Intermedia has confirmed it has struck a first-look pact with Mario Kassar and Andy Vajna's US production company C-2 Pictures, kicking off with sequels to the blockbusters The Terminator and Basic Instinct.

Both films are to feature their original stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone. Intermedia, which floated in Germany in May as Internationalmedia, plans to deliver Basic Instinct 2 in 2001 and raise about $80m in minimum guarantees for that year.

Terminator 3 is likely to be delivered in 2002, with Intermedia aiming for it to bring in at least $150m in turnover for that year.

Kassar and Vajna will produce, with Intermedia handling world-wide sales across all media. Distribution deals already in place include MGM as the theatrical distributor in North America for Basic Instinct 2.

Japan's Toho Towa is also backing C-2, while Germany's VCL Film+Medien this summer took a 25% stake in the next two Terminator films being produced by C-2. VCL is to get a 25% share of world revenues in all media and an option on the rights in German-speaking territories, in return for a further percentage of the budget.

Basic Instinct took $353m world-wide, while Terminator 2: Judgement Day took more than US$500m.