Universal Pictures has signed a five-year North American distribution deal with producer Joel Silver.

The deal will cover 12 films from Silver Pictures Entertainment, a new division of the producer’s Silver Pictures, with Universal distributing two or three per year.

Silver Pictures will arrange financing for the slate and retains international rights, though exactly how the films will be handled internationally has not yet been determined.

Silver currently has a production deal at Warner but that deal expires at the end of this year and is not being renewed.

The first project under the new deal will be Non-Stop, which reunites Unknown director Jaume Collet-Serra and star Liam Neeson. Silver Pictures executives Andrew Rona and Steve Richards, who negotiated the Universal deal, will produce with Silver.

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