In a continuing drive to raise its international profile, Rome's Cinecitta Studios is opening a new office in London, after opening branches in New York and Los Angeles.

The office will be headed by Joshua Andrews, fomerly head of worldwide sales at Icon Entertainment and head of production at Odyssey Entertainment.

Andrews will liaise with UK producers who want information about filming in Rome, and will also work with Christian Halsey Solomon, the Italian-born producer who was hired earlier this month to head Cinecitta's new Financial Consulting Service.

Halsey Solomon, whose credits include American Psycho, Legionnaire and Rollerball, will aim to assist international producers in all stages of financing, helping them to establish contacts in Italy and minimise costs.

Describing the Rome studio's international drive, Carol Andre-Smith, director of international marketing at Cinecitta said: "We want to be client friendly rather than just sitting pretty. If they tell us about their project and what they need, we'll help them, from the budgeting process onwards."

"Setting up our international offices is also a tool to find out what people want, and find out what services we can add," Andre Smith told Screen Daily.

Andre Smith said Cinecitta is aiming to position itself as "the only full-service studio as well as being the biggest one in Europe."

Cinecitta is already promoting its post-production facilities companies world wide, and particularly to New York companies, who Andre-Smith says can save up to 50% off the cost of carrying out post-production in Manhattan.

The studio is also partnering with location scouts and local servicing companies to help productions with crew and hotels.

In addition, within the next 2 to 2.5 years, Cinecitta hopes to begin operating a theme park on the grounds where Roma Studios is located. Cinecitta owns the grounds and is now trying to work out a collaboration deal with the rival studio.

Two high-profile US productions are set to shoot in Rome's Cinecitta studios over the next few months: Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic and Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Twelve