One of Germany's sexiest production outfits, X Filme Creative Pool, has joined the growing list of companies to come under the Senator Entertainment umbrella.

Senator announced yesterday it has acquired 51% of X Filme, the Berlin and Cologne-based filmmaking collective that sealed its international reputation as the producer of Tom Tykwer's Run Lola Run.

Senator, which is listed on the Frankfurt Neuer Markt exchange where it enjoys a current market capitalisation of $577m, has also taken a 25.1% stake in X Filme's nascent German distribution label X Verleih. Anatol Nitschke, one of X Verleih's founding board members, previously worked at Senator.

X Filme was created in 1994 by directors Tykwer, Wolfgang Becker, Dani Levi and producer Stefan Arndt, who modelled their outfit after United Artists. These existing partners will continue an equal interest in the remaining 49% of their company.

Senator's other production interests include Joseph Vilsmaier's Perathon Film + Fernseh, Til Schweiger's Mr. Brown Entertainment and a joint venture with former Columbia Pictures studio boss Mark Canton.