CLT-Ufa is understood to have acquired French and Eastern European rights to Martin Scorsese's $100m historical opus, Gangs Of New York starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz, as well as French and Benelux's rights to Robert Altman's upcoming Doctor T And The Women headling Richard Gere, both from IEG.

The twin acquisitions will help feed CLT Ufa's fledgling European distribution network, which is currently made up of SND in France, Belga in Benelux and Intercom in Eastern Europe.

SND's fast-growing 2000 distribution slate already includes a raft of US titles including Chuck Russell's Bless The Child starring Kim Bassinger, Christopher McQuarrie's The Way of The Gun, Courtney Solomon's Dungeons & Dragons and Eric Blackney's Gunshy.