A LANCASTER filmmaker is on the brink of signing a deal topping £3million, which will see his script played out on the silver screen.

Chee Keong Cheung is cautious about revealing too much for fear of 'tempting fate', but he already has Hollywood's Tim Hampton on board and is talking to agents of stars.

This latest venture, 'Dreams', is about a boy diagnosed with a terminal illness and how his family deals with it.

The 22-year-old will be in the director's chair when filming kicks off next year alongside producer Hampton, who has worked on films such as Lost in Space, Legend and Never Ending Story.

Chee has approached casting directors such as Michael Fenton, of ET, and the Harry Potter team, about finding the right youngster for the part.

"My father passed away about three years ago," says Chee. "That really triggered the script writing. They always say you should write about what you know.

"It is a tough subject matter to do sincerely. It is not just a tearjerker but thought-provoking."

Chee, whose family owns Lancaster's Golden Dragon Restaurant, admits Dreams has had a number of false starts.

"It has been frustrating but it has been good to give me some distance from the project."

While the film has attracted several offers, sponsors did not come up with the readies until recently.

"We had in mind a figure starting at £3.5 million. If we lowered the budget we would not have been able to achieve what we wanted.

"We had to get the right financers and producers on board who were like-minded and wanted to push my vision," he says.

"It is not a big budget glossy action-packed film but a real actors' piece. I want to make films with meaning and depth not just eye-candy."

The former Lancaster Grammar School student has come a long way since creating short films with his mates - including being hailed by The Times as Britain's most enterprising young filmmaker back in 1998 for 'Blue Sky'.

He has thrown himself into a series of short films, dealing with issues from drugs to a mother's loss. And he has also set up his Surrey-based company Intense Productions.

Chee is preparing to produce a feature-length love story - Where Love Reigns - next year with movie-mogul Martin Scorsese as executive producer.

He modestly puts his success down to 'persistence' as well as having experience of both producing and directing.

And he says: "I have made a concerted effort to try and learn as much as I can from people I meet and take on board what they have. You can't learn that from textbooks."

But despite mingling with the stars, Chee has few airs and graces and regularly returns home to Lancaster to help in the family restaurant.

He has also remained single, saying he has no plans to get tied down just yet.