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OPEN ROAD FILMS ACQUIRES ANIMATED FAMILY FILM “ARCTIC JUSTICE: THUNDER SQUAD”

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The AMBI Media Group Movie Features The Voices of Jeremy Renner, Alec Baldwin, Heidi Klum, John Cleese, James Franco, Anjelica Huston and Omar Sy

Wide Theatrical Release Slated for 2018

Los Angeles / Toronto (February 1, 2017) --- Open Road Films has acquired all U.S. rights to ARCTIC JUSTICE: THUNDER SQUAD – the epic 3D CGI animated family film from Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s AMBI Media Group. The movie features the voices of Jeremy Renner, Alec Baldwin, Heidi Klum, John Cleese, James Franco, Anjelica Huston and Omar Sy, and is directed by Aaron Woodley.  The announcement was made today by Tom Ortenberg, CEO of Open Road Films.

Open Road will release ARCTIC JUSTICE wide in 2018. Animation work for the film is currently being done out of AMBI’s Toronto based studio, AIC Studios. The movie is fully financed and being produced by AMBI and its principals, Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi.

When the sinister Doc Walrus (voiced by John Cleese) hatches a secret plot to accelerate global warming and melt the arctic circle, a rag-tag group of inexperienced heroes (voiced by Renner, Franco, Baldwin, Huston, Klum and Sy) must come together to foil his evil plans and save the arctic.

Ortenberg stated, “The family film audience is hungry for quality product and we are very happy to serve up something fresh and topical with ARCTIC JUSTICE.”

Said Andrea Iervolino, “Tom and the Open Road team have a keen understanding of the audience that will love this film and are astute at reaching them in unique ways, resulting in great connectivity with viewers and a mutually beneficial relationship for our companies. They have been down this road before, and hit home runs with films like ‘The Nut Job’ so we’re excited that ‘Arctic Justice’ is in their expert and very skilled hands. It really is the perfect home for this movie.”

The deal was negotiated on behalf of Open Road Films by CEO Tom Ortenberg, Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, Elliott Kleinberg and SVP Acquisitions, Lejo Pet.

“Arctic Justice: Thunder Squad”: The Story

Swifty (Jeremy Renner), an arctic fox, dreams of becoming one the famous Top Dogs, a team of huskies that deliver packages for the Arctic Blast Delivery Service. In the Arctic, every day trips can quickly turn into epic journeys, which make the Top Dogs the Arctic’s every day heroes.

In an effort to prove himself, Swifty secretly commandeers a delivery sled to takes a mysterious package to a secret, icy, fortress where he comes face to face with Doc Walrus (John Cleese), a blubbery evil genius who walks around on robotic legs, and commands a loyal army of oddly polite puffins. Swifty stumbles upon Doc Walrus’ evil plan to drill to the center of the Earth to unleash enough lava to melt the polar ice caps in order to flood the planet and become be king of the world.

Now, Swifty has to enlist the help of his friends: PB (Alec Baldwin), an introverted polar bear, Lemmy (James Franco), a scatter-brained rock and roll albatross, Sal (Omar Sy) and Weez (Heidi Klum), two conspiracy theorist otters, and Jade, a red fox, who’s a tough as nails mechanic that Swifty has a secret crush on. This ragtag team has to band together and overcome their differences if they’re going to stop Doc Walrus and his army of Puffins from destroying the world.
 

About Open Road Films

Open Road Films is a leading, independent, theatrical motion picture company, releasing a diverse slate of star-driven films, which has included multiple #1 releases and enormous critical response. The company was founded in 2011 by AMC Entertainment Inc. (AMC) and Regal Entertainment Group (Regal), the two largest theatrical exhibition companies in the United States. The uniquely formed company is widely known as a filmmaker-focused distributor that supports both box office hits and top prestige titles.

Open Road Films led the 2016 critically acclaimed film, Spotlight, to win the Oscar® for Best Picture, becoming the youngest studio in history to win the big prize. The film, which earned almost $45 million at the U.S. box-office, stars Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Brian d’Arcy James, Stanley Tucci and Billy Crudup was directed by Tom McCarthy, who also won the Oscar® for Best Original Screenplay, with his co-writer (and executive producer) Josh Singer. Spotlight has won numerous high profile critics and guild awards, including the Screen Actors Guild Best Ensemble Award and the Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature Film. Spotlight also appeared on over 250 critics’ Top Ten lists for 2016.

Other notable Open Road Films releases include: Nightcrawler, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, which took the #1 spot at the box-office during its opening week and received an Oscar® nomination for Best Original Screenplay, along with a Golden Globe nomination – it was named one of the best films of 2014 by the AFI and National Board of Review and top critics nationwide; the hit film Chef, written by, directed by and starring Jon Favreau along with Sofia Vergara, Scarlett Johansson, John Leguizamo, Bobby Cannavale, Oliver Platt, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Downey, Jr.; The Nut Job, which opened to over $25 million at the box office as the highest ever opening for an independent animated film; The Grey, directed by Joe Carnahan and starring Liam Neeson, which opened #1 at the box office; End Of Watch, directed by David Ayer and starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña, which opened #1 at the box office; Rosewater, written and directed by Jon Stewart; A Haunted House starring Marlon Wayans; and Side Effects, directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Channing Tatum.

Upcoming Open Road Films releases include: Collide (2/24/2017) starring Felicity Jones and Nicholas Hoult; Before I Fall (3/3/2017) based on the bestselling novel of the same name, starring Zoey Deuth, Halston Sage and Logan Miller: Spark (4/14/2017), an animated family film featuring the voices of Hilary Swank, Susan Sarandon and Jessica Biel; Midnight Sun (8/4/2017), an emotional drama starring Bella Thorne and Patrick Schwarzenegger; The Nut Job 2 (8/18/17), the sequel to the 2014 hit animated film, featuring the voices of Will Arnett, Katherine Heigl, Maya Rudolph, Jeff Dunham, Bobby Moynihan, Bobby Cannavale, Isabela Moner, Gabriel Iglesias, Sebastian Maniscalco and Peter Stormare;; All I See Is You (9/15/2017), directed by Marc Forster and starring Blake Lively and Jason Clarke; Marshall (10/13/2017), starring Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad and Kate Hudson from director Reginald Hudlin; Home Again, written and directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer, produced by Nancy Meyers and starring Reese Witherspoon; and Show Dogs (11/10/17), a live action family comedy from the director of Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Scooby Doo and The Smurfs.

About AMBI

AMBI Group is a consortium of vertically integrated film development, production, finance and distribution companies wholly owned and operated by Andrea Iervolino and Monika Gomez del Campo Bacardi, Lady of Bayfield Hall, better known as “Monika Bacardi.”

AMBI has quickly emerged as one of the industry’s most prolific financing, production and sales companies with the capacity to develop, package, finance, produce and sell a broad array of films for worldwide distribution. Among the films on AMBI’s burgeoning film slate are the heist movie “Finding Steve McQueen,” starring Travis Fimmel, Kate Bosworth, William Fichtner and Forest Whitaker, which Mark Steven Johnson is directing; the Andrea Bocelli biopic “The Music of Silence”, directed by Oscar® nominated Michael Radford and starring Antonio Banderas, Toby Sebastian and Jordi Molla; a new Sarah Jessica Parker music-drama, James Franco’s post-apocalyptic thriller “Future World”, starring Milla Jovovich, Lucy Liu, Method Man, Suki Waterhouse, Snoop Dogg, and James Franco; the psychological thriller “Black Butterfly” starring Antonio Banderas and Jonathan Rhys Meyers; a remake of Christopher Nolan’s iconic film “Memento”;  “Lamborghini – The Legend,” a biopic on Lamborghini founder Ferruccio Lamborghini to be written by Bobby Moresco; the faith based children’s film “Beyond the Sun,” featuring His Holiness Pope Francis; the contemporary fairy tale “This Beautiful Fantastic” starring Jessica Brown Findlay and Tom Wilkinson; James Franco’s “In Dubious Battle,” featuring an ensemble cast that includes Franco, Nat Wolff, Selena Gomez, Vincent D’Onofrio, Robert Duvall, Ed Harris, Bryan Cranston, Josh Hutcherson, Zach Braff and Sam Shepherd; the 3D, CGI animated family film “Arctic Justice: Thunder Squad” starring Jeremy Renner, Alec Baldwin, Heidi Klum, John Cleese, James Franco and Anjelica Huston; and the sci-fi thriller “Rupture” starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Chiklis and Peter Stormare.

In 2015, AMBI acquired the Exclusive Media Group film library, which includes an incredibly diverse portfolio of critical hits, commercial blockbusters and cult favorites such as “Begin Again,” “Cruel Intentions,” “Donnie Darko,” “End of Watch,” “Ides of March,” “Hit & Run,” “Memento,” “The Mexican,” “Parkland,” “Rush,” “Sliding Doors,” “Snitch,” “Undefeated” and “The Way Back,” to name a few.  In addition to the library titles, AMBI now has the rights to a number of titles within EMG’s active movie development slate, as well as all sequel and remake rights to the popular EMG films.

Andrea Iervolino has produced, funded and distributed over 55 feature films including “The Merchant of Venice” and “The Humbling.” He is considered one of the youngest and most accomplished entrepreneurs in the Italian film industry and was the recipient of the coveted Mimmo Rotella Award for his contributions to the Italian cinema industry - presented to him at the 2014 Venice Film Festival, alongside fellow recipients Al Pacino and Barry Levinson. Iervolino most recently received the Honor of Recognition as Ambassador of Italian Cinema in the World at annual Italian Contemporary Film Festival (ICFF).

Lady Monika Bacardi is the widow of Luis Adalberto Facundo Gomez del Campo Bacardi, Lord of Bayfield Hall, known as Lord Luis Bacardi (descendent of the Bacardi founder, still a family-run company). Renowned for her passion of modern art and love of photography and movies, Monika Bacardi is a highly successful businesswoman who is now committed to producing films, through AMBI, on top of her numerous philanthropic activities.


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