Franchise Pictures, the prolific Hollywood production partnership between Elie Samaha and Andrew Stevens, has entered into an exclusive, five year, worldwide internet distribution deal with Sightsound.com, the internet company which has pioneered distribution of music and movies online. Franchise will concurrently become a shareholder in Sightsound.com.

Under the terms of the deal, which was concluded between Samaha and Stevens and Sightsound president and CEO Scott Sander, 35 Franchise movies - as yet undetermined - will be available for download at Sightsound.com by March 31, 2000.

Sightsound, which was founded in 1995 by Sander and Arthur Hair, recently started production on the first feature to be produced exclusively for internet distribution - Quantum Project which will star Stephen Dorff and John Cleese. The film will premiere on the site on May 5 at 12:01am.