LONDON — U.K. production house Film and Music Ent. is partnering with Dutch shingle Spring Films and Pal AV-motion pictures to produce feature pic “Lilet Never Happened.”
Pic looks at the dark underbelly of the child sex trade in the Philippine capital Manila and is based on the true story of a child prostitute who attempts to kill herself in order to escape her tragic life.
The E1.5 million ($2 million) Dutch-U.K. co-production will be directed by Spring Films’ Jacco Groen and produced by Pal AV’s Jos van der Pal (“Farewell,” “Zara”) and F&ME’s Mike Downey (“White Lightnin’,” “Bathory”).
Pic stars Filipino actress Sandy Talag (“Seance”) and is skedded to lense in Manila in January 2011.
The Dutch National Committee for International Cooperation and Sustainable Development and the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment are amongst the film’s financiers, along with Spring Film Foundation, Filmore and Wisenberg Fairtrade.
Pic is in advanced negotiations to secure world sales with a U.K. sales agency.
F&ME is currently working on a slew of independent co-productions, including thriller “The Mortician,” soccer docu “Street Kids United” and Western pic “The Scold’s Bride.”
The shingle is also at work on “The Spy Princess,” the true story of WWII Muslim Sufi female agent Noor Inayat Khan and dramady “Fake!,” which charts the relationship between Orson Welles, scribe Clifford Irving and art forger Elmyr de Hory.
Shingle has also optioned rights to Dorothy Baker’s tome “Cassandra at the Wedding.”
