The former Danish entertainment company Scanbox has signed a new deal for theatrical distribution with Mogens Glad's independent outfit Angel Films. While the current deal only covers Denmark, Scanbox is expected to announce similar agreements for the other Nordic countries.

Since Jan 2000 UIP has handled the theatrical distribution of Scanbox titles in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland, but that deal ran out in October. The new distribution outfit, called Angel Scanbox Distribution, aims to becoming the leading independent Danish distributor with it's mix of homemade titles from Angel and Scanbox's international product.

Former head of Angel's acquisition, Poul Erik Lindeborg, will be the new acting MD, while Angel head of distribution, Sara Stockmann, will continue as such in the new company. The deal was negotiated with Scanbox's head of distribution Jorgen Kristiansen, whose company will from now on handle Angel Films' titles on video, the market in which Scanbox has been most successful.

This replaces Angel's former deal with major Sandrew Metronome for video/DVD and Angel's DVD manufacturing arm, DVD Scandinavia will from now on master all Scanbox titles.

Angel Films recently produced and released Hella Joof's Shake It All About, which has performed impressively, even in comparison to Harry Potter, with more than 210,000 admissions in three weeks.

Angel has some high-profile local product lined up for next year, including Tomas Gislason's award-winning P.O.V, Jesper W. Nielsen's Okay, Peter Bay's The Man Who Couldn't Say No and Helle Ryslinge's Halalabad Blues.

And with strong international titles like The Others, The Musketeer, Gosford Park, Rat Race, Jeepers Creepers and Storytelling, the new distribution company has a solid foundation for it activities.

Scanbox has suffered financial turbulence for years even though it was 100% acquired by Germany's VCL Film + Medien in Sept 2000. VCL has since been restructuring the company and recently split it into Scanbox Entertainment Denmark A/S, which holds rights for films and videos, and SE 2001 which has been heading towards bankruptcy.