Leading Swiss indepedent distributor Ascot Elite has acquired rights for Kari Skogland's Fifty Dead Men Walking with up-and-coming star Jim Sturgess, Ben Kingsley and Rose McGowan, from Handmade Films International.

Fifty Dead Men Walking is one of four films acquired by Ascot Elite for German speaking Europe.

Also from Kari Skogland and Handmade Films International is The Stone Angel, starring Ellen Burstyn and Cole Hauser.

In addition, Ascot have acquired Gillian Armstrong's Death Defying Acts, starring Catherine Zeta Jones as a Scottish psychic embarking on a passionate and damgerous affair with Guy Pearce's Harry Houdini, from Myriad Pictures.

Finally, Mickey Liddell's teenage witch story The Haunting Of Molly Hartley, with Gossip Girl's Chace Crawford, was bought from Odd Lot International.

Ascot currently has Burn After Reading and Twilight on release in Swiss cinemas. Its 2009 release lineup includes: Gus van Sant's Harvey Milk biopic Milk; Hamlet 2 with UK comedian Steve Coogan; John Woo's Red Cliff; Terrence Malick's The Tree Of Life; and Mikael Hafstroem's thriller Shanghai.