Chase Manhattan Bank has increased its revolving credit line to Graham King's LA-based independent Initial Entertainment Group to $135m according to a statement released yesterday by John Miller, managing director of Chase Manhattan, and Colin Cotter, IEG's COO.

The relationship between the bank and IEG began in 1997 when the two year-old IEG secured a credit line of $21m.

The credit line increase comes in the same month that IEG's biggest project to date - Martin Scorsese's Gangs Of New York starring Leonardo DiCaprio - went into production in Rome. IEG is also in post-production on The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys produced by Egg Pictures and Steven Soderbergh's Traffic. Another IEG film Dr T And The Women opens in the US on Oct 13 through Artisan Entertainment.

IEG is 49% owned by Germany's Splendid Media AG.