Ambi Group, a consortium of film companies owned and operated by Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi, has launched a $200 million film fund to finance a high-end, star-driven movie slate.
The fund will have Bacardi, Iervolino and New York-based private equity firm Raven Capital Management as anchor investors. Ambi will use the $200 million to finance five movies in the $25-million to $30-million range, and at least 10 more low-budget movies under $10 million in budget each.
Both AMBI, with offices in Toronto and Los Angeles, and Raven will continue to co-finance projects with studio and indie partners outside their joint fund. “Our ultimate goal is to mold Ambi into a formidable mini major studio with a pipeline of high-quality commercial movies that will be attractive on a global scale. Establishing this fund is another step toward realizing this vision,” Bacardi said on Thursday in a statement.
Launching the fund follows Ambi last month acquiring the Exclusive Media Group film library in partnership with Raven Capital Management. The library deal covers approximately 400 titles, including such films as Begin Again, Cruel Intentions, Donnie Darko, End of Watch, Ides of March, Hit & Run, Memento, The Mexican, Parkland, Rush, The Skulls, Sliding Doors, Snitch, Undefeated and The Way Back.
Ambi, which has 10 films in production this year, has a movie pipeline that includes the contemporary fairy tale This Beautiful Fantastic, starring Jessica Brown Findlay and Tom Wilkinson; a homage to Federico Fellini’s classic film La Dolce Vita; James Franco’s In Dubious Battle; the 3D CGI family animated film Arctic Justice: Thunder Squad; 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, starring Sarah Jessica Parker; and Barry Levinson’s The Humbling, starring Al Pacino, among others.
