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Kfir Yefet's "The Smell of Apples," starring Gillian Anderson, will be the first film from the partnership between U.K. production outfit Pink Sands and London-based sales company Target Entertainment.

A coming-of-age drama set in 1970s South Africa, pic shoots early in 2008."Smell of Apples" will be produced by Kate McCreery and Charles Finch for Pink Sands. Julian McMahon co-stars.

Target is a longstanding TV sales company that is branching out into features. It has picked up worldwide rights to Kiwi pic "We're Here to Help" and is in post-production on Jan Dunn's Kentish drama "The Calling," starring Brenda Blethyn. It is also handling global licensing for Andrei Konchalovsky's "Nutcracker: The Untold Story."

Other projects under its Pink Sands deal include "Bleeding London," adapted from Geoff Nicholson's novel "Ten Per Cent," written by Richard Burman and Olivia Glazebrook; "Stalin's Gold," by writer David Solomons and "Bushman," written by Eric Ransdell. McCreery and Finch are also working with producers Andy Noble and Sarah Radclyffe on writer-director Jim Threapleton's "Exposure."