*Wimzie licensee deal

Montreal’s Cinar Films has signed licensing deals with Smilemakers and Pressman Toys on its preschool series Wimzie’s House. Pressman, responsible for such board games as Mastermind, is currently in production on a Wimzie’s House game, while Smilemakers will feature Wimzie product in its mail-order catalogues.

Smilemakers and Pressman join other Wimzie licensees, which include Sony Wonder, Eden and Simon & Schuster.

In addition, a new line of Wimzie storybooks will soon be available from Cinar licensee Products-Carson-Dellosa, a maker of Wimzie-focused activity books. Cinar reports that the first four of eight storybooks in the collection are due out at the beginning of the new year.

*Merchant takes Emporte

U.S. art house distrib Merchant Ivory Distribution has acquired Lea Pool’s festival-hopping movie Emporte-moi. The film premiered stateside Oct. 6 at the New York Film Festival and will receive a platform release in major keys, including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, in the spring of 2000.

Emporte-moi is a Canada/Swiss/ France coproduction coproduced in Canada by Lorraine Richard of Cite-Amerique.

TF1 International has international rights.