EXCLUSIVE: Slate backed by city executive Sonny Schneider and director Arjun Rose includes feature adaptation of a new short starring Laura Haddock, Ed Skrein.

Demons Never Die director and former Screen Star of Tomorrow Arjun Rose is to spearhead new UK finance outfit Schneider Media Investments - a company he will co-own with city executive Sonny Schneider.

According to company CEO and former city trader Rose, Schneider Media Investments will initially look to back sci-fi and fantasy genre features as well as online projects.

Rose told Screen: “We will be reviewing creative projects in the media industry for investment from a wide range of investors in the form of equity, loans and gap funding.”

“My role is to head up the company, looking for and proposing those projects which I feel have true artistic premise as well as commercial viability.”

An early stage project on the slate is a feature adaptation of a short written and directed by Rose called Goldfish, which was shot by Welcome to the Punch cinematographer Ed Wild and starred Laura Haddock (The Inbetweeners’ Movie) and Ed Skrein (iLL Manors).

The apocalyptic thriller follows the last man left uninfected in London after an outbreak sweeps the UK. The protagonist also happens to be a trader so is charged with keeping the economy afloat.

Also on the slate is haunted-house comedy Haunted from writers Andrew Daniel and Thomas Perrett, both London-based post-production experts.

Schneider, the founder and managing director of city trading outfit Schneider Trading Associates, sold foreign exchange company Schneider Foreign Exchange to Mexican-based Monex Group in 2012 in a deal reportedly worth around $100m.

The city exec and director have known each other since 2005 when Schneider helped Rose set up trading team Shaolin Futures.

Separately of Schneider Media Investments, Rose is looking to convert Laughing Boy, the music and comedy night he co-founded with comedian Jamie Howard, into a television format. Development discussions are underway with Elton John’s Rocket Pictures.

He is also developing his own coming-of-age script On the Tracks, which has Idris Elba on board as producer and Alcon Entertainment in talks to finance.

Former Screen Star of Tomorrow Rose previously wrote and directed 2011 horror Demons Never Die, which starred Robert Sheehan, Ashley Walters, Tulisa Contostavlos, Jason Maza, Femi Oyeniran and Morwenna Banks. Prometheus and The Wire star Elba was an executive producer.

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