Vancouver: Weird Homes and Weird Wheels information series producer Yaletown Entertainment has signed a new five-year, 50-picture output agreement with genre film producer Lloyd Simandl of North American Pictures.

As part of the agreement inked Nov. 30, Yaletown will establish a new, wholly owned and as yet unnamed division through North American Releasing, another Simandl company. Simandl will assign rights and scripts to Yaletown’s new division, which will own all copyrights in return for production financing.

Six lower-budget features, produced by Simandl though North American Pictures’ studio in Prague, are ready for production.

According to Yaletown, features Lash of the Scorpion, Chained Fury, A Season in Hell, Kiss of the Whip, Cold Warriors and Dark Rose have presales of US$570,000, which will accrue to Yaletown’s new division. With some exceptions, Simandl’s productions usually go straight to video.

In the deal, Simandl will get 500,000 common shares of Yaletown after 12 months, the completion of the first 10 features and the return to the new division of sales equaling 150% of production costs from each of the first five films.

Shares of Yaletown reached new 52-week highs on the TSX Venture Exchange Dec. 9 of $0.32 per share, compared to a year low of $0.07 per share, putting a cash value on the deal at press time of $160,000.

Earlier in 2002, Simandl produced Ariana’s Quest, Chained Rage, Cries of Innocence, Age of Innocence, The Final Victim and The Starfire Mutiny. He produced three films in 2001: Slave to Love, Omega Force and Dakota Bound.

-www.yaletownentertainment.com