Peter Hoffman, chairman of Seven Arts Pictures, has launched an international sales division Seven Arts International and hired veteran David Lamping as president.

Lamping will head into Cannes with a broad slate of films including the next pictures from Bronwen Hughes (Forces Of Nature), Paul McGuigan (Gangster No 1, The Reckoning) and Bob Rafelson (Five Easy Pieces, The King Of Marvin Gardens).

Lamping, who has been head of his own sales and marketing consultancy for the last ten years, was formerly executive vice president of Sovereign Pictures and senior vice president of Orion Pictures International. He will remain based in London, although Seven Arts International will also have an office in Los Angeles, where Kate Hoffman will be based as vice president of marketing and Stephanie Poole as vice president of administration.

The new division, which Hoffman has been building for some time, clears up any confusion in the marketplace about Hoffman's relationship with Jay Firestone's Fireworks Pictures which was severed some time ago. Seven Arts produced movies such as Onegin, The Believer, American Rhapsody, Cletis Tout and Interstate 60 which were sold in international territories by Fireworks (formerly known as Seven Arts International), while Seven Arts produced Rules Of Engagement with Paramount Pictures and which was co-financed and sold internationally by Fireworks.

Seven Arts International's Cannes slate includes:

- I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, which reunites director Mike Hodges and star Clive Owen for the first time since Croupier. Charlotte Rampling and Malcolm McDowell are also attached.

- Stander, the true story of South African policeman Andre Stander who quit the force and turned to a life of crime. Cast attached to star include Thomas Jane, Embeth Davidtz and Arnold Vosloo.

- No Good Deed, a noir thriller to be directed by Rafelson based on a short story by Dashiell Hammett about a police detective who tries to help a friend find his missing daughter. Samuel L Jackson, Milla Jovovich and Stellan Skarsgard are attached to star.

- Molly Deeds set to be directed by Charley Stadler and star Milla Jovovich.

- Red America set to be directed by Andrei Nekrasov and star Vladimir Mashkov.

Hoffman also said that Seven Arts was in final negotiations to co-produce with Paramount a thriller called Asylum which would be directed by McGuigan and star husband-and-wife team Natasha Richardson and Liam Neeson. Based on the novel by Patrick McGrath, the film is the story of a woman who falls in love with a sculptor serving time in an insane asylum for the brutal murder of his wife.