Dreamachine, the new company formed by the merger of HanWay Films and Celluloid Dreams, has struck its first deal. Image Entertainment signed an exclusive North American licensing agreement with Dreamachine over four films in the Recorded Picture Company library: Bernardo Bertolucci's Oscar-winning The Last Emperor, Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, Stephen Frears' The Hit and Nicolas Roeg's Insignificance.

Jeremy Thomas, who founded RPC and sister sales company HanWay, produced each of the four films.

Under the pact, Image gets home video, digital and broadcast rights to the four titles. In the home video arena, Image will release movie-only versions while Criterion (distributed through Image) will release enhanced special editions thorugh the Criterion Collection. Criterion and Dreamachine will work together on new high-definition masters.

Image's London-based Wendy Rutland brokered the deal with Dreamachine.

'We are thrilled with this acquisition and look forward to developing and expanding this relationship. These films certainly enhance our library and heighten the profile of films Image will acquire and distribute in the future,' said David Borshell, Image's chief operating officer.

Dreamachine's combined library from HanWay and Celluloid Dreams includes more than 500 films from the likes of Woody Allen, Bernardo Bertolucci, David Cronenberg, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Kore-eda Hirokazu, Abbas Kiarostami, Takeshi Kitano, Francois Ozon and Wim Wenders.

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