A VENTURE capital firm is backing a North-East film which is tipped for success.

The £250,000 backing for School for Seduction came from Northern Enterprise Limited (NEL), which made a £20,000 investment last year to enable Newcastle film company Ipso Facto to start the project.

Funding from the region meant that the £3.3m film, which is in the editing stage, was filmed and completed in the North-East.

Starring Kelly Brook, Tim Healy and new find Jessica Johnson, it tells the story of an Italian femme fatale who teaches seduction techniques to Geordie women.

The film has already attracted considerable media interest and the company has high hopes for the movie. It will be shown to distributors at a film festival in Milan later this year.

The film's producer, Christine Alderson, said: "We are so pleased to have NEL involved in the project because it is really important to have financial support from within the region.

"We wanted the film to be 100 per cent Newcastle, even though it is a story that could relate to any city and it has been lovely to film in our home area. There could have been a constraint on that if finance had come from outside the region."

David Wilson, NEL fund manager, said: "This is a slightly unusual investment for us, but it does demonstrate the breadth of business activities that NEL can support. The film sector is expanding rapidly in the region and we see it as an area that could play an increasingly important part in the North-East economy."