Gerald Green's LA-based production outfit Total Film Group has acquired film rights to Harold Nebenzal's third novel The Lion Cult, a thriller set in Zurich about a group of foreign companies who all share a lake-front mansion who are thrust into danger by the greed of competing cartels, Swiss banks and diamond merchants.

Kendrew Lascelles, who wrote the screenplay for the film version of Arthur Miller's Focus, is writing the screenplay for The Lion Cult which is published by Haffmans of Switzerland. Nebenzal's last novel Cafe Berlin will be made into a film by Wolfgang Petersen and Gail Katz's Radiant Productions.

Total has two films in post-production - Christine Lahti's My First Mister starring Albert Brooks and Christine Lahti and Alma: Bride Of The Wind starring Jonathan Pryce, Sarah Wynter and Vincent Perez. Both are being released domestically by Paramount Classics.