Elie Samaha's Franchise Pictures has partnered with Frank Huebner's German private film fund ApolloMedia to represent sales of five completed films including Alan Rudolph's Investigating Sex, Bruce Beresford's Bride Of The Wind and Christine Lahti's My First Mister.

Franchise and Apollo are also partnered on big-budget production A Sound Of Thunder starring Ed Burns, Catherine McCormack and Ben Kingsley and directed by Peter Hyams, and on A Hairy Tale, the martial arts chimp movie which Franchise and Apollo are co-financing with Warner Bros. Roma Downey, Matthew Modine and Fred Ward star in the latter.

Franchise's new international distribution chief Mimi Steinbauer is handling international sales of Bride Of The Wind and My First Mister, which were handled in North America by Paramount Classics through a two-picture distribution deal with producers Total Film Group.

Franchise is also handling worldwide sales on Investigating Sex, formerly repped by UGC International, You Stupid Man starring Denise Richards and Milla Jovovich, formerly handled by Peter Elson, and The Mumbo-Jumbo, a fairytale comedy starring Jamie Walters, Joss Ackland and Brian Blessed.

Steinbauer is repping some of the biggest pictures in the market including Rob Reiner's Alex And Emma and The Whole Nine Yards 2. Warner Bros will handle worldwide distribution of A Hairy Tale.

"We are one of the only companies at the market which has new big budget movies," said Samaha."

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