A new sales outfit will debut next week at the Unifrance Paris Rendez-Vous. Elle Driver, headed up by Eva Diederix and Adeline Fontan Tessaur has taken up residence at Stephane Celerier's Mars Distribution offices and, with help from an outside investment fund, will work 'with quality films that can travel,' according to Diederix.

Sheadds: 'We're open to everything, all types and all budgets.'

The company will kick off at the Rendez-Vous selling a first feature from Fred Cavaye, Pour Elle. The film will star Vincent Lindon andDiane Kruger and is produced by Fidelite. Mars has French distribution rights.

Ultimately, Diederix and Fontan Tessaur - who hail from UGC and TF1 International, respectively - will look to work with about 15 films per year and plan to already have a slate of about five films for next month's European Film Market in Berlin.

Mars and Elle Driver will have a first-look deal on the other's films and if the fit is right they will work jointly on certain films. Mars could also become more involved financially in Elle Driver in the future.

Initial financing for the new company is from an acquisition fund raised overseas (Elle Driver refused to reveal further details). The fund will be entirely managed by Diederix and Fontan Tessaur.

Further, thanks to a long-standing working relationship between Mars' Celerier and French sales, distribution and finance outfit Wild Bunch, the latter will act as a 'godfather' to the new company and is helping with some of the overhead costs.

The company's name, Elle Driver, is a wink to the character played by Darryl Hannah in the Kill Bill films and, for the women, exemplifies the kind of edgy, classy films they expect to proffer.

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