Spanish production outfit 42nd Street Productions is beefing up its international presence with two new English-language co-productions.

Set to star Anjelica Huston, Rosanna Arquette , Gary Oldman and Sergi Lopez for director Carolina Ducrocq, The Lunatic Fringe is based on the autobiographical novel by US writer Chester Himes. The $7m co-production with New Wings Media will shoot in Spain this autumn.

Director Hugh Farley's $5m She Died On Canvas, a co-production with Ireland's PuCan Productions, is a thriller set in the art worlds of Dublin and Barcelona. Jason Theroux (Mulholland Drive) is set to star.

42nd Street CEO Thomas Spieker, selected to represent Spain at Cannes as one of Europe's "Producers on the Move," says the Spanish setting of both films attracted him but isn't a requisite for his involvement: "We're interested in any films with international potential."

Spieker and 42nd Street SVP of sales and marketing Monika Ganzenmuller also recently closed a string of international sales on 2001 productions Food Of Love and Fausto 5.0. Food has been sold to the US (TLA Releasing), Canada (Vagrant Films), the UK (Picadillo Pictures) and Australia/New Zealand (Insight Movies), while Fausto has gone to the US (Vidograph), Germany (Arsenal) and Portugal (Cinema Novo). Fausto will open in France in July under CTV International.

42nd Street is a subsidiary of German facilities giant Das Werk, which has recently seen its profits tumble on the back of the advertising downturn.