A deal set for a March announcement will see Toronto-based CanWest Entertainment partner with Carl Icahn’s Stratosphere Entertainment and Samuel Goldwyn Films to form an independent theatrical releasing company with enough ‘size and power’ to command greater attention from cablecasters and video distributors.

An industry source close to the deal says that while each company would typically release four or five films each year in the u.s., all three working together through an as yet unnamed new company would have greater credibility with distributors such as hbo when negotiating the post-cinema life of films.

‘If you rent a distribution system [even one owned by a major theatrical distributor],’ says the source, ‘his [the distributor’s] priorities come first. If you own [the release and p&a strategy] on your films, your priorities come first and the film gets the care it needs.

‘Theatrical releases require a great deal of care and attention.’

The terms of the proposed deal among the three companies would see each acquire its own films, ‘from anyone, anywhere.’

The deal would, obviously, also allow the three companies to shave the high overhead costs associated with each running a theatrical releasing entity by establishing a single administrative structure.

CanWest Entertainment is the parent company of Fireworks Entertainment (Relic Hunter) and Seven Arts International, which does international distribution from its l.a. base. The industry source says the new releasing company would have right of first refusal on product distributed by Seven Arts International, but could buy from any number of distribs.

Icahn, a New York-based billionaire, has released such films as Gilles MacKinnon’s Hideous Kinky, starring Kate Winslet, and Benoit Jacquot’s The School of Flesh, starring Isabelle Huppert. Stratosphere says that after it signed a four-picture deal in 1999 with Capitol Films of the u.k., it ’embarked on its first production, Beautiful Joe, starring Sharon Stone,’ which is set for release this spring by the new venture, as are the other three films envisioned in the Capitol deal.

Samuel Goldwyn Films gained some Oscar fame with The Madness of King George and counts such productions as Big Night among its releases.