The new trilogy of Highlander films being prepared byDavis-Panzer Productions and Sequence Films are to use a "one-stop"financing structure created by Grosvenor Park.

Highlander V,budgeted between $12-$14m, is due to start shooting in Lithuania inOctober. Although there will be some Lithuanian backing, Grosvenor Park is effectively fully financing theproject. Bret Leonard is set to direct with Adrian Paul playing the immortalScottish swordsman.

Through its new initiative, Grosvenor Park is offering Highlander's producers senior productiondebt (funding against pre-sales); gap finance against unsold territories; aswell as tax based funding from more than one country.

In addition to sourcing thesenior and gap funding, GrosvenorPark is including traditional sale andleaseback funding together with tax benefits from other jurisdictions (Grosvenor is currently able to offer the facility toadvance against tax subsidies and grants in 22 countries and 6 US states).

This follows on from Grosvenor Park's First Choicescheme, which was suspended after the UK Treasury's February 10th 2004"bombshell" outlawing tax partnerships.

"The big differencehere is that Grovesnor is now doing what might beregarded as more conventional film funding - funding against pre-sales and gap,previously the domain of banks and other financiers," Sequence's GuyCollins told ScreenDaily.

The key innovation, Collinsadded, is that all the services are offered at a single source. "From ourpoint of view, we just have to deal with one lawyer, one set of contracts andone credit committee...for a company like ourselves (this) means we canconcentrate more of our resources in the key area of marketing and sales thanthe potentially endless process of financial knitting."

According to Grosvenor Park's Dan Taylor: "What happens toofrequently is that the various constituents of the financing spend inordinatetime and energy fighting over their respective needs and priorities, which oneoverall facilitator can cut right through and achieve everyone's needs in afraction of the time and legal costs simply by the reduction of partiesinvolved."

Producers Peter Davis andBill Panzer (Davis-Panzer productions) delivered the first 30 pages of the newHighlander script before Cannesthis year. Since then, 24 territories have been closed by Sequence's sistercompany, IAC Film Limited (including a deal for the US with Lions Gate.)

Davis and Panzer were introduced to Grosvenor Parkby Sequence directors Collins and Michael Ryan during Cannes,

The deal was negotiated byLee Solomon and Yadin Shemmerfor Grosvenor Park, Guy Collins andMichael Ryan for Sequence, and Peter Davis for Davis-Panzer.

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