Avi Lerner's Millennium Pictures has signed a three-picture deal withHeidi Jo Markel's fledgling development and production outfit EclecticPictures.

The exclusive arrangement provides Los Angeles-based Eclectic with fundsto attach talent and make films with foreign distribution being servicedthrough Millennium's Nu Image.

Markel, whose producing credits include the Val Kilmer thriller BlindHorizon and Snoop Dogg mystery The Tenants, founded the company inautumn 2004 and has appointed former Limelight Pictures vice president NickAllen as director of development.

Allen will oversee thecompany's roster of projects, which includes Richard Zelniker's BrightMidnight and The Census Taker, which was written by the Nelson Brothers withproducing partners Keith Samples and Stan Erdrich and is slated for firstrelease in the first quarter of 2006.

The first Millennium/Eclectic project will be action picture TheDeath And Life Of Bobby Z starring Paul Walker, which is set to beginproduction in Sept.