Aggressive new London-based distributor RevolverEntertainment has taken UK rights to Terry Gilliam's Tideland. Revolver will be releasing the film (represented by Hanway) in British cinemas later this summer.

A US deal has also now been struck on Tideland with what a Hanwayspokesperson calls "a well-established independent." Full details will beannounced shortly.

Tideland will be released in France through Bacin June and in Japan through Toho a month later.

The film, adapted from Mitch Cullin'snovel, is a gothic fantasy about a 10-year-old girl with heroin-addictedparents who retreats into her own make-believe world. It premiered in Toronto last year. Eleven year-old JodelleFerland plays the role of Jeliza-Rose.

"People don't understand what children are like anymore, "Gilliam commented of the way Tidelandhas polarised audiences. "Children are (portrayed) as these little victims -these terribly, terribly delicate little creatures, but they're not. They'retough little fuckers. They're designed to survive."

Gilliam says he warmed to the "outrageousness" in Cullin's novel, which he stumbled on by chance. "It seemedto me totally original...it was bizarre, funny and grotesque."

"They did a good job for us on Kidulthood," Tideland's producer Jeremy Thomas commented of the decision to gowith Revolver in the UK.

Kidulthood, releasedby Revolver on March 3 in Britain, has done brisk box-office business $416,000(£241,000) and only dropped six percent week-on-week. The film, about troubledkids growing up in West London, has also provokedconsiderable media debate.

"We're thrilled to be working with one of the most important andinnovative film directors working in the world today, on the film that hewanted to make.

Tideland is the film Terry Gilliam fans have been waiting for- an independent movie which unlocks Gilliam's extraordinary imagination. Inthe words of Terry Gilliam, Tidelandis Alice in Wonderland meets Psycho. Its beautiful, surreal, funny,touching and disturbing" said Natascia Phillips, ProductDirector for Revolver Entertainment.