AMBI Pictures To Remake Christopher Nolan’s MEMENTO

Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s AMBI Pictures will finance and produce a remake of Christopher Nolan’s iconic, twist-laden film MEMENTO.

Writer/director Christopher Nolan adapted MEMENTO from a short story by his brother Jonathan Nolan titled “Memento Mori”, and the unusual, neo-noir psychological thriller took audiences by storm upon release in 2000 and has since achieved cult hit status with a fervent following.

Starring Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Joe Pantoliano, MEMENTO was lauded for its nonlinear narrative structure and motifs of memory, perception, grief, and self-deception. The film was a box office success and received numerous accolades, including Academy Award nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing.

Nolan’s original MEMENTO follows Leonard (played by Guy Pearce) who is tracking down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The difficulty, however, of locating his wife’s killer is compounded by the fact that he suffers from a rare, untreatable form of memory loss. Although he can recall details of life before his accident, Leonard cannot remember what happened fifteen minutes ago, where he’s going, or why.

The movie was presented as two different sequences of scenes interspersed during the film: a series in black-and-white that is shown chronologically, and a series of color sequences shown in reverse order (simulating in the audience the mental state of the protagonist, who suffers from a anterograde amnesia).The two sequences “meet” at the end of the film, producing one complete and cohesive narrative.

AMBI took ownership of MEMENTO remake rights when the company acquired the Exclusive Media Group film library, which housed “Memento,” as well as 400 additional critical hits, commercial blockbusters and cult favorites such as “Begin Again,” “Cruel Intentions,” “Donnie Darko,” “End of Watch,” “Ides of March,” “Hit & Run,” “The Mexican,” “Parkland,” “Rush,” “Sliding Doors,” “Snitch,” “Undefeated” and “The Way Back,” to name a few.

The EMG library acquisition was followed by the launch of AMBI’s new $200 million film fund last week. Monika Bacardi and Andrea Iervolino are anchor investors in the fund along with New York based private equity firm Raven Capital Management LLC (“Raven”).

This series of strategic moves led to AMBI greenlighting MEMENTO as its newest feature production.

Said Iervolino, “’Memento’ has been consistently ranked as one of the best films of its decade. People who’ve seen ‘Memento’ 10 times still feel they need to see it one more time. This is a quality we feel really supports and justifies a remake. The bar is set high thanks to the brilliance or Christopher Nolan, but we wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Iervolino added, “Our acquisition of the EMG library reinforced our commitment to build a strong global studio with a strong pipeline of commercial films that can play to a worldwide audience. Bringing a new ‘Memento’ to audiences is an initial example of how we intend to execute this strategy.”

Monika Bacardi added, “’Memento’ is a masterpiece that leaves audiences guessing not just throughout the film, but long after as well, which is a testament to its daring approach. We intend to stay true to Christopher Nolan’s vision and deliver a memorable movie that is every bit as edgy, iconic and award-worthy as the original. It’s a big responsibility to deliver something that lives up to the mastery of the original, but we are extremely excited and motivated to bring this puzzle back to life and back into the minds of moviegoers.”

Among the films currently on AMBI’s film slate are 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 family animated film Arctic Justice: Thunder Squad, featuring the voices of John Cleese, Alec Baldwin, James Franco, Angelica Huston and Heidi Klum; Septembers of Shiraz, starring Salma Hayek and Adrien Brody; the contemporary fairy tale This Beautiful Fantastic starring Jessica Brown Findlay and Tom Wilkinson; the animated feature Groove Tails, starring Jamie Foxx and directed by Cameron Hood; a homage to Federico Fellini’s classic film La Dolce Vita; 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; Barry Levinson’s acclaimed drama The Humbling, starring Al Pacino; and the sci-fi action thriller Andron: The Black Labyrinth, starring Alec Baldwin and Danny Glover, among several others.