A team of UK veterans has come together to revive the HandMadeFilms banner as a production and sales company. The new executive team of chairman Patrick Meehan and managing director David Ravdenwill now run HandMade, which was started by George Harrison in the 1970s andcontrols rights to the Eloise franchise and has a library of classic filmsinclude Withnail & I.

HandMade Plc will be dividedinto HandMade Films International, a sales marketing and distribution arm thatwill take over Sequence/IAC Films, and a film production arm called HandMadeFilm Productions. The up-to-$8.3m (£4.4m) deal for Sequence/IAC, includingthose libraries, was struck with Guy Collins, Michael Ryan and Stephen Kay'sAcme IIL. Collins and Ryan will now head HandMade Films International, tohandle worldwide sales, distribution and marketing on new HandMadeproductions and the existing Sequence and IAC slate. The companies will starttrading under the name HandMade at next week's AFM, and will cease to be knownas Sequence and IAC.

HandMade's combined librarywill include 105 features such as Withnail& I, Mona Lisa, Time Bandits and Long Good Friday. The company will seekto maximise library assets through new license agreements and remakes andsequels. The sales slate also includes new projects such as Manolete, Highlander The Source, and forthcoming Tales Of The Riverbank, Stone Angel and The Heart Of The Earth.

HandMade FilmsInternational's board will include Ravden, Peter Parkinson, Collins and Ryan.Carl Clifton, veteran of PolyGram, Universal and Film4, will join as head ofinternational sales and Amanda Kenyon, who worked with Collins and Ryan atSequence/IAC, will serve as head of marketing.

Antony Rufus Isaacs, whoproduced films including 9 ' Weeks,will run the production and financing arm, and he will serve on that board withCollins and Ryan.

With its rights to the Eloise books by Kay Thompson andillustrated by Hilary Knight, HandMade plans to develop a "big-budget liveaction theatrical feature" entitled EloiseIn Paris as its first new production. Erin Josclynwill write the screenplay from the novel of the same name, and the UK-Frenchco-production will shoot in Paris, London and New York in spring 2007. No cast or director is attached yet.After that feature, the company is developing Eloise In Hollywood.

Other new productionsplanned include Dogs, a co-productionwith Spain's LolaFilms to be directed by Alex de la Iglesia.Tom McCown will write the screenplay from Ted Kooser's short story. Also on theslate is Paris-set erotic mystery Miragebased on Miles Gibson's novella ParadisePages; and Larry Clark's Shame,which will a remake of Mona Lisa tobe produced in association with Canal Plus.

"HandMade represents a greatname, a great company with a great history," said chairman Meehan, who acquiredHandMade after its decline in recent years. "For many, it's one of the heroesof the British Film Industry. We willtake that reputation and tradition to build an ever greater, integrated UK based entertainment company.The addition of Guy, Michael and their team to HandMade is a fantastic firststep"

Added Sequence's Collins andRyan: "At Sequence over the last two and a half years, working with some keyindustry partners, we have financed and sold an unprecedented number of movies,many co-productions, using all manner of financing tools. Coming together withPatrick, David and Antony at HandMade gives all of us an incredible opportunityto build this wonderful brand into a company that was the vision at itsinception."

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