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2 months ago
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Monika Bacardi and longtime business partner Andrea Iervolino, producers on dozens of movies including Ferrari and To The Bone, have entered into a war of words and legal saber rattling following their recent split.
The producers were longtime partners at Italian production and distribution company ILBE (Iervolino & Lady Bakardi Entertainment), but Bacardi is unhappy following the latter’s recent announcement of his new company.
Iervolino announced earlier this week that he was stepping back from ILBE to launch film and TV outfit The Andrea Iervolino Company (TAIC). Among projects noted on the slate were a Maserati biopic written and directed by Bobby Moresco, and the biopic Ferrari vs Mercedes, also directed by Moresco.
In a press statement today, Bacardi has claimed that Iervolino doesn’t own the IP to certain projects seemingly mentioned as part of his initial slate, including the Maserati biopic, and that prior to Iervolino’s exit, Bacardi had requested that the ILBE board be convened to investigate potential grounds to dismiss him.
Monika Bacardi Media (MBM) claimed today that Iervolino resigned from his post only after MBM had requested an “urgent convening of shareholders” to investigate potential grounds for dismissal. The statement does not specify what those grounds were.
The MBM statement goes on to add: “It is also underlined that the economic rights relating to the production of a biopic on Maserati, as well as all the other intellectual properties conceived in the context of his offices held in ILBE S.P.A., are and remain as ILBE S.P.A. assets and therefore Mr. Andrea Iervolino cannot claim economic rights on such intellectual properties.”
Iervolino has immediately hit back at the above statements, telling us: “I can only say that TAIC is moving forward with great enthusiasm and with a substantial slate of productions that have nothing to do with the chain of rights of any films developed during my role as CEO of ILBE.
“Regarding the accusations, they come from MB Media and not from ILBE, because, in fact, there has been no misconduct on my part. My lawyers in Italy are already working on a defamation lawsuit and seeking damages against the administrators of MB Media SA and all the individuals involved in the mentioned statement.
“I consider these actions to be driven solely by jealousy. If I were in their position, as I always do, I would think about turning the page and moving forward, creating positivity and opportunities, rather than engaging in conflicts motivated solely by jealousy and the desire for revenge.
“Additionally, I would like to emphasize that my film Maserati, which will soon begin shooting, is an original work that has nothing to do with ILBE’s projects. ILBE, of course, is free to produce whatever it deems appropriate and with whomever it chooses. I have been a movie producer since I was a teenager. I know what I’m doing.”
Iervolino and Bacardi were financier-producers on dozens of movies including Michael Mann’s Ferrari, Lamborghini: The Man Behind The Legend, Johnny Depp movie Waiting For The Barbarians, Lily Collins film To The Bone and recent Jean Claude Van Damme action pic Kill ‘Em All 2. They set up ILBE and AMBI together more than a decade ago and oversaw other entertainment businesses.
Iervolino is a producer on Johnny Depp’s new drama Modi, which launched this week at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
Bacardi is the widow of Luis Adalbert Facundo Gomez del Campo Bacardi, a descendant of the Bacardi rum fortune.
