Millennium Films is jointly financing and producing the Gerard Butler thriller White House Taken with West Coast Film Partners as the parties announced a $100m production venture on Saturday.

The goal is to co-finance two to three wide releases a year. West Coast is an equity fund and production company based in Germany, UK and Los Angeles. Millennium president Mark Gill arranged the deal with West Coast CEO Klay Shroedel.

“We’re very excited to be working with Klay and his team at West Coast,” Millennium chairman Avi Lerner said. “Clearly, they have financing expertise. But also the movies they want to make are very much in line with the direction we’re taking our company today.”

“The team at Millennium impressed us with their commercial sensibilities and their willingness and ability to get movies made,” Shroedel said. “At a time when so many companies in the film business are retrenching, these guys are expanding. We share their optimism about the potential for growth and success in the motion picture business, if properly managed, in the years ahead.”

Antoine Fuqua will direct White House Taken to star Gerard as a disgraced Secret Serviceman who saves the day when the White House is hijacked by renegade North Koreans.

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