Destination Films, the mid-budget domestic distribution company founded in 1998 by Steve Stabler and Brent Baum, closed down at the end of last week after an ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful run of releases.

The company was funded by an insurance-backed $100m funding arrangement through a wholly owned subsidiary brokered by Willis Corroon, but never secured the $100m line of credit it also planned as a P&A fund. The revolutionary Destination deal, constructed by Baum, saw insurers providing production finance guaranteed by North American rights and not conditional on foreign.

Destination CEO Barry London, who took over from Stabler when he left the company in Nov 1999, has been looking for equity funding for the company but was unable to seal any deals before available cash ran out.

Three films remain unreleased - Slackers, a teen comedy with Devon Sawa which was co-financed by Alliance Atlantis; Ring Of Fire directed by Xavier Kollr and starring Kiefer Sutherland and Daryl Hannah, and Buying The Cow with Jerry O'Connell.

Among Destination's previous releases were Thomas And The Magic Railroad, Eye Of The Beholder, Beautiful and Bats.