BUDAPEST: Márk Bodzsár will begin filming his first feature, Heavenly Shift, at the end of August 2012.

The film, described as a sort of „Fargo meet Pulp Fiction," follows a young refugee from the Yugoslavian wars who get involved in the funeral business as a trainee for Hungarian paramedics in order to finance his fiancée's rescue from the war.

VILNIUS: The Lithuanian production company Tremora (www.tremora.com) sends it newly completed film Vanishing Waves to compete in the East of the West section of the Karlovy Vary IFF (www.kviff.com), running through 7 July 2012. The film's world premiere screenings are on 3 July and 5 July.

BUCHAREST: Romanian producer, screenwriter and director Catalin Mitulescu (The Way I Spent the End of the World, Loverboy) plans to shoot his third feature, El Rumano, in autumn 2013.

Details about the story have not been disclosed at this time, since the first draft is not yet finished, but the script that won a production grant from the National Centre for Cinema (www.cncinema.abt.ro) in 2010 dealt with love and loneliness as a 40-something Romanian living in Spain has to face a strange proposition.

ZAGREB: The Croatian company Kinorama (www.kinorama.hr) is developing a cinematic adaptation of the novel Green Dog written by Nada Mihelcic. No director is attached yet.

Green Dog/ Zeleni pas is a tragiccomedy for teenagers about a colourful family confronted with the drug addiction that affecte the eldest daughter. Told from the point of view of the 13-year-old middle sister, the story "is a mixture of wit and humour played against the tragic background," producer Ivana Simic told FNE.

ZAGREB: Vlatka Vorkapic's debut film, a romantic comedy titled Sonja and the Bull, will open the National Programme of the 59th Pula Film Festival (www.pulafilmfestival.hr) on 21 July 2012.

{mosimage}BUDAPEST: Acclaimed Hungarian director Szabolcs Hajdu (White Palms, Bibliothèque Pascal) is in preparation with a Hungarian/ Slovak/British coproduction, Mirage, a drama exploring the Hungarian Puszta and the way the Hungarians relate with people from different cultures.

{mosimage}BRATISLAVA: Paul Janik makes his directing debut with the comedy Tak Fajn after appearing in films and on TV since the age of 4, and spending 16 years in NYC, some of them working for NBC.

{mosimage}BUCHAREST: A cinematic adaptation of Fiona Campbell's bestseller Death of a Salaryman is in early development at the London based company Vernon Films with two time BAFTA winning director Adrian Sitaru and a budget of GBP 4 m.

{mosimage}BRATISLAVA: Slovak filmmaker Matej Mináč (All My Loved Ones, Nicky's Family) is developing a docu comedy based on real life events and retracing the history of his unfulfilled dream to finish a portrait on Federico Fellini that he began in 1989.

{mosimage}PRAGUE: Czech filmmaker Michal Žabka is shooting his animation feature debut, Quarterfoil, based on a popular Czech comic book series that dates back to the 1970's.

Quarterfoil (Čtyřlístek), with a 1 million euro budget, is produced by Miloslav Šmídmajer´s Bio Illusion (www.bioillusion.cz).

"There were actually many filmmakers and producers who tried to get the rights for Quarterfoil. But it was our company that the distribution company Cinemart (www.cinemart.cz) -- which had the rights -- proposed at the end. From the beginning I knew that I did not want to do a TV serie but a real animation feature," Šmídmajer said.

{mosimage}BUCHAREST: Eliza Zdru is shooting Iho, a 52 minute documentary on four elderly Aromanians from Cogealac, a small village near Constanţa, Romania, who sing polyphonic archaic music. ("Iho" means "melody" in the Aromanian dialect.).

{mosimage}BRATISLAVA: Rasto Boros is preparing to shoot the feature film Stanko in Slovakia, Austria and Italy in summer-fall 2012.

On the background of the topic of human trafficking, this road movie will highlight the self-delusion and dreams of people from periphery of society, while also looking at the topic of frienship and betrayal.

PRAGUE: Wolf, a Czech/Italian documentary coproduction with a Holocaust theme will be filmed over the summer. Italian producer Marta Donzelli (Vivo Film) working with Czech producer Radim Procházka (Produkce Radim Procházka, www.radimprochazka.com).

BUDAPEST: The fifth installment of Die Hard directed by John Moore is currently shooting in Budapest through August 2012.

BRATISLAVA: Jaroslav Vojtek (The Border) started shooting his first feature in May 2012. If in his documentary Unwanted Children/ Nechcené deti (2001) he was dealing with children from foster homes, he is now telling four individual stories about the complicated relationships between parents and children in modern Slovakia.

WARSAW: Polish film director Maciej Pieprzyca will begin filmimg his second feature The Will to Live (Chce sie zyc)on 16 June 2012, continuing through 31 July. The film is produced by Tramway Film Studio and co-produced by Silesia Film and is supported by the Polish Film Institute (www.pisf.pl).