Randall Miller, who directed the 2008 Sundance entry Bottle Shock, returns to Park City in a different guise as president of acquisitions and film development at the new distributor Consolidated Pictures Group.

Backed by equity investors, the company was set up after Miller and his producing partner Jody Savin were approached by Timothy Patrick Cavanaugh and James Mancuso of Consolidated Pictures Group, formerly Leonidas Films, and the venture was restructured.

The new label plans to produce, acquire and distribute two to five commercially viable features a year for the next five years budgeted in the $5-10m range. Savin is named head of production.

Freestyle Releasing, which handled Bottle Shock in the US, will distribute titles in the US while Alliance will handle the slate in Canada.

The partners have struck a deal with Fox Home Video for DVD and Entertainment In Motion for airline programming, while Odd Lot International and Peace Arch Entertainment will handle overseas sales.

'The real difference between myself and other studios is that I am a film-maker first and foremost,' Miller said. 'I care about the art of film-making and I want to help get these films out to the public.

'But the distribution model for independent films is broken and my new partners and I are determined to do for other peoples films what we did for Bottle Shock.'