Myriad Pictures is closing down sales operations in London following its turbulent production of UK-Canadian title The River King.

The US sales company will continue to maintain a UK production presence under Marion Pilowsky, head of international production, but Samantha Horley, senior vice president of international distribution, and sales executive Alice Weston have decided not to take up Myriad's offer of posts in Los Angeles and will leave the company after Cannes.

Myriad's decision to slash its overheads in London comes after The River King was first hit by the UK Government's Feb 10 clamp down, which forced financier Grosvenor Park to drop out, then by the Department for Culture Media & Sport refusing to grant the film UK status.

"With the uncertainty that now surrounds production finance in the UK coupled with London's normally high overhead costs and the fluctuating exchange rate, it has been necessary to streamline our UK operation," said Myriad president Kirk D'Amico. "We have only the greatest respect for our London team including Samantha Horley and Alice Weston and we look forward to working with them again in the future. For the next few weeks they will help us to transition a number of activities to Los Angeles as we move forward."

The River King has now wrapped and the filmmakers aim to restructure the film to qualify as a UK co-production. The film joins Myriad's Cannes slate, which will include comedic bio-pic Kinsey, starring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, Being Julia, starring Annette Bening, and Piccadilly Jim, with Sam Rockwell. Also in the line-up are Christian Slater film The Deal, Trauma, with Colin Firth and Mena Suvari, and family comedy Eulogy.

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