Los Angeles-based independent Echo Bridge Entertainment isentering the domestic distribution market with two titles, the family drama WhenZachary Beaver Came To Town and the Tobe Hooper horror feature Mortuary.

Echo Bridge plans to release four to six wide andspeciality titles a year, with managing partners Michael Alexander, DougHamilton, Michael Rosenblatt and Lucie Salhany determined to maintain theirindependent status.

Overall marketing and distribution strategy for theatricalreleasing will be managed in-house, with Rosenblatt overseeing distribution andSalhany supervising marketing.

Echo Bridge plans a grass roots campaign aimed at families for WhenZachary Beaver Came To Town, which will go out in limited release on Jan 21.

Written and directed by John Schultz from Kimberly Willis Holt'snovel, the picture concerns an unusual boy's arrival in a sleepy Texas town onesummer and the effect it has on the local children. Jonathan Lipnicki and EricStoltz star.

Mortuary,currently in pre-production, is slated for a wide release in autumn 2005 andcentres on a family's fateful decision to relocate to an abandoned funeral homein California. Principal photography is set to begin on Nov 27.

"Branching into domestic theatrical distribution was thelogical next step for this company as we've increased acquisitions over thelast year," Rosenblatt said. @;We have two great films in Zachary Beaver and Mortuary and will be adding to our slate in themonths to come."