IndieCircle, the pan-European distribution consortium, has pre-boughtmulti-territory rights to Thank You For Smoking, a black comedysatirising the tobacco industry.

Thefilm is sold internationally by US-UK combine ContentFilm International and isa co-production between ContentFilm and Room 9 Entertainment. Directed by JasonReitman, it went into production earlier this week.

TheIndie Circle deal means that the film will be distributed in Italy by LuckyRed, Haut Et Court in France, Cineart in Belgium, A-Film in The Netherlands andFrenetic Film in Switzerland.

IndieCircle was formed some two years ago with the intention of giving independentdistributors greater clout in the marketplace through joint scouting andacquisition followed by cross-collateralised distribution. Previousacquisitions include Take My Eyes and Osama with its firstpre-buy of Berlin competition film Paradise Now, which it picked upexactly a year ago.

SanFu Maltha of A Film said, "Thank You For Smoking is the kind of highquality, highly commercial project that can really work for ourconsortium. We loved the script rightaway and were extremely happy with the cast that Room 9 and ContentFilm wereable to put together."

JamieCarmichael of ContentFilm International said, "It's a great compliment to thefilm that Indie Circle have been so quick to respond to the material. I've worked with most of the individualpartners over the years and its great to have access to their combined firstclass distribution network."

Basedon the best-selling novel by Christopher Buckley, Thank You For Smoking'sstar-studded cast includes Aaron Eckhart (Erin Brockovich), RobertDuvall (The Godfather), Katie Holmes (Batman Begins), Adam Brody(OC), Sam Elliott (We Were Soldiers), Cameron Bright (Birth),William H Macy (The Cooler), David Koechner (Anchorman), JKSimmons (Spiderman) and Kim Dickens (House Of Sand And Fog). Arecent addition is Open Water's Daniel Travis

Thedeal was concluded by Carmichael for ContentFilm International and StefanoMassenzi (Lucky Red) and Maltha for Indie Circle.