Germany's regional fund Filmstiftung NRW is backing Wayne Wang's next feature project 920 Sacramento with $1.86m (Euros 1.2m).

Based on a true story from the 19th century about a woman who finds her calling in the brutal reality of San Francisco's Chinatown, the production by Cologne-based Pandora Film is set to have 35 shooting days in North Rhine-Westphalia and already has Sienna Miller attached to star.

Pandora's distribution arm Pandora Filmverleih is lined up to handle German theatrical with The Match Factory taking on world sales. Michael Weber's company had handled Wang's last two films The Princess Of Nebraska and A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers when they premiered internationally last autumn.

The Filmstiftung's latest round of funding, which saw over $10.8m (Euros 7m) being paid out to 16 projects, has also supported four other international projects:

  • Soenke Wortmann's English-language European co-production Pope Joan between Constantin Film, Italy's Medusa Film and Spain's Ikiru Films, to be sold by Summit Entertainment;
  • Margarethe von Trotta's historical drama Vision - Aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen, to be produced by Munich-based Clasart Film with Celluloid Dreams, starring Barbara Sukowa, Joachim Krol, Alexander Held and Hannah Herzsprung;
  • Tamilische Hochzeit, a German-Swiss co-production by Neue Cameo Film and Topic Film to be directed by Anna Luif;
  • Low Lights, Lithuanian director Ignas Miskinis' urban road movie to be co-produced by Dagmar Niehage's Cologne-based Dagstar*Film with Ieva Norviliene of Vilnius-based Tremora.

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