By Steve Gorman 

OSCAR-winning filmmaker Michael Moore has begun work on a "searing and provocative" follow-up to his 2004 political documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," with plans to release it next year, producers said on Tuesday.

The as-yet untitled movie is being co-financed and distributed by two small studios - Overture Films, a subsidiary of John Malone's Liberty Media Corp, and Paramount Vantage, an art-house label of Viacom Inc's Paramount Pictures.

Moore, the writer and director, began work on the project in recent months and agreed to a spring 2009 commercial release, deliberately choosing to launch the movie after this fall's U.S. presidential election, said Overture's chief operating officer, Danny Rosett.

In keeping with Moore's penchant for secrecy surrounding his projects, the studios divulged few details of his latestwork except to describe it as "a searing and provocative follow-up" to "Fahrenheit 9/11."

That film, a scathing critique of President George W. Bush and his decision to go to war in Iraq, grossed $119 million at the U.S. box office to become the most commercially successful political documentary of all time.

In the photograph: Michael Moore standing next to a Fahrenheit 9/11 poster

Photograph: Getty Images