and Sheree Folksonof BBC's Casanova will direct.Casting is starting now.

And even more projects arein the works with Cattaneo and Pete Travis, directorof Omagh.

Abroad, Forwardis the UK co-producer on Janos Szasz's Hungarian feature Diary of a Mad Woman, and will look topartner with US studios on two bigger-budget projects: an adaptation of aElizabeth Knox fantasy books The Dreamhunter Duet and an American-set comedy, Shoot and Run, written by Erin Cramer.

For more on Forward Films,see this week's Screen International.

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