London based sales company Protagonist Pictures has sealed a two-picture deal on its Sundance hits In The Loop and Unmade Beds with Madman in Australia.

Meanwhile Protagonist chief Ben Roberts said that Grindstone has bought North American rights to Tom Shankland's horror movie The Children and confirmed that IFC Films bought MySpace user-generated Faintheart directed by Vito Rocco.

Armando Iannucci's In The Loop stars James Gandolfini in a comedy about a British government minister whose careless remarks in a TV interview trigger a full-scale war. Unmade Beds is the second film from Argentinian Alexis Dos Santos.

Protagonist Pictures launched in January 2008 and is backed by Ingenious, Film4 and Vertigo Films