Intermedia Films unveiled a new international sales and distribution venture yesterday with former First Look International (FLI) president Stuart Ford installed as president and managing director.

Ford arrives at the unnamed Los Angeles- and London-based company with the bulk of the core team he assembled over the past year at FLI.

The British-born executive, who has departed First Look Studios in the wake of its recent acquisition by Nu Image/Millennium, will manage the new entity with Intermedia chairman Martin Schuermann.

Ford will oversee worldwide sales on Intermedia's slate, which counts among its titles Jan De Bont's upcoming thriller Stopping Power and Simon Crane's Killer's Game.

The venture will also serve as a sales agent, handling titles nurtured by Ford at FLI including the Tennessee Williams adaptation The Loss Of A Teardrop Diamond and Larry Charles' Borat follow-up, an untitled global religion documentary to be narrated by Bill Maher.

Ford brings in his recent London office hires Tim Grohne, as well as Los Angeles-based Ruzanna Kegeyan and Bonnie Voland, as well as key publicity and operations personnel.

The nascent operation will be unveiled at Cannes along with the full launch slate. Ford and Schuermann will announce further strategic partners in due course.

Danny Dimbort, Avi Lerner's partner at Nu Image/Millennium, will continue to oversee sales on that company's existing slate as well as the First Look Studios library.

Ford was quick to wish Lerner and Dimbort well, adding that the Intermedia deal represented a better fit for the kind of sales business he wanted to build.

As previously announced, Lerner and former First Look Studios chief Henry Winterstern are co-chief executive officers of the new First Look Holdings.

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