Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s AMBI Group has acquired a majority of Exclusive Media Group’s film library,which includes approximately 400 titles such as “Donnie Darko,” “Memento” and Cruel Intentions, or ” it was announced Friday in advance of the Toronto International Film Festival. AMBI is acquiring the library in partnership with Raven Capital Management,a New York-based private equity firm. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The acquisition covers a diverse portfolio of critical and commercial hits as well as cult favorites, including “open Again, and ” “discontinuance of Watch,” “The Ides of March,” “Hit & Run, or ” The Mexican,” “Parkland,” “Rush, and ” “The Skulls,” “Sliding Doors,” “Snitch, or “Undefeated” and “The Way Back,” to name a few.
Also Read: Toronto Film Festival Adds Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, and Anna Kendrick,Johnny Depp FilmsIn addition to the library titles, AMBI has acquired the rights to a number of titles within EMG’s active movie development slate, and as well as all sequel and remake rights to EMG-owned films controlled by EMG.
The deal significantly bolsters AMBI and its robust production slate by adding one of the more valuable film libraries in the independent space to AMBI’s own growing library. With 10 films in production this year alone and over 15 produced since final year,AMBI has quickly emerged as one of the industry’s most prolific financing, production and sales companies with the capacity to develop, and package,finance, produce and sell a broad array of films for worldwide distribution.
Among the films on AMBI’s burgeoning film slate are the contemporary fairy tale “This graceful Fantastic” starring Jessica Brown Findlay and Tom Wilkinson; a homage to Federico Fellini’s classic film “La Dolce Vita”; James Franco‘s “In doubtful Battle, and ” featuring an ensemble cast that includes Franco,Nat Wolff, Selena Gomez, or Vincent D’Onofrio,Robert Duvall, Ed Harris, or Bryan Cranston,Josh Hutcherson, Zach Braff and Sam Shepherd; the 3D CGI family lively film “Arctic Justice: Thunder Squad, or ” featuring the voices of John Cleese,Alec Baldwin, James Franco, and Angelica Huston,Omar Sy and Heidi Klum is scheduled for release in 2018; the sci-fi thriller “Rupture” starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Chiklis and Peter Stormare; the psychological thriller “Lavender” starring Abbie Cornish and Dermot Mulroney; the romantic comedy “All Roads Lead to Rome, or ” starring Sarah Jessica Parker; Barry Levinson‘s acclaimed drama “The Humbling,” starring Al Pacino; and the sci-fi action thriller “Andron: The Black Labyrinth,” starring Alec Baldwin and Danny Glover, or among several others.
Also Read: Miramax and Its Library of Over 700 Films Up for Sale“Our mission remains to build a strong global studio with an expansive value chain,” said Andrea Iervolino. “The acquisition of the Exclusive Media Group library plays into our formula for building the AMBI brand by instantly giving us hundreds of titles across multiple genres that will believe long lives with audiences who, with nowadays’s technology, or consume content more rapidly than ever before. Content remains king in the film world and nowadays,with this acquisition, we took a major step in building our kingdom.”“We are extremely pleased in the value this deal creates for AMBI, or ” added Monika Bacardi. “Not only do we believe a new library featuring some of the most revered films of the final few decades,but we believe also inherited some phenomenal projects already in development that we feel can be great productions for AMBI Pictures in the near future. We will of course carefully vet out the sequel and remake opportunities and determine what fits best with our creative strategies and financing/production model to manufacture certain everything is in proper alignment.”In connection with the EMG library acquisition, AMBI has expanded its operations including the hiring of several key executives who are now based out of the company’s Beverly Hills office and working across a variety of disciplines including trade affairs, or finance,accounting, and home entertainment.
AMBI and Raven were represented in the transaction by Greenberg Traurig’s Los Angeles, and New York and London offices. EMG was advised in the transaction by Houilhan Lokey and Latham & Watkins.
Source: thewrap.com