Studio Hamburg WorldWide Pictures (WWP) is planning to produce and fully finance five to six English-language films in the $5m-$20m budget range this year after receiving a placement guarantee from its capital market partners.

WWP, the international production arm of Studio Hamburg and the first German media fund to be run by a German film studio, now has the ability to negotiate and commit to its first pictures for this year, according to CEO Wolfgang Esenwein.

The fund's investment criteria require that each project should be in a budget range between $5m-$20m and needs to have a foreign sales company and a US distributor attached. In addition, WWP needs a bankable minimum revenue guarantee.

"We will start out with two smaller projects around $5m each and will be sourcing pictures with larger budgets towards the second half of the year," Esenwein explained. "Regarding the revenue guarantee, it is important to know that it can be combined from different sources. As long as a split of the copyright can be avoided, pre-sales, minimum guarantees, equity and soft money can be used jointly as collateral for a standby letter of credit from a bank. "

Meanwhile, postproduction is currently underway on WWP's first project, the $7.15m The Boys From County Clare (previously known as The Great Ceili War), which was financed by the fund last year together with the Isle of Man Film Commission, UK sale and leaseback (via Ingenious), and equity investment from the UK investment house TPC.

Shot on location in Northern Ireland and on the Isle of Man last autumn, the Irish musical comedy has a cast including Andrea Corr, Colm Meaney, Patrick Bergin, and Bernard Hill.

International sales on The Boys From County Clare are being handled by First Look Media/Overseas Filmgroup, with US domestic distribution in the hands of First Look Pictures.

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