Open Road Films To Distribute "Ten", Schwarzenegger To Star

Open Road Films has acquired all U.S.distribution rights to Ten, an action thriller starring screen legend Arnold Schwarzenegger, to be directed by David Ayer and financed by QED International.  The announcement was made today by Tom Ortenberg, CEO of Open Road Films and Bill Block, CEO of QED International.

Schwarzenegger, who is currently filming The Tomb will appear in The Expendables 2, being released in August, and stars in The Last Stand which will be released in January 2013.

The project re-teams Open Road Films and filmmaker David Ayer, whose latest film, End Of Watch, will be released by Open Road on September 28, 2012.

The original screenplay for Ten is by Skip Woods (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, A Good Day To Die Hard).  David Ayer is helming the film.  Bill Block, Paul Hanson, Joe Roth, Palak Patel and Al Ruddy will serve as producers.  Alex Ott of Ayer’s Crave Films is executive producer.

In Ten, an elite DEA task force deals with the world’s deadliest drug cartels. Specializing in complex mobile operations, the team executes a tactical raid on a cartel safe house. What looks to be a typical raid turns out to be an elaborate theft operation, pre-planned by the DEA squad. After hiding millions in stolen cash, the team believes their secret is safe – until someone begins assassinating them one by one.

"I am really excited about this project and the team that's come together," said Schwarzenegger.  "David Ayer is incredibly talented and exactly what I want for a story this compelling."

Ayer stated, "This is going to be an amazing role for Arnold.  Reality is the watchword of this project and an exciting cast is in the works. I couldn't be more excited as a filmmaker to work with one of my longtime heroes."

"We are thrilled to be working with a world class movie-star like Arnold Schwarzenegger and to continue to be in business with the extraordinarily talented David Ayer," stated Ortenberg.  "And we could not be more pleased to be doing another picture with our friend and partner Bill Block."

Block stated, "We've put together a real dream team on Ten.  Arnold has been a longtime friend and bringing him together with a provocative filmmaker like David Ayer as well as Tom Ortenberg and his talented team at Open Road is a win for all of us."

David Ayer’s writing credits include 2001 hit film Training Day, which earned an Academy Award® for Denzel Washington, as well as scripts for The Fast And The Furious, S.W.A.T. and U-571.  He also wrote and directed Street Kings and Harsh Times. Ayer most recently directed End Of Watch, which stars Academy Award® nominee Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña as young Los Angeles police officers as they patrol the city’s meanest streets of south central Los Angeles.  Giving the story a gripping, first-person immediacy, the action unfolds through footage from the handheld HD cameras of the police officers, gang members, surveillance cameras, and citizens caught in the line of fire to create a riveting portrait of the city’s most dangerous corners, the cops who risk their lives there every day, and the price they and their families are forced to pay. 

The deal was negotiated on behalf of Open Road Films by Ortenberg, General Counsel and Executive Vice President of Operations and Business Affairs, Elliott Kleinberg, and Senior Vice President of Acquisitions, Ben Cotner.  Bill Block, along with Paul Hanson and Chris Corabi, negotiated the deal on behalf of QED International.  Patrick Knapp at Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal negotiated on behalf of Schwarzenegger, along with Creative Artists Agency who negotiated on behalf of both Schwarzenegger and Ayer.