John Boorman's SFX-laden, family fantasy feature Knight's Castle may benefit from a cooperative agreement concluded this week between German private media fund Cinerenta and Studio Babelsberg Motion Pictures for Cinerenta's Media Fund VI to be dedicated exclusively to projects produced in the Berlin-Brandenburg region.

Introducing the joint initiative, Cinerenta's COO Marco Mehlitz explained that twelve projects have been shortlisted for consideration by the two partners to be backed by the fund. "Three of the twelve have storylines which are set in Berlin so it would make sense to shoot here, and Boorman's film would be a studio-based project and need many special effects," he noted

The cooperation between the two partners will focus on up to six English language feature projects for the international market to be financed by Cinerenta. Ideally, the projects would shoot as much possible in the Berlin-Brandenburg region or central Germany as well as drawing on Studio Babelsberg's range of services from sound stages through the art department and sound studio to postproduction facilities.

Fund VI, which will be marketed by banks in the Berlin-Brandenburg region, aims to raise Euros 60m-80m from private individuals by the end of this year for the first productions to roll at the beginning of 2003. "We will be primarily addressing local investors in Berlin and Brandenburg to come onboard this fund based here in the region", Mehlitz explained.

"In the last 18 months we have been intensifying our attempts to find productions which could be produced in Germany", Mehlitz continued. "since our world sales company partners have increasingly shown openness in the past to accept locations outside of Hollywood."

Mehlitz pointed out, though, that the number of projects which will be produced by Fund VI will depend, of course, on the volume of venture capital raised from private investors by the end of 2002.