Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group (SPWAG) has signed a three-year marketing and distribution deal with CBS Films, under which Sony will handle international theatrical distribution of the inaugural CBS Films slate and service DVD releases.

The alliance will kick off with CBS Films’ first release, the inspirational drama Extraordinary Measures that will open on January 22, 2010, and stars Harrison Ford, Brendan Fraser and Keri Russell. CBS Films will handle domestic theatrical distribution of all its titles and retains rights in limited territories.

Next up in spring will be romantic comedy The Back-up Plan starring Jennifer Lopez and Alex O’Loughlin, followed by the July 30 release of the teen romance Beastly based on the story of Beauty And The Beast and starring Vanessa Hudgens and Alex Pettyfer.

In addition to Faster, CBS Films is currently in development on action thriller Consent To Kill; thriller The Station; adventure story Gunsmoke; a remake of My Fair Lady to be co-developed with Columbia Pictures; romance I’ll Be There, a remake of the South Korean film A Moment To Remember; and the comedy Permission.

The deal builds on CBS Films and Sony’s partnership on the upcoming action-thriller Faster, which will star Dwayne Johnson and Billy Bob Thornton and is set to begin production in early 2010.

George Tillman Jr will direct from a screenplay by Joe and Tony Gayton. Castle Rock Entertainment’s Martin Shafer and Liz Glotzer are producing with Tony Gayton and Robert Teitel and the film is scheduled for release in autumn 2010.

SPWAG president Steven Bersch, Sony’s president of worldwide affairs Peter Schlessel and senior vice-president of business affairs Michael Helfand negotiated the deal with CBS Films COO Bruce Tobey and executive vice-president and general counsel Rik Toulon.

CBS Films was set up in 2007 and plans to develop and produce four to six films a year across all genres budgeted at up to $50m a title.

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