SCOTTISH films aiming for the commercial success of The King's Speech will be funded by a new multimillion pound finance company backed by the nation's arts funding body.

The Mackendrick Film Fund – named after Alexander Mackendrick, the Scottish-American director of The Ladykillers and Whisky Galore – is seeking investment from companies or wealthy individuals to add to a £500,000 cash injection from Creative Scotland.

The fund, the first finance vehicle of its kind in the country, is backed by Aegis Film Fund and Prescience Film Finance, and is looking to make successful movies by Scots or in Scotland with budgets of between £3million and £6m.

It already has a film under consideration – Born To Be King, a romantic comedy with Ewan McGregor and Kate Hudson, written and directed by Peter Capaldi. The fund hopes to have £35m in funding available to offer to potential film makers.

Aegis was the largest single backer of The King's Speech – the £9m film that became the highest-grossing independent British film of all time, earning £45.7m at UK cinemas and £266m worldwide.

Claire Mundell, who leads Mackendrick Capital Funders, believes there is gap in the market for such a fund north of the Border.

It will bring together commercial investors to put money into "international, commercially minded films with a demonstrable Scottish emphasis and key Scottish elements, such as location, cast or creative talent."

The fund is now targeting investors and is also looking for scripts and ideas for the films, which it hopes to have identified by the summer of this year.

The Creative Scotland moneywill add to the investment pot, but only be used for Scottish producers.

"We are pushing at an open door as the world wants to come to Scotland," said Ms Mundell, a Glasgow-based producer. "We have great talent, great crews, we have fantastic locations, but ultimately we need money, and hopefully the Mackendrick Fund can contribute to that."

Scripts will be chosen by Ms Mundell, Prescience director Paul Brett, and Carole Sheridan, former head of talent at Scottish Screen.

Ms Mundell added: "It's about taking Scotland out to the film financing market and saying we have something to offer them.

"There are lots of high net worth individuals in Scotland, there are people that are passionate about Scotland who may want to try some form of film investment.

"Aegis and Prescience really liked the idea of taking their existing model and putting a Scottish emphasis on it.

"The ambition for the fund is to make a range of films which are demonstrably commercial, a slate of films with very strict [financial] criteria to safeguard [investors'] money."

Peter Nichols, founder of the Chancery Group and chairman of Prescience, and a partner in Mackendrick Capital Funders, said: "The Fund will nurture the development of the film industry in Scotland, and add to the Scottish economy by bringing projects to life taking advantage of the technical skills, screen talent and locations there.

"The involvement of Creative Scotland is a very positive sign of commitment to strengthening the industry."

Caroline Parkinson, director of creative development at Creative Scotland, said: "This fund is a significant move and is vital for developing of the talent base here at the same time as building Scotland's reputation as an attractive film destination bringing further economic and employment benefits."

l Yesterday saw the publication of A Future for British Film, a review of the UK film industry by Lord Smith of Finsbury.

The lengthy document has 56 recommendations for a better film industry, including a programme to "bring film education into every school" and a scheme to bring projectors and screens to village and community halls.