UK sales and finance boutique The Film Co has picked up international sales duties to a package of films from Chris Blackwell's Palm Pictures.

The five Lady Ninja pictures are produced by Japan's Tohokushinsha Film Corp and were financed by Palm. Palm will retain US rights for distribution through its own-brand releasing operation, giving The Film Co world rights outside the US, Japan and the UK, where Palm affiliate Manga Pictures will distribute.

"These pictures are the epitome of erotic girl power," said Film Co managing director Carey Fitzgerald. "We only picked them up on the eve of NATPE, but we already have substantial interest from the European dubbing territories, where these truly different pictures will do very well."

Although the films have distinct stories and characters, all five are set in Japan's Edo period and feature female warriors. "We screened hundreds of Japanese films before we found the live action, edgy and funny pictures we know can work in the rest of the world," said Marvin Gleicher, Palm Pictures' managing director. "We had previously handled the Tetsuo and Tokyo Fist series of films, but they were perhaps too niche. Lady Ninja has wider appeal and has been carefully presented for TV sales."

The Film Co has previously represented Palm titles including Jake West's The Razorblade Smile, James Toback's Black And White and Chris Browne's Third World Cop, a film which earned a hefty $750,000 at the box office in its native Jamaica and is now due for US release in April. The film will be released in the UK and Canada in May.

Gleicher said that Palm itself will be handling sales of Look Down, an urban-culture, prison film starring artist Master P. Clips are being shown at this week's Sundance festival and the completed film will get a private screening for buyers in Los Angeles before the AFM.