Toronto-based Peace Arch Entertainment Group has signed a three-year, 15-picture output deal with Showtime Networks. The cofinancing and distribution agreement, worth up to $225 million if all the movies are completed by 2007, means Peace Arch will handle theatrical distribution in Canada and internationally, while Showtime will air in the U.S.

‘This agreement provides great opportunities for Peace Arch,’ says Gary Howsam, Peace Arch president and CEO, ‘[including] the production of high-quality films, supply of ongoing product to our international sales company, and the chance to build a strong working relationship with a great company like Showtime.’

Once the partners approve a film, Peace Arch will acquire ownership of all non-U.S. rights and provide production support. U.K.-based Peace Arch Films will handle international sales. The Royal Bank of Scotland in London is facilitating the financing, says Peace Arch in a release.

‘This agreement with Peace Arch is an important piece of Showtime’s strategy to find strategic partners to help cofinance high-profile movies,’ says Matthew Duda, executive VP program acquisitions at Showtime. ‘We are pleased to have found such a strong partner in Peace Arch Entertainment.’

Technically, Peace Arch ‘acquired’ GFT Entertainment for a $2.5-million stock swap in late 2002. However, GFT chief Howsam has been in charge since and the company has moved to Toronto from Vancouver. In its new form, Peace Arch has focused on the production and distribution of mostly international coproduction genre films like the Nature Unleashed series of disaster movies shot in Eastern Europe. Other recent productions include the caper comedy Crime Spree with Gerard Depardieu and Harvey Keitel and The Shadow Dancer, also starring Keitel, along with Vancouver actor Joshua Jackson.

Because of the Cannes Film Festival, no one from Peace Arch was available to comment on what types of movies would be considered in the Showtime agreement, what titles were up first or when production would begin or where.

The Peace Arch-Showtime deal has no impact on existing production deals with Toronto-based Dufferin Gate/Temple Street Productions (which produces Queer as Folk and the new cable movie Our Fathers for the U.S. broadcaster) or Vancouver-based Coast Mountain Films (which produces The L Word).

Dufferin Gate president Patrick Whitley says he has been aware of the deal for some time and says the Peace Arch-Showtime financing partnership does not affect his production deal with Showtime.

On May 17, Peace Arch shares traded at $1.20 per share on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Its year high is $1.50 per share and its year low is $0.90.

In other Peace Arch news, the company opened Peace Arch LA, a new Los Angeles office, to expand support of its business in the U.S.

John Flock, a producer and film sector consultant, has been named president.

-www.peacearch.com