BUDAPEST: Hungarian director Robert Pejo is in pre-production on his new film, Paw, a story based on the real life of the famous Hungarian rescue dog and his trainer Laszlo Lehoczki. Produced by Laszlo Kantor's Uj Budapest Filmstudio the film is set to shoot in autumn. Pejo's wife Magda Dajni has written the script.

The first Estonian film ever to screen in the Sundance comptetition, The Temptation of St.Tony by Veiko Õunpuu launched to a controversial reception domestically and became an unexpected box office victim due to the crash of a cinema ceiling. But then, nothing less would be expected from a black-and-white film featuring naked jogging in the snow, dead dogs and bodily dismemberment mixed with Belle Epoque style cabaret performances.

Slovenian director Andrej Košak has started production on his third film, State of Shock (Stanje šoka), produced by Danijel Hočevar of production company Vertigo/Emotionfilm (www.emotionfilm.si). This is the first collaboration of this popular director and the successful producer.

With Don't Look into the Mirror/Mi nayir hayelun, Armenian helmer Suren Babayan directs an ambitious adaptation of the novel written by Perch Zeituntsyan. Producer Vardan Abovyan told FNE that he was fascinated when reading the script "by the way it dealt with the material from the novel," and found "its language was readable for the audience."

Andrzej Saramonowicz, the creator of Polish box office hit Ladies signed an agreement with Warner Bros. Entertainment Poland to produce and distribute at least two new films by the end of 2011.

Former Czech president and playwright Vaclav Havel announced he will begin shooting his film directing debut Leaving on July 2 instead of June, as previously announced. Havel rejected media speculation that he would step aside due to illness.

BUDAPEST: The third sequel of the very successful Hungarian cult-comedy Üvegtigris (Glass Tiger 3) produced by Filmpartners Ltd. (http://www.filmpartners.hu/) will start shooting on June 21 in Hungary. Péter Rudolf, the director, main actor and co-writer of all the three films, promises that this new film will keep the special atmosphere and characters which made a success of the previous movies, but will add more action to it.

Young Slovak script-writer and film director Peter Magat has started preparing the full-length feature film Who's the Boss Here (Kto je tu boss) about the mafia in Slovakia during the 1990's. Peter Vrabel from AM:PM (www.agentura-ampm.sk) will produce the film under the brand New Europe Cinema.

BUDAPEST: Academy Award winning director Istvan Szabo is working on an new film, The Door, an adaptation of a Hungarian novel, written by Magda Szabo, which has been translated to 32 languages. The project has recently been included among the international co-productions which are funded by the two national German funds, German Federal Film Board (FFA) and German Federal Film Fund (DFFF). The film is also backed by the Hungarian Motion Picture Foundation (www.mmka.hu).

Răzvan Rădulescu makes his feature film directing debut with First Of All, Felicia (Felicia, înainte de toate), co-directed by Dutch director Melissa de Raaf.

Dorota Kędzierzawska's Gdynia competition film Tomorrow Will be Better tells the story of three homeless Russian boys who travel to Poland in search of a better life, with the universal hope that life is different and better somewhere else.

In Rite of Passage, director Janusz Majewski creates an image of turbulent events in post-WWII Poland, seen trough the eyes of boys on the verge of their adult life.

With his Gdynia main competition film Million Dollar, Polish director Janusz Kondratiuk crafts a fast-paced comedy about contemporary Poland with people adrift following the transformation of the country.

Based on a true story, Sławomir Pstrong's debut film Silence explores the lives of families who lost their children in a tragic accident. The film will premiere at the Gdyia festival (www.fpff.pl) before going on to other film festival screenings.

In Three Minutes. 21:37 director Maciej Ślesicki explores the image of contemporary Poland in the moment of grief after the death of Pope John Paul II. The cast of popular Polish actors, some from the director's previous commercial successes, includes Bogusław Linda, Piotr Adamczyk, Marcin Dorociński, Andrzej Grabowski, Zbigniew Zamachowski, Cezary Pazura and Marian Dziędziel.

If You Go Away, the feature film debut from Ewa Stankiewicz, is the emotional story of two people who struggle to find themselves after personal loss. Stankiewicz,a graduate of Łódź Film School, co-directed Touch Me (with Anna Jodowska), which was awarded the Best Independent Film Award at 2003 PFP in Gdynia (www.fpff.pl).