There's a new Australian film production company on the scene catering for film fanatics who love their sub genres more than they love their mothers.

Strongman Pictures, based in Melbourne, shies away from the mainstream and concentrates specifically on creating sub genre films that are aimed at certain types of film aficionados.

Daniel Armstrong, the 36-year-old founder of Strongman Pictures, explains his company's take on making niche flicks. "The prime directive for Strongman Pictures is to make films for fans. We aim to give fans a range of movies in genres that big studios don't make because they are not considered to have enough broad appeal. We are seeking to satiate those who devour the films they love, who embrace everything about them and love them to death."

Amongst the genres Strongman Pictures focuses on are the easily-dismissed 'zombie film', the intense and over-the-top drama of the 'revenge film' and films formed from a hybrid of genres. The latter is the perfect description of the current Strongman Pictures project: a sci-fi zombie romantic comedy featuring a female wrestler. The project is aptly titled From Parts Unknown, a quirky coming of age story about a young girl who is struggling to grow up in a world that doesn't want her to. The film focuses on the challenges she must overcome in her life, which include work, romance, life and death and ultimately self-sacrifice to fulfil a destiny that hovers over her. There's also female wrestling, zombies and an apocalyptic disaster scenario brought about by an out-of-control video game.

"I don't want to give too much away at this stage as we're still shooting, but I agree with one early preview that stated that it's either the dumbest idea for a film, or the most epic motion picture in history," Armstrong said.

Also acting as a producer for Strongman Pictures, Armstrong's main role is to bring the right scripts into production. These, according to him, are stories that have an international appeal and will be able to be realised to the required standard on a tight budget.

"We put high production values on the screen, and most importantly, deliver involving story lines and real characters, whose lives, conflicts and journey we care about. We also indulge ourselves with a healthy side order or gratuitous mayhem, blood, guts, action, guns and violence."

Being a fan of Pro Wrestling, and a long-time zombie film nerd, Armstrong has always wanted to make a movie that incorporated the two, although he admits it took some time to marry the two concepts in From Parts Unknown. He took inspiration from his previous job, working for a video game company that sold wrestling games. Last year Strongman Pictures also formed an association with Pro Championship Wrestling Entertainment, who ended up coming onboard as the film company's major sponsor. The team was then able to gain access to Australia's best pro-wrestling talents and a facility to train their actors in the art of professional wrestling.

"It's a fast-paced story, and lots of crazy stuff happens. Beyond that I dearly hope that there will be a core of our audience who really adopt the film and its characters, and make them part of their inner lives. We've put love and affection into all the personalities and we really care about them. There are also a lot of references to a host of films I love, and these are there for the others out in the world who are like us. It's like that time Joss Whedon said he'd rather have 100 people love one of his stories than 1000 people like it. It's the same with us."

After the film is made Armstrong will be looking for an international release.

"Specifically we are seeking distribution in North America, first on DVD and specialty TV networks, and from there we hope to feed out to the rest of the world. It just isn't viable to produce a film like this for a local market, and the market here is way too small.

"I often like to describe our films as dumb fun made by smart filmmakers. And it's worth mentioning that we at Strongman Pictures are fans first, filmmakers second. That's our point of difference."