The Almodovar brothers' Madrid-based production outfit, El Deseo, has boarded English-language drama My Life Without Me, which is set to shoot in the US later this year with Isabel Coixet directing.

The film, which tells the story of a young mother's confrontation with her own death, will mark writer-director Coixet's second English-language outing in the US after 1996's Things I Never Told You starring Andrew McCarthy and indie favourite Lily Taylor.

Life joins the El Deseo 2001 production slate, headlined - as is customary - by Pedro Almodovar's own forthcoming film, Mala Educacion, also in development.

In recent years El Deseo executive producer Agustin Almodovar has backed the occasional third-party film, often from a new or young director. The company produced popular director Alex de la Iglesia's first feature film, Mutant Action (Accion Mutante), in 1993.

Last year El Deseo co-produced Guillermo Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone (El Espinazo Del Diablo), currently pending an April release in Spain through Warner Sogefilms.