New Jersey-based Milestone Film & Video has picked upworldwide rights excluding the Benelux countries to Sam Wood's 1922 silentclassic Beyond The Rocks, which untilrecently was believed to be lost and stars Rudolph Valentino and GloriaSwanson.

Milestone vice-president Dennis Doros negotiated the dealwith Jan Rofekamp of Films Transit International on behalf of the NederlandsFilmmuseum.

The picture willopen theatrically throughout North America this year and the company iscollaborating with the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center in Austin,Texas, and the Gloria Swanson Collection to create bonus features for a DVDrelease in early 2006.

Milestone'sdirector of international sales Nadja Tennstedt is currently in talks withinternational distributors.

"Milestone has along tradition of unveiling great film discoveries to the cinema-going public,"Doros said in a statement.

"Beyond TheRocks, just for its star power alone, has been one of the most sought-afterfilms of the silent era.

"We are thrilledto be working with the Nederlands Filmmuseum, one of the finest archives in theworld, to showcase not only this wonderful movie, but also the remarkable workthey do to uncover, preserve and restore cinema history."

After thepicture was believed to have been lost for more than 80 years, film archivistsat the Nederlands Filmmuseum found the first two nitrate reels of Beyond TheRocks last April whiledrawing up an inventory of nitrate bequeathed by a film collector from Haarlem.

The picture isbeing restored under the auspices of Filmmuseum archivists Mark-Paul Meyer andGiovanna Fossati, with laboratory work by Haghefilm Conservation, and willscreen with a brand new score by Dutch composer Henny Vrienten during thesecond Filmmuseum Biennial in Amsterdam from Apr 5-10, 2005.