Gold Circle Films, the Los Angeles-based company which scored with My Big Fat Greek Wedding, has become the latest US company to set up shop in the UK.

The operation last week unveiled its partnership with ICE Productions, the production company recently launched under Erica Motley, former head of film at Elisabeth Murdoch's Shine Entertainment.

Motley and her team, which includes Claire Bennett and Irene Ilias, will spearhead UK activities for Gold Circle, which is run by British-born Paul Brooks. Projects will typically be boarded at packaging stage, with Gold Circle handling North American distribution. ICE will continue to develop projects independently and may set up titles with other distributors.

With the UK relatively flush with tax funding, Gold Circle joins the likes of Myriad Pictures and Franchise Pictures in developing London-based operations.

ICE is attracting strong interest with its script for Chasing Heaven, a romantic comedy about an investment banker who goes to heaven, which he finds is full of bikini-clad girls. Told that there has been a mistake and that he is not dead, he sets out to get himself killed again.

Also in the works are The Walnut Tree, a co-production with Jeremy Bolt's Constantin-backed Impact Pictures, and Nick Hamm's Friends Forever, a supernatural story about imaginary friends which Motley likened to Donnie Darko.