A group of international distributors comprising the UK's Momentum Pictures, Spain's Sogepaq, Italy's Eagle Pictures, Scandinavia's Egmont and Germany's Constantin have been confirmed as partners with the Steve Tisch Co and sales outfit Summit Entertainment in long-gestating production outfit Escape Artists.

Some of the distributors are understood to taking equity stakes in the company and all five will have seats on the board, which will make greenlighting decisions.

While the overseas distributors are not expected to be able to over-rule the combined voting power of the production outfit's producers and Summit, the pact is seen as having at least the potential to work in an international-friendly way.

Sony has first look for the US on projects, which are expected to receive hefty studio releases domestically as part of the distributors' agreements. Escape Artists merges Tisch's company and Jason Blumenthal and Todd Black's Black & Blu Entertainment. Summit also has an equity stake in the venture, which is also understood to have backing from Union Bank and Newmarket Group.