Robert B. Sturm, a Denver-based financier and philanthropist, has formed a new LA production company Catch 23 Entertainment and entered into a deal with Universal Pictures' unnamed specialty film division to handle domestic distribution on the films it produces.

Sturm plans to engage foreign sales agents on a picture by picture basis. Intermedia is handling one of his first two films, After Image, starring John Mellencamp and Louise Fletcher and directed by Robert Manganelli, while The Shooting Gallery is handling foreign sales on Victor Nunez's The Professor's Wife.

Marina Zenovich has been appointed head of development at the company, while former Largo Entertainment president Joseph Cohen will act as a consultant.