The deal, struck between CLT-Ufa International and French producer Stephane Tavenas at France's Horizon Productions (Barracuda), is only the third time that the two-year old sales division, CLT-Ufa, has acquired worldwide rights to a film. Similar deals were struck earlier this year for the Bob Hoskins starrer Live Virgin and Bruno de Almeida's directorial debut, On the Run. 

The French-language Like A Fish... marks the directorial debut of commercials director Herve Hadmar. Its cast is headed by Tcheky Karyo (Addicted to Love, Nikita), Monica Belluci (Bram Stoker's Dracula) and Dominique Pinon (Delicatessen). 

According to Heinz Thym, head of international acquisitions & sales at CLT-Ufa International, other international financing deals are likely to follow, in part to feed CLT-Ufa's French theatrical distribution company SND which committed this January to distribute CLT-Ufa films in exclusivity.  

CLT-Ufa Int'l looks set to gradually move into bigger-budgeted English-lingo projects. Some may well be sourced from German producer Chris Sievernich's Millenium Mediawerks. CLT-Ufa has a first-look distribution deal with Moritz Borman's Allied Pacific which has encharged Sievernich (Paris-Texas, The Dead) to develop projects for Allied. These films are funded in turn by the German IMF (Internationale Medien und Film) tax shelter fund.  

CLT-Ufa's line-up at Cannes includes screenings of the Pierce Brosnan-starrer The Nephew and On the Run, plus a promo-reel of Live Virgin. 

CLT-Ufa is also considering the possibility of establishing preferential distributor deals in Germany, said Thym. 

"We are expanding pretty quickly in international distribution and building towards a strong slate. But we will move step by step. There's no hurry," Thym commented. 
John Hopewell