Zentropa's international sales arm, Trust Film Sales, has picked up worldwide rights excluding Scandinavia to Fear The X, the English-language debut from Danish writer-director Nicolas Winding Refn.

The thriller shoots in the US and Rio from February 2001 on a $6.5m budget. The script is written by Winding Refn and cult author Hubert Selby Jr, who wrote the novels on which Requiem For A Dream and Last Exit To Brooklyn were based. Refn and producer Henrik Danstrup, who previously collaborated on Pusher and Bleeder, are producing the film through their new outfit NWR UK, set up in February with the UK's Metrodome Distribution.

Backing comes from Danish state broadcaster TV2/Danmark, The Danish Film Institute, the Nordic Film & TV Fund and local major Nordisk Film which has Scandinavian rights. Metrodome will distribute in the UK. Cast will be announced in January, and final negotiations concerning the budget will take place during MIFED.

Trust has also picked up Danish director Susanne Bier's new film following her local box office hit The One And Only. The Swedish-language Once In A Lifetime is written by Jonas Gardell and star some of Sweden's most popular actors including Helena Bergstrom and Bjorn Kjellman. It was produced by Thomas Heinesen for Nordisk Film Productions and Thomas Hansson for Swedish national broadcaster SVT Drama.

Other new titles on Trust's MIFED slate include Lone Scherfig's romantic comedy Italian For Beginners, the fifth of the Danish Dogme-movies, Pal Jackman's Norwegian box-office hit Detector, and Natasha Arthy's children's musical and Berlin-contender Miracle.

The company's pre-sales slate includes Thomas Vinterberg's highly anticipated It's All About Love, Zentropa Internationale's Last Born, Moments Of Clarity and Through A Glass Darkly, co-produced with Fine Line and Kinowelt, and the new Zentropa Zhillers, a string of horror films backed by USA Films.