Dubai-based distributor Frontrow Films Entertainments has struck a number of deals here.

Managing director Gianluca Chacra was the first distributor to pick up Rowan Woods’s LA-set drama Winged Creatures from Peace Arch (for the Middle East), currently in post-production.

He’s also taken Meg Ryan/LL Cool J comedy The Deal from Peace Arch, and Poor Things from ex-Thinkfilm executive Mark Horowitz’s H2O Motion Pictures.

The latter, a drama about a gang of elderly con-artists, led by Shirley MacLaine and Olympia Dukakis, goes into production in three weeks.

Chacra recently divided his growing company into two divisions, handling commercial and arthouse fare.

With the theatrical circuit in the Middle East dominated by a few players with links to the major Hollywood and Egyptian studios, obtaining slots for non-blockbuster titles can be tricky, although DVD sales can be rewarding.

‘There’s some money to made in these films in the Middle East,’ sayd Chacra. ‘But it’s also about diversifying the market.’

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