LA-based sales and production outfit Hilltop Entertainment has cut a deal with French broadcaster and film backer TF1 to represent worldwide rights on French language comedy Jet Set starring Lambert Wilson, Ornella Muti, Ariadna Gil and Samuel Le Bihan.

The deal is unusual in that not only does it bypass TF1's own sales operation but gives Hilltop remake rights to the populist film

Directed by Fabien Ontieniente, the film is the story of the owner of a bar on the outskirts of Paris who in order to save the bar from bankruptcy plans to attract a VIP clientele built from the pages of elite magazine "Jet Set". They enlist a good looking comedian friend of theirs to pose as a millionaire playboy to infiltrate the jet set.

Hilltop, run by Harel Goldstein and Mark Victor and Michael Grais of Victor & Grais Productions, is screening the film in Cannes. Also on the slate are two from producers Thomas Hedman and Gary Howsam - Ignition starring Bill Pullman and Lena Olin, which Lions Gate Films has picked up for North America; and Kevin Of The North, starring Skeet Ulrich and Natasha Henstridge.

Hilltop has also reactivated the long-gestating Andrei Konchalovsky picture The Royal Way, which is now - finally - set to start shooting in October after nine years in development.