Christian Colson, has formed his own company, Cloud Nine Films and struck a five-year development, production, sales and distribution deal with Pathe UK.

Colson, who left Celador Films on March 1 2009, remains a shareholder in Celador, while Celador chairman Paul Smith was made a director of Cloud Nine Films.

Colson said 'I owe Paul an enormous debt of gratitude for giving me the opportunity to become a producer back in 2002, and for his unstinting support ever since. We are close friends and I am looking forward to continuing to work with him in this exciting new venture with our old friends at Pathe'.

Celador, Pathe UK and Colson are currently enjoying global success with Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire and will continue to work together on forthcoming releases The Descent: Part 2, The Scouting Book For Boys and Centurion.

Celador, Pathe UK and Cloud Nine are also collaborating on the US civil rights drama Selma which is slated to shoot later this year.

Francois Ivernel, executive vice president of Pathe said 'Pathe's long term strategy to become a production powerhouse in the UK takes a huge leap forward with this strengthened relationship with Christian. We have worked closely with him for several years with much success and we look forward to many more years of great filmmaking together'.

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