Story follows a Brinks Security Guard who Steals $1.85 million and Makes the Most Expensive Gay Porno of All-Time

In a competitive situation, Valparaiso Pictures has acquired the rights to Ashley and April Spicer’s highly sought-after article in the Daily Beast, “‘Centurians of Rome’: How a Bank Robber Made the Most Expensive Gay Porno of All Time.” Valparaiso’s David Carrico, Adam Paulsen, and Bobby Hoppey will develop the story into a feature film and produce alongside Academy Award Nominee David Permut (Hacksaw Ridge, Face/Off) at Permut Presentations, and Adam Blum under his Free Will banner. The team is looking to set a writer and filmmaker on the project.

The March 2019 story chronicles George Bosque, a Brink’s security guard who stole $1.85 million and disappeared into thin air. During his time on the run, he produced/financed Centurians of Rome, a classic 1981 gay pornographic film set during the Roman Empire made before being apprehended by police. A young aggressive attorney named Robert Mueller, prosecuted the case.

“Ashley and April wrote a compelling article – which carefully peels away to reveal the wildly unique character arc of George Bosque, who notoriously went from security guard, to bank robber to producer after he presented Centurians director John Christopher with a bag of cash. We knew how special this story was even before we finished reading the article,” said Valparaiso’s David Carrico.

“The complexities of George’s character set against the backdrop of the sexual freedoms of the late 1970’s before the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic creates a multi-layered tale of ambition, love, crime and despair. It’s Dog Day Afternoon meets Boogie Nights!” said David Permut. “I’m very much looking forward to collaborating with the team at Valparaiso and Adam Blum on this provocative project.”

Known by many as the PHD’s of porn, Ashley and April Spicer currently act as consultants on HBO’s “The Deuce” and are the founders of The Rialto Report, the authoritative online archive for oral history, audio recordings, and photographs documenting the Golden Age of Adult Film.

Valparaiso Pictures is quickly expanding its development and production portfolio. They are currently in pre-production on Ethan Berger’s coming-of-age thriller The Line, starring Alex Wolff, John Malkovich, Scoot McNairy, Jessica Barden, and Lewis Pullman; as well as developing the upcoming spy action comedy No Glory starring Kumail Nanjiani. The company recently premiered The Sound of Silence starring Peter Sarsgaard and Rashida Jones in competition at Sundance 2019 where it was recently acquired by IFC.

David Permut has always had a passion for true stories. Permut Presentations most recent productions include Hacksaw Ridge (Lionsgate) starring Andrew Garfield, and The Polka King (Netflix) starring Jack Black. The company is currently in production on a documentary that follows the creation of the famous nightclub Chippendales, which will serve as a companion piece for the feature film starring Ben Stiller and Dev Patel which is set to go into production later this year.

The Spicers’ are repped by Free Will and Murray Weiss of Catalyst Literary Management. Valparaiso Pictures is represented by Craig Emanuel of Paul Hastings. Permut Presentations is represented by John Tishbi at Pearlman & Tishbi, LLP. Adam Blum is represented Matt Wallerstein at Hirsch, Wallerstein, Hyum, Matlof, & Fishman.

About Valparaiso Pictures

Based in Beverly Hills, Valparaiso Pictures is a development, production and finance company for film and television, founded by David Carrico. Whether it’s finding untold stories to bring to the screen or enabling burgeoning writers and filmmakers to take creative risks, Valparaiso creates opportunities for distinct voices in drama, comedy and genre. The company is an incubator for edgy, eccentric and diverse content, enabling creatives to find their audience.

ABOUT PERMUT PRESENTATIONS

Permut Presentations was founded by Emmy and Academy Award Nominated Producer, David Permut. In the last 30 years, Permut has produced more than 40 movies and documentaries, crossing genre lines while working with major studios, TV networks and independent financiers. David has premiered films at all of the major film festivals including Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance, SXSW and Tribeca.

Netflix Launch Follows World Premiere at Sundance Film Festival’s Indie Episodic Section for the Anthology Series

Delhi Crime, a seven-part series written and directed by award-winning Indo-Canadian filmmaker Richie Mehta, will be available to Netflix members worldwide from March 22, 2019. The police-procedural thriller, produced by Golden Karavan and Ivanhoe Pictures, will premiere worldwide at Sundance Film Festival on January 29 in the Indie Episodic category.

Season 1 of Delhi Crime is inspired by and follows the notorious December 2012 investigation by the Delhi Police into a devastating rape of a young woman that reverberated across India and the world. Throughout seven hour-long episodes, Delhi Crime captures the complexities of the scrutiny, the emotional toll on the investigating team, and their determination to bring the perpetrators to justice in a fraught environment.

The police officer (Vartika Chaturvedi in the series) is sensitively portrayed by Shefali Shah (Monsoon Wedding, Juice), who leads a critically-lauded cast that includes Adil Hussain (Life of Pi, Hotel Salvation), Denzil Smith (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel), Rasika Dugal (Qissa, Manto), Rajesh Tailang (Siddharth, Selection Day) and Yashaswini Dayama (Dear Zindagi, The Odds).

Over six years of research went into the making of the series, which was shot on location in New Delhi. Richie Mehta (Amal, Siddharth), conceived the show during a conversation with Neeraj Kumar, a former Commissioner of the Delhi Police, who introduced him to the investigating team, and offered access to hundreds of pages of legal documents that were prepared as part of investigation. Overwhelmed by the brutality of the incident, and determined to bring to light the details of the investigation, Mehta realized that the zeal and passion of the police in providing closure to a nation would be best portrayed in the form of a series.

Mehta said, “The making of Delhi Crime has been a personally transformative journey; speaking to every individual involved, retracing the paths that the police took during the course of the investigation, and hearing of the determination that it took for the case to be closed, despite severe limitations. I hope that we’ve been able to provide context, catharsis and open once again a difficult conversation that must be had about the forces that enabled this brutality.”

Simran Sethi, Director, International Originals, Netflix, said, “Delhi Crime is an important story told with sensitivity and responsibility, and we are honored to help bring this series to Indian and global members. It is honest and emotional and powerful. Shows like this bring a much-needed lens to the lived reality of women around the world. Watching this series is an affecting experience, and we are sure it will be as meaningful of an experience for Netflix audiences as it was for us.”

Serving as Executive producers for Golden Karavan are Aaron Kaplan, Jeff Sagansky, Florence Sloan, Apoorva Bakshi, Pooja Kohli and Sanjay Bachani. Executive producers from Ivanhoe Pictures are John Penotti, Kilian Kerwin, and Michael Hogan. Producing are Robert Friedland, Sidney Kimmel, and Brian Kornreich for Ivanhoe Pictures.

The deal was negotiated by Robert Jesuele on behalf of Golden Karavan and Brian Kornreich on behalf of Ivanhoe Pictures.

About Netflix

Netflix is the world's leading internet entertainment service with 139 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, documentaries and feature films across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, on any internet-connected screen. Members can play, pause and resume watching, all without commercials or commitments.

ABOUT GOLDEN KARAVAN

Golden Karavan is the recently launched Asian focused television mini-major, a partnership between Jeff Sagansky, Florence Sloan, Aaron Kaplan, Apoorva Bakshi, Pooja Kohli and Sanjay Bachani. The production company will make a slate of 25 TV Shows over the next five years.

The mission of the mini-major is to be the new differentiator, a new-era TV studio that, through collaborative partnerships with strategic producing partners and creative filmmakers, will share engaging stories with the widest audiences possible, even if that means pushing boundaries and taking risks.

With a full development slate, the company will supply compelling content from the region for a straight-to-digital release on premium global streaming platforms and broadcasters across the world.

ABOUT IVANHOE PICTURE

Los Angeles, New York, and Beijing-based Ivanhoe Pictures is a motion picture and television financing and production entity. Ivanhoe develops, produces, and acquires content for a global audience, and now has local-language production deals in India, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Latin America, Vietnam and Indonesia.

In March 2017, Ivanhoe merged with the Los Angeles-based production/finance company Sidney Kimmel Entertainment to create SK Global, a new entity that produces and finances film and television projects globally. The venture, backed and co-founded by Sidney Kimmel (Jones New York) and Robert Friedland (Ivanhoe Mines), is led by President John Penotti, who has led companies including GreeneStreet Films, Ivanhoe Pictures, and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment. SK Global has retained the labels “Sidney Kimmel Entertainment” and “Ivanhoe Pictures” in their respective markets.

Past Ivanhoe projects include the enormously successful Golden Globe-nominated comedy Crazy Rich Asians, a co-production with Warner Bros. from director Jon Chu (G.I. Joe: Retaliation) and starring Constance Wu and Michelle Yeoh that has now grossed over $238M to date worldwide and is now the 6th highest grossing romantic comedy in the U.S. of all time; the South Korean hit The Wailing from director Na Hong-jin, which remains the second highest-grossing opening weekend for Fox in Korea behind Avatar; and the popular Hindi-language horror series Ghoul for Netflix India.

Ivanhoe’s upcoming projects include the Hindi-language family drama The Sky is Pink starring Priyanka Chopra, developed in partnership with India-based RSVP and Roy Kapur Films set for release in India mid-2019; the Spanish-language feature La Caja developed in partnership with Mexico City-based Lucia Films; an upcoming adaptation of Ryan Graudin's best-selling young adult action-adventure novel The Walled City set in China's fabled Kowloon City; and a slate of features developed for audiences in Indonesia.

Additionally, Ivanhoe has established a number of key partnerships to produce local-language films for global audiences, including a deal with Blumhouse Productions to develop local-language genre content in India.