The 15-hour project was six years in the making.

HanWay has come on board to handle worldwide sales for Mark Cousins’ The Story of Film: An Odyssey.

The deal was negotiated by producer John Archer of Hopscotch Films along with Thorsten Schumacher, Managing Director of HanWay Films and Fabien Westerhoff, Director of Sales & Distribution for HanWay Films.

The 15-hour project will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and will have a run as a 15-part series on UK Channel 4 offshoot More 4 (the first installment aired Saturday).

The project was backed by the UK Film Council’s Development Fund, the BFI’s Film Fund, Film4, More4, Creative Scotland and MEDIA 2.

TIFF will screen the film in three-hour parts from Sept 12-16. It will also screen (for free) as a 15-hour film on Sept 17-18.

Cousins (who also wrote a book of the same name) spent six years making the film, which is about the greatest movies ever made. It covers six continents, 12 decades and 1000 films. Interviewees include Wim Wenders, Gus Van Sant, Claudia Cardinale, Amitabh Bachchan, Ken Loach, Robert Towne and Jane Campion.

Cousins is a previous director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and his past films include The First Movie and The New Ten Commandments.

Westerhoff said: “We are delighted to represent such an exquisite and unique film. This definitive series is a love letter to the greatest movies ever made, and a must see for any film enthusiast around the world”.

Archer added, “We are exhilarated to team up with HanWay Films on the first ever narrative history of the movies”

HanWay’s busy autumn slate also includes Steve McQueen’s Shame, David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, and Toronto Midnight Madness selection You’re Next.