The German office of Buena Vista International (BVI) has obtained a temporary injunction from a Munich regional court preventing Helkon Media from distributing The Musketeer or Rollerball either directly in-house or through third party distributors.

In January, Helkon had announced that it was terminating its agreement with BVI for handling the booking and billing of the German theatrical release of its films after quitting a TV output agreement at the end of last year.

Among other titles, Helkon had intended to release Peter Hyam's The Musketeer on May 30, while the remake of Rollerball was scheduled to be opened on March 28. BVI's injunction means that it intends to continue handling the theatrical distribution of Helkon titles although Helkon can appeal against the court's judgement.

This latest development came as Helkon announced that turnover in the first half of the 2001/2002 financial year had increased by more than 100% - to Euros 113.5m ($102.2m) - and its EBIT by more than 80% in the period from August 1, 2001 to January 31, 2002 to Euros 9.2m ($8.3m)

Helkon says revenue and income were boosted in the second quarter of the current financial year thanks to pre-sales on Rollerball, the theatrical release and pay TV pre-sales for Jeepers Creepers, the video release of Memento and the theatrical release of Donnie Darko as well as a film package deal with ARD's film purchaser Degeto and German theatrical releases of Suck My Dick, The Body and Memento and the DVD sales of The Wedding Planner.