Following his success with Black Book, producer San Fu Maltha is tackling another World War II-themed project. Maltha's company Fu Works is to partner with Els Vandevorst's Isabella Films on a film adaptation of bestseller, Winter in Wartime (Oorlogswinter), by former Dutch politician Jan Terlouw.

The film tells the story of a 14-year-old boy who in the last winter of wartime in 1944/1945 becomes responsible for the care of an English pilot.

In 1972, Winter in Wartime was published by publisher Lemniscaat (Crusade in
Jeans) and quickly became a bestseller. It has subsequently been translated into many languages. The film will be directed by Martin Koolhoven (Schnitzel Paradise, Bonkers) and scripted by Mieke de Jong (Bonkers, Lepel), Paul Jan Nelissen (Godforsaken!) and Martin Koolhoven.

Dutch broadcaster MAX will co-produce. The film will be released by Independent Films (who also distributed Koolhoven's previous feature Schnitzel Paradise.)This film will be the first cooperation between the two production companies Isabella Films and Fu Works.

'I have known San Fu for quite some years. Through Black Book, he has proved that there is still a tremendous demand for extraordinary tales from the Second World War,' Els Vandevorst commented of the alliance between Isabella and Fu Works.

The project will be shot in Poland and The Netherlands and will be released in 2008.

Here in the Cannes market, Albert Ter Heerdt's Kicks (another project which Maltha produced) is receiving its market premiere. The drama explores what happens after a Dutch police officer shoots a young Moroccan rapper. Kicks is on Holland Films' slate. It receives its first screening on Saturday.

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