$100 million film fund created

CANNES, France, May 17 (UPI) -- A $100 million film fund has been created thanks to Screen Media International and the William Morris Agency, The Hollywood Reporter said.

The Morris agency will play an integral role in the Incentive Filmed Entertainment fund, the trade newspaper said. Access to the fund will be available even to those who are not WMA clients.

Financing for the fund will be provided by JPMorgan Chase & Co., the Aramid Entertainment Fund and a number of other private investors.

The fund, whose creation was announced at the Cannes Film Festival, is part of a trend in the cinema industry of using film funds to finance a variety of projects.

The funding enterprise lost popularity in 2007 due to debt problems in the cinema industry and several other unspecified problems, the Reporter said.

The first film to be developed under the new fund will be "The Position," which will start shooting this summer under director Griffin Dunne.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International