HBO Films has pre-sold itsnew Gus Van Sant production, Last Days, to a string of European buyers,most of which bought the director's previous Palme d'Or winner, Elephant.

MK2, which racked up 750,000admissions on Elephant, which was also sold by HBO, took France on thegrunge rock story, which stars Michael Pitt, Asia Argento and Lukas Haas. BIMcame on board for Italy, while Vertigo took Spain. Optimum pre-bought the UK,while Scandinavia went to Svensk and Greece to Audiovisual.

The production, only announcedon the eve of Cannes, is currently shooting in the US.

"We sold it on a one-linesynopsis," said HBO London managing director Penny Wolf. "There was a leap offaith from the point of view of distributors but we were not asking them toanything that HBO is not doing."

HBO has also come on boardfor the US and international sales on South African title Yesterday withleading producer Anant Singh. Written and directed by Darrell Roodt, whosecredits include Sarafina! and Cry, The Beloved Country, the picturetells the story of a young woman with AIDS who wants to see her daughter startschool.

Wolf is fielding multipleoffers for Spanish language title The Holy Girl, HBO's second Cannescompetition film this year alongside The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers.Rounding out the company's sales slate are Empire Falls, Maria Full Of Graceand Mrs Harris.