Palm Pictures and Lions Gate Home Entertainment have struck a new distribution deal under which all Palm Pictures' new and select catalogue live action home video releases will be distributed and sold by Lions Gate Entertainment in the US. The announcement was made jointly by Paul DeGooyer, general manager of Palm Pictures, and Peter Block, president of home entertainment, acquisitions and new media at Lions Gate. The venture will launch with two previous Sundance successes: Julio Medem's erotic drama Sex And Lucia, which grossed more than $1.5m at the US box office, and Henry Bean's The Believer, which stars Ryan Gosling and won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in 2001.

Lions Gate Home Entertainment will also be selling eight titles from Palm Pictures' live action catalogue: Six String Samurai; Sandra Bernhard: I'm Still Here - Dammit!; Thicker Than Water; Dark Days; The Criminal; Dancehall Queen; Basketball Diaries; and Gravesend And Mandela. WEA will remain distributor of all Palm Pictures' music-driven and animated titles.