Germany's Splendid Medien, which co-produced Martin Scorsese's Gangs Of New York through its then subsidiary IEG by stumping up $65m for the worldwide rights except for domestic, is lining up a number of new productions for shoot later this year.

Splendid's CEO Andreas Klein told Screen International that the outfit's production arm - Splendid Pictures - is readying Bille August's modern thriller Without Apparent Motive, starring Richard Gere and Julianne Moore and hopes to make an announcement shortly about the start date and cast for $50m action film The Courier.

In addition, Splendid has pencilled a May/June production start for Redline, "a fast and furious speedboat actioner", set to be produced with ex-Warner Bros. executive Lorenzo di Bonaventura.

Among the Splendid productions being delivered over the coming months are MGM's release of the children's actioner Agent Cody Banks about the adventures of a young James Bond-style agent, and the war drama U-Boat starring German actors Til Schweiger and Thomas Kretschmann and William H. Macy.

According to Klein, Splendid Pictures' budget range is "between $5m and $50m. The days of $100m are over. For the financing, we try to work with media funds and subsidies such as those in Canada, the UK and Australia."

Splendid still has a deal with the German office of 20th Century Fox for it to handle the theatrical release of its films.

Topics