Gus Van Sant is following up his experimental film Gerry with another low budget picture, Last Days, to be financed by Mark Damon's revitalised MDP Worldwide.

The film follows the last day in the life of a rock star and will feature Michael Pitt, the hot young actor who had a small role in Van Sant's Finding Forrester. Pitt is appearing in Cannes out-of-competition selection Murder By Numbers directed by Barbet Schroeder and he has starred in cult US independents Hedwig And The Angry Inch (as Tommy Gnosis) and Bully directed by Larry Clark.

The film, brokered to MDP by WMA Independent, will be produced by Dany Wolf, Van Sant's producer on Gerry and executive producer on both Psycho and Finding Forrester. Budgeted in the $5m region, it will look at Pitt's character as he reminisces on the events that lead up to his planned suicide.

Van Sant appears to be returning to his lower-budget roots after the studio-level heights of Good Will Hunting with Miramax Films, Psycho with Universal and Finding Forrester with Columbia Pictures. Gerry, which screened at Sundance this year, was financed entirely by non-US sources including Film Four International, Franchise Pictures and Lauren Film.