The international postproduction group Das Werk has won contracts worth $17.2m (Euros 20m) which will keep its feature film facilities working to capacity throughout 2002.

LA-based subsidiary CFX has been awarded a $10m contract to handle the effects on an unnamed Warner Bros./Village Roadshow project as well as $3m worth of effects work for New Line Cinema's remake of the 1970 classic thriller Willard.

Moreover, CFX is working on The Scorpion King, directed by Chuck Russell with WWF legend The Rock in the lead, which will be released domestically (USA) at the end of April as a prequel to The Mummy.

Meanwhile, Das Werk's German-based feature film post facilities have just completed work on Roman Polanski's The Pianist and will now begin on the effects for Tom Reeve's family action adventure George & The Dragon, starring Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile), Patrick Swayze, James Purefoy (Resident Evil) and Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly), which had been shooting in Luxembourg since mid-December for Luxembourg's Carousel Pictures, German media fund ApolloMedia and Jan Fantl's Quality International.

In addition, Das Werk's Spanish-based subsidiary Mad Pix has recently finished the VFX work on Pedro Almodovar's new feature Hable Con Ella (Talk To Her) which will be released in Spanish cinemas at the beginning of March.

The volume of feature film work will help to compensate in some part for the current downturn in the number of contracts coming to postproduction companies from the advertising sector. News of the raft of deals sent Das Werk's share price up by almost 17% at the beginning of trading on Monday.

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