Private equity investment company Syntek Capital is acquiring a stake in a slate of filmsbeing lined up by New York-based Edward Pressman Film Corp.

Syntek will also acquire Pressman's shares in ContentFilm, as the producerseeks to devote himself entirely to producing. He established the company withJohn Schmidt in September 2001, and Syntek was among the founding investors.

The deal comes as Pressman is assembling the financing for a slateof 12-15 features budgeted in the $35 to $40m range. He will continue to makelower-budgeted genre films.

Until the Syntek deal Pressman had been one of the largest shareholdersin ContentFilm and served on the board of directors.

"Syntek looks forward to being involved with Pressman's newfilm productions." Syntek Capital chief executive officer Sam Humphreys said."Ed is a uniquely talented and prolific producer who was the key creativeforce behind ContentFilm and such titles as The Cooler and Thank You For Smoking."

"I'm very pleased to be continuing such a strong relationshipwith Sam and the people at Syntek," Pressman added. "They were greatpartners at ContentFilm and we look forward to making more good movies together."

The deal comes at a busy time for Pressman. Since parting wayswith ContentFilm about a year ago he has been at work on sci-fi adventure TheMutant Chronicles,starring Thomas Jane and John Malkovich; Steven Shainberg's Fur starring Nicole Kidman and Robert DowneyJr; the remake of Sisters starring Chloe Sevigny and Stephen Rea; and Michael Apted's AmazingGrace starring IoanGruffudd, Albert Finney and Michael Gambon.

Pressman recently announced that he is lining up a film version ofChristopher Buckley's novel Little Green Men to be directed by Whit Stillman.