Producer-distributor Senator Entertainment is to retain its 56.1% interest in the Berlin production house X-Filme Creative Pool after an out-of-court settlement.

The dispute dates back to 2004 when Senator filed for insolvency, since when there has been often acrimonious wrangling about the stake in X-FIlme.

Now Senator's new majority shareholders Marco Weber and Helge Sasse and X-Filme's founders Wolfgang Becker, Tom Tykwer, Dani Levy and producer Stefan Arndt have agreed to settle the matter.

"We are very pleased that we have now found an agreement which is satisfactory for both sides and will again make a creative collaboration possible," said Sasse and Weber.

X-Filme managing directors Stefan Arndt and Manuela Stehr said both sides would "no longer have to invest their energy into the resolution of open question, but can concentrate on their real work - producing films which move people. We have come to an agreement with Senator which makes a further collaboration possible and the future with, as well as next to one another."

X-Filme is currently in post-production on Maria Schrader's Liebesleben, Nicolette Krebitz's Das Herz Ist Ein Dunkler Wald and Anna Justice's Prinz Eduoard, Max Minsky Und Ich.

It has also been serving as the German co-producer on Sergei Bodrov's Mongol, Bille August's Goodbye Bafana and as a co-producer on Hayo Freitag's Tomi Ungurer adaptation The Three Robbers, the first project of X-Filme's animation arm Animation X.

Meanwhile, the company's development slate includes Hendrik Handloegten's Veronika, an adaptation of Annegret Held's novel Die Baumfresserin; Michael Klier's Ferrari 49; and Dani Levy's The Ritchie Boys, based on the true story of German emigres who were recruited to an American secret service unit for the fight against the Nazis in the Second World War, which will be co-produced with UFA and public broadcaster WDR.