Summit Entertainment has struck a three-picture deal with Alcon Entertainment, producers of Christopher Nolan's Insomnia which is on Summit's Cannes sales slate. None of the three pictures has yet been specified but a deal has been struck for Summit to raise additional equity from a few select key territory sales. Alcon's studio partner Warner Bros will handle distribution in North America and the balance of the rest of the world.

Warner has domestic rights to Insomnia which stars Al Pacino, Hilary Swank and Robin Williams; Summit started selling rights to the picture at AFM and quickly closed a deal with Buena Vista International (BVI) for Benelux, Latin America and Scandinavia. However, Summit chief executive Patrick Wachsberger says that he will look to strike four-picture deals with key distributors for Insomnia and the three forthcoming Alcon films.

Summit first teamed with Alcon on French-set period drama Affair Of The Necklace, also starring Swank, which will be released by Warner domestically later this year.

Alcon, which is bankrolled by Federal Express chairman Frederick W Smith and run by Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson, is at work on a number of projects which Summit could partner on. They include: the thriller The Alchemist written by Ken Young and Dennis LeFevre, thriller The Rook which is a co-production with Chris O'Donnell's company George Street Pictures, action crime thriller Hard Look about an FBI agent on the trail of a bank robber, a live action/CGI feature of 1970s TV series Hong Kong Phooey and family drama The Baker's Son written by Bart Baker.

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