Dutch Investment Group, Cyrte Investments, Acquires Spitfire Pictures to Combine...

Dutch Investment Group, Cyrte Investments, Acquires Spitfire Pictures to
Combine With Hammer to Form a New Worldwide Entertainment Operation
Company has access to $100 Million Fund

CANNES, France, May 20 /PRNewswire/ -- It was announced today that Cyrte
Investments, which, in partnership with Goldman Sachs and MediaSet, recently
acquired Endemol for euros 3.5 bn., has acquired Nigel Sinclair's and Guy
East's L.A. based production company Spitfire Pictures. Cyrte will combine
Spitfire with legendary British studio, Hammer, in which Cyrte already has an
interest run by Simon Oakes and Marc Schipper, to form the base for building a
new global filmed entertainment group, HS Media.
Cyrte intends to provide substantial equity for the acquisition by HS
Media of libraries and complementary businesses as part of the new Group's
growth strategy. The announcement was made in Cannes by Cyrte Chairman Frank
Botman along with Sinclair, Oakes and East.
For development and production purposes, HS Media will initially have
shareholders equity and facilities in excess of $100 million, with the ability
to leverage this capital further. The new Group will establish a foreign sales
arm to be complemented by a vertically integrated distribution operation.
Under the terms of the deal, Spitfire and Hammer will operate as one
business with two separate brands. The triumvirate of Nigel Sinclair, Guy East
and Simon Oakes will run HS Media with Sinclair and Oakes serving as
Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs (out of Los Angeles and London respectively), and East
as President and Chairman of the Executive Board and of the Sales and
Distribution Operation.
Hammer's Marc Schipper has been appointed COO of the Group and Andy Mayson
has joined as CFO and MD of International Sales and Distribution. Longtime
Spitfire executives Tobin Armbrust and Alex Brunner will join the Group
management team in Los Angeles. Armbrust will head up Worldwide Production and
Brunner will head up US operations.
Cyrte's strategic investment team wishes to position the new Group to take
advantage of so-called "digital convergence" in entertainment on top of
becoming a vertically integrated film production, distribution and financing
operation. Accordingly, the Group will be interested in acquiring and
developing entertainment brands which can develop a separate presence within
the emerging digital platforms and communities.
HS Media will initially produce 6-8 films per year and will acquire
additional pictures for worldwide distribution. Development and production
activities will be run out of both Los Angeles and London. The group also
intends to develop projects for television. Discussions are already underway
with a number of high profile partners including the BBC.
HS Media has a current combined Hammer and Spitfire library of over 300
titles and will pursue an aggressive library acquisition policy. Several major
libraries are already being considered for acquisition by the group. The
Hammer library is noted for its remake potential and the company is in
discussions with A-list writers and directors to revive and re-imagine some of
the highly touted titles.
Said Nigel Sinclair, "Guy and I are thankful for the opportunity to work
with Frank Botman and the Cyrte team, and merge our company with our good
friend Simon Oakes and Hammer Films. This is a really interesting time in the
history of our business with digital convergence continuing to expand, and we
believe that a talent-based strong content business is the right way to make
it in this new world."
Simon Oakes commented, "I am very excited about this opportunity. I
believe a combination of this management team and Cyrte's track record in
media investments will provide the platform to build a significant company in
the film industry."
Spitfire Pictures is a Los Angeles-based film company, with two operating
divisions. Spitfire's Film Division is planning an early 2009 release for its
new thriller, POSSESSION, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar (THE GRUDGE).
Under Spitfire's first look deal with Hammer, the division has recently
acquired remake rights to Thomas Alfredson's Tribeca winner LET THE RIGHT ONE
IN.
Spitfire has a very active slate of films in pre-production and
development with several highly successful writers including Bill Broyles
(APOLLO 13), Stuart Beattie (COLLATERAL), Christopher McQuarrie (THE USUAL
SUSPECTS and the upcoming VALKYRIE), Justin Haythe (the upcoming REVOLUTIONARY
ROAD), Craig Zahler (THE BRIGANDS OF RATTLEBORGE), Max Makowski (SHINOBI at
Universal) and Christopher Cleveland (GLORY ROAD).
Other projects which have been announced include Mike Myers starring in
the biographical picture about the life of legendary Who drummer KEITH MOON,
and Philip Noyce (THE QUIET AMERICAN, PATRIOT GAMES) directing an adaptation
of the best-seller MORAL HAZARD.
Spitfire's Documentary Division has two signature music documentaries
currently in release: AMAZING JOURNEY: THE STORY OF THE WHO and the award
winning NO DIRECTION HOME: BOB DYLAN directed by Martin Scorsese. Barry
Blaustein's UNTITLED TEENAGE MUSICAL is about to be delivered to Lionsgate and
Showtime, and Spitfire has teamed again with Martin Scorsese to direct THE
UNTITLED GEORGE HARRISON documentary. Delivery of 3-4 documentaries per year
is planned.
Founders and Co-Chairmen, Guy East and Nigel Sinclair are longtime film
executives who together were the founders of Intermedia Films and separately
founded Majestic Films International and the Los Angeles-based law firm,
Sinclair Tenenbaum.
About Cyrte Investments
Cyrte Investments was originally started in 2000 as the family office for
the private wealth of media-entrepreneur John de Mol -- the founder of Endemol
and creator of Big Brother and Deal or No Deal. Cyrte has subsequently grown
to include a number of other investors. Since 2007 Cyrte is part of Delta
Lloyd Asset Management, with some 68 billion euro in assets under management
(end 2007), one of the Netherlands' major Asset Managers. Cyrte is based in
the Netherlands, has an active interest in media investments, as demonstrated
by its recent euro 3.5 billion acquisition of Endemol in partnership with
Goldman Sachs and MediaSet.
About Hammer
Hammer is a legendary British film brand which was originally launched in
1934 and, following a period of inactivity during WW2, delivered a hugely
successful run of gothic monster movies in the 1950s including such hits as
THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT, CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, THE NANNY and DRACULA.
Hammer's reputation became branded worldwide as the 'Hammer House of Horror'.
In the 1960s Hammer struck distribution deals with Universal, Warner Brothers,
Fox and Columbia. Hammer went on to produce a huge volume of films which
included such classics as THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES, QUATERMASS AND THE PIT,
THE DEVIL RIDES OUT and ONE MILLION YEARS BC.
Not in production since the 1980s, the company is now being aggressively
reinvigorated through new investment in the development, production, financing
and distribution of film, television and digital-platform content.
Today, Hammer has an active development slate totaling more than 25
projects sourced out of both Europe and -- via its First Look deal with
Spitfire -- the United States. Hammer expects a number of these projects to
go into production during the course of 2008.
Further to its strategy to explore digital distribution models next to
film production, Hammer is currently releasing its innovative online serial
BEYOND THE RAVE worldwide (and localized for 19 countries simultaneously) via
MySpace -- the world's leading Internet social networking site. See
http://www.myspace.com/beyondtherave for more information.
http://www.hammerfilms.com

Contact Name: Dennis Dembia Contact Name: Noelle Brown
Rogers & Cowan Rogers & Cowan
In Cannes: +33 (0)6 07 32 74 25 Los Angeles: (310) 854-8187

SOURCE Spitfire Pictures

Dennis Dembia, Cannes, +33 (0)6 07 32 74 25, or Noelle Brown, Los Angeles,
+1-310-854-8187, both of Rogers & Cowan, for Spitfire Pictures