PARIS -- British film director Mike Leigh is back in business with the French.
Leigh and Simon Channing-Williams, who are partners in Thin Man Films, have inked a deal under which Paris-based Studio Canal Plus and Les Films Alain Sarde will fully finance the director's next three films. Les Films Alain Sarde is 49% owned by Studio Canal Plus.
Deal, which was concluded in Paris on Thursday, will give Studio Canal Plus all rights to the pics, with Leigh expected to start work on the first (still untitled) project in September.
Leigh and Channing-Williams are no strangers to working with the Gauls. Now-defunct Ciby 2000 produced Leigh's "Secrets & Lies."
Studio Canal Plus has made no secret of the fact that it wants to work with English-speaking directors as part of Canal Plus' overall strategy to create a major European film studio, complete with production and distribution outlets in the key European territories.
The company recently backed David Lynch's "The Straight Story" and Jim Jarmusch's "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai."
While Canal Plus is looking to establish a distribution outlet in the U.K. -- it recently created Bac Distribution in France and has distrib deals in place in Spain and Germany -- Studio Canal Plus head Brahim Chioua said the three Leigh pics will not automatically be released via whatever distribution system Canal Plus sets up in Britain.
"These films will be sold on the open market," Chioua said. "Don't forget -- We have two businesses: Creating films which will go through our own distribution system and also trading films in which we invest and sell to other distributors."
Vincent Grimond, head of Canal Plus' subsidiaries division, which is being transformed into the European film studio, must still strike a U.K. distribution agreement, although he is known to have held talks with Pathe, Alliance Atlantis and FilmFour.
Following discussions at the Cannes film fest, Alliance and Studio Canal Plus sales head Daniel Marquet have agreed that Alliance will distribute a six-film slate of Studio Canal Plus pics in Britain.
The movies involved are John Water's "Cecil B. Demented," George Romero's "Bruiser," Kathryn Bigelow's "The Weight of Water," Abel Ferrara's "R'Xmas," Samantha Lang's "The Monkey's Mask" and Nagisa Oshima's "Gohatto."
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