Film And Music Entertainment (F&ME), the UK independent production outfit, has launched a new division to service third party pictures, including the eight co-productions that have already been lined up alongside its own in-house pictures.

The new division will be headed by FAME's Sam Taylor with Sam Lavender and newly-appointed head of co-productions Zorana Piggott. It aims to help US and continental European films shoot in the UK. Its first full service production will be Orange Pictures' London-set caper Dead Fish.

FAME, which has previously assisted several pictures, says that more films are being drawn to shoot in the UK by a desire to make films in English and by tax and equity funds.

The eight third party films include Anders Ronnow's morality tale Strings now in production with Scandinavian players Zentropa, Nordisk and Bob Film; and Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's Niceland with Iceland's Zik Zak Films, Germany's Tradewind Pictures and Denmark's Nimbus. Further off it will work on Divine Machine, by Swiss director Simon Aeby which is written by Susanne Freud and Steve Attridge and produced by Allegro Film.