Indigo Film, Claussen + Woebke Filmproduktion and Calypso Film have been named as the first strategic partners of the Berlin-based private media fund German Film Productions (GFP), which plans to raise Euros 11m for the financing of German language feature films and TV movies.

According to GFP, "letters of intent" have been signed with the three production outfits to jointly develop projects for cinema and television. Negotiations are underway with other German producers for single projects and/or longer term collaborations.

GFP is discussing participation in seven projects with Indigo Film whose credits include the features Bang Boom Bang and Seven Days To Live, and the TV mystery thriller Bikkenbrennen.

Five projects already in development with Indigo are: the family comedy feature Zsa Zsa, written by Peter Gersina (Love Scenes On Planet Earth) to be shot early next year, and the Edgar Wallace spoof feature Der Klexer, based on a radio show by TV comedian Oliver Kalkofe, as well as the TV movies Ich Bin Ein Berliner (with Thomas Heinze) and Eine Von Vielen and the five-part event series Ritter Und Heldensagen.

The fund is also developing five as-yet-unnamed projects with Claussen + Woebke Filmproduktion - whose credits include the Oscar-nominated Beyond Silence by Caroline Link and last year's local hit Anatomie (directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky and coproduced with Deutsche Columbia Pictures) - and Calypso Film, whose TV movie credits include Der Venusmoerder, Der Schnapper and Die Gefesselten.

Meanwhile, Duesseldorf-based Mediastream, which set up two funds with Universal Pictures to finance The Fast And The Furious, Jonathan Demme's The Truth About Charlie, and Shawn Levy's children's comedy Pay Or Play, has joined forces with ERGO Equity Partner and IM Internationalmedia to set up a private equity fund Entertainment Equity Pool (EEP) to focus on the media and entertainment industry.

"Due to new digital distribution platforms the demand for content will increase over the next years", declared Clemens von Berger and Rolf Engelhardt, board members of ERGO Equity Partner.

With a planned volume of around Euros 150m, EEP will be aimed at institutional capital investors and will focus its investment on companies that have already completed their start-up phase. Although the fund will concentrate its activities primarily in Europe and particularly Germany, discretionary investments will also be considered in the US.