IM Global founder and CEO Stuart Ford has signed a multi-year extension to his CEO service contract.

Ford, 43, launched IM Global at Cannes 2007 and has built it into a sales, production and financing powerhouse that typically brings 15-18 new projects a year to the market.

The company, backed by Indian giant Reliance after Ford sold a majority stake in 2010, comprises four sales labels handling mainstream commercial, arthouse, genre and foreign-language films.

Earlier this month IM Global launched pre-sales on Martin Scorsese’s passion project Silence and flew the director into town to meet buyers.

In less than six years the company has established an output network covering more than 130 countries, set up through its rights-buying Apsara label a multi-year output deal with Buena Vista International and established the Automatik joint venture with eOne.

More recently IM Global launched with Mexico’s Canana the Latin American joint sales venture Mundial and in Cannes announced the Blumhouse International partnership with genre producer Jason Blum.

IM Global is based in Los Angeles and runs an office in London and will shortly open a Beijing office.

“It’s been a thrilling ride so far and I’m looking forward immensely to the next chapter of the IM Global story,” said Ford. “We have become a preeminent foreign sales company, we are a respected and prolific film financier, we operate successfully across the wide release, arthouse and genre arenas, we have a strong foothold in the worlds of Hollywood, European, Latin American and Bollywood cinema, and we have joint ventures or partnerships with some of the most respected players in the industry.

“Meanwhile I have a hugely supportive corporate partner in Reliance and we are working with filmmaking legends like Martin Scorsese and Robert Redford. There is a lot for me to get excited about.”

Upcoming releases this year include Walking With Dinosaurs to be handled across most of the world through Fox, technology thriller Paranoia starring Liam Hemsworth and Harrison Ford, British thriller Hummingbird with Jason Statham, horror tale Angry Little God and Plush, directed by Catherine Hardwicke.

In June three in-house genre films go into production: Revenge Of The Green Dragons from director Andrew Lau with Scorsese on board as executive producer; Stretch from Joe Carnahan starring Patrick Wilson and Chris Pine; and comedy sequel A Haunted House.

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