Former Polybona Film Distribution executive Guan Yadi and commercials director Li Weiran have launched a new production company, Life Pictures, which aims to produce three features over the next year.

The three projects in development include In Your Face - 3.05 meters, a coming-of-age story about basketball and Beijing's young adults; a period drama inspired by a Kurosawa epic, and an adventure tale with sci-fi elements.

Li Weiran, who is best known for directing a series of commercials for Nike, will direct the first two projects.

Budgets for the three films are set between $650,000 (RMB5m) and $3m (RMB20m). In Your Face - 3.05 meters, for example, has a $1.5m budget. Zhou Yiming will write the script for the film which is in the process of securing foreign investors, including a few Asian outfits, according to Guan.

Li's untitled period drama will be written by Liu Heng (The Assembly) and is budgeted between $1.3m and $3m.

The Life Pictures team consists of young filmmakers and professionals, mostly graduated from Beijing Film Academy, with experience in making commercials and short films.

'We want to make quality genre films and try to fill in the gap between mega-budget martial arts productions and arthouse films,' Guan said.

In addition to Life Pictures, Guan also plans to set up a distribution company in the near future.

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