Lightning Entertainment haspicked up international sales rights to Stephen Simon's adaptation of thebestselling book series ConversationsWith God and will commence sales in Berlin next week.

Lightning enjoyed strongbusiness with the spiritually themed WhatThe Bleep Do We Know, which grossed more than $11m from selectinternational markets in 2005, and will be looking for similar success here.

The picture recounts thespiritual salvation of the books' author Neale Donald Walsch and is the firstproduction from Spiritual Cinema Circle,which Simon co-founded in 2004 with author Gay Hendricks.

Circle and CWG Films servedas financiers and people close to the project expect a North Americantheatrical launch in late October followed by the DVD release in 2007. HenryCzerny stars alongside Ingrid Boulting and Eric DelaBarre wrote the screenplay.

Lightning partner RichardGuardian negotiated the deal with worldwide distribution representativeJonathan Dana on behalf of The Spiritual Cinema Circle and CWG Films. "Conversations With God is a truly uniqueand thought-provoking film, unlike anything most audiences will have seen,"Guardian said.

"The message is powerful andsincere and speaks to a wide demographic audience. Given the phenomenal successof the book series and Neale's other works worldwide, and the provenplayability of spiritually themed films overseas, there is great potential foranother breakout hit in international territories."

"Just five years before Iwrote about my experience, I was homeless, with a broken neck, living in apark," Walsch added. "I spent my days collecting cans to sell for fivecents each just to have enough money to eat. It was important to me that thisstory not become Hollywoodised."