MUMBAI: Red Box Films has entered into a co-production partnership deal with John Battsek‘s Passion Pictures.

The first project to come out of the deal will be Marsh‘s next documentary that according to Red Box founder Simon Chinn, will be "classic James Marsh territory."

The untitled project, that is currently on the floor has been fully funded by BBC Films, the UK Film Council and Icon Distribution that will also handle the film‘s international sales. The film is likely to be completed next summer in time for an autumn release.

Under the partnership, the two companies will concentrate on producing feature documentaries for theatrical release. Red Box will be based out of Passion Pictures‘ London office.
The Passion slate currently includes films like How To Live Now and Miranda Bowen‘s Nambia-set ghost story Skeleton Coast.

Said Battesk, who won an Oscar for Passion Pictures with Kevin Macdonald‘s feature documentary One Day In September in 2000, "The hope is that Simon and I, through our companies, will offer an obvious place for both international and domestic film-makers to come and get their films made in a collaborative way, as well as presenting ourselves as a team who financiers will have significant faith in."

Chinn added: "John and I have a similar sensibility about feature documentary making and we are using James‘s project to forge a strategic partnership in which we will share projects and work together on all our documentary output.

"We are looking for stories that have the potential to work on the big screen not just aesthetically but also commercially. If we can find one or two big stories a year, that would be fantastic."