Sales operation, Scanbox International continues to demonstrate rude health despite the troubles of its parent Denmark's Scanbox Entertainment, once the largest independent distributor in the Nordic region and now in the process of being sold to Germany's VCL Film + Medien after suffering through three years of losses.

Restructuring notwithstanding, the Los Angeles-based Scanbox International has added a further four English-language titles with combined production budgets of $65m to its MIFED slate.

Theby Michael Jai White's Atikus, a $9m-$10m futuristic thriller, was developed and financed by production division, Scanbox Pictures USA. It is slated to start shooting in June 2001.

Jai White, whose credits include City Of Industry, Universal Soldier and Warner Bros' forthcoming Exit Wounds, will also star in the picture as the last healthy human being. Further cast is expected to be announced in the coming days. Produced by Adam Del Deo and Danyl Taja, the film is also understood to be very close to securing a US theatrical release, leaving Scanbox International to sell international territories.

Scanbox International has also picked up sales duties on Baby Juice Express, a gangster comedy to be produced by the UK's Spice Factory and Canada's Transfilm. It is written and directed by Michael Hurst, director of New Blood. From Terry Linehan and Thomas Trovato Next comes Gregory Hines-starrer Sugarfoot which goes into production in April. The picture is a wartime-set, romantic comedy about Carolina's most eligible swing dancer.

And, as part of a six-picture deal with Triple Peak Productions, Scanbox International will also be handling A Nice Italian Girl. A romantic comedy written and directed by Paolo Mazzucato, whose previous credits include Live Entertainment's Moonbase, the film is a romantic comedy about an Italian-American who returns to Tuscany to discover her roots. Production is scheduled for Spring 2001.

Also flowing from the Triple Peak deal are two previously announced pictures Young At Heart, a cross-generational romance directed by John Warren, and Body Armour, a thriller about a bodyguard who is hired to protect the murderer of the one client he failed to keep from assassination.