Beijing-based Pegasus & Taihe Entertainment and China Film Group have announced that they will co-produce romantic comedy, Fit Lover, which is the third film in a successful series that also includes Call For Love and Crossed Lines.

The two companies are also working with automobile company Guangzhou Honda, which has signed on as the main product placement advertiser of the film.

The comedy has its budget set between $1.43m (RMB10m) to $2.14m (RMB15m) and will be directed by Zhang Jianya, who directed the previous two films.

Main cast includes Karena Lam (Kidnap), Huang Bo (Crazy Stone), Lu Yi (Seven Swords), Huang Xiaoming (The Banquet) and Ren Quan (Assembly).

In contrast to Call For Love, which followed a man meeting 12 different women in a series of coincidences related to mobile phones, Fit Lover will star Lam as woman who encounters 12 men of various backgrounds in her search for true love. Shooting started early this week and is scheduled to wrap in October.

Fit Lover will also adopt the successful formula of the previous two films in finding strong advertisers for the contemporary comedy stories. Co-produced by China Film and Warner China Film HG, Call For Love attracted major mobile carriers and suppliers such as China Mobile, Nokia, Konka and Aigo as product placement advertisers. The film grossed $1.9m (RMB13m) in early 2007.

In late 2007, China Mobile continued to sponsor Pegasus & Taihe's mobile phone-related comedy Crossed Lines as product placement advertiser. The film made $5.4m (RMB37m) and became a top ten movie of 2007.

In both films, China Mobile and the telecom sponsors' investments were related to product placement and marketing events of the film, and they did not share in the film's box office revenue.

Low-budget comedy has recently become a box office generator in the China film market. Besides the success of Crossed Lines, recent comedy Almost Perfect made a record-high $6.72m (RMB46m) box office gross.

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