Myriad Pictures and Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope unveiled three new films yesterday to be financed and sold in international territories by Myriad, which has taken over the ten-picture Zoetrope slate from financially troubled VCL. United Artists handles domestic rights on the film.

They are Zoetrope's long-delayed On The Road, a film of Jack Kerouac's cult novel to be directed by Joel Schumacher; Kinsey, a biography of sexual revolutionary Alfred Kinsey written and directed by Bill Condon (Gods And Monsters); and My Dark Places, a film of James Ellroy's autobiographical novel to be directed by Robert Greenwald.

Announced last month was Jeeper Creepers 2: Like A Bat Out Of Hell to be directed by Victor Salva. The four new films join the completed Zoetrope films taken over by Myriad -Roman Coppola's CQ, Hal Hartley's No Such Thing and Adam Larson Broder and Anthony Abrams' Pumpkin. Robert Duvall's Assassination Tango is handled worldwide by MGM and its international partner 20th Century Fox. The tenth film is yet to be determined.

Of the new films, Coppola said that Schumacher is looking to cast his Tigerland star Colin Farell as Cassidy in On The Road which has been adapted for the screen by Sweet Hereafter novelist Russell Banks (his first film screenplay). My Dark Places is a project originally set at Myriad but now adopted into the Zoetrope fold.

Coppola said at a press conference yesterday that Zoetrope and Myriad are also working together on projects budgeted at more than $10m. The UA ten-picture package is confined to projects under that budget threshold.

"UA has the pictures in the $10m and under range but Myriad can finance more than that," he said. One, for example, could be Sofia Coppola's second movie as a director after The Virgin Suicides. Salva's Jeepers Creepers 2 is also budgeted considerably over $10m.

But Coppola, the director, remains committed to his own pet project Megalopolis, an epic picture of New York City in the future which he is rethinking in light of Sept 11. He talked of the film as epic in scope and joked "I've made a project better than I am." Coppola confirmed that it will be his next project as director.