{"id":3266,"date":"2018-07-12T19:00:52","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T19:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2018\/07\/12\/us-outfit-fun-academy-to-move-into-uk-distribution-with-sgt-stubby-an-unlikely-hero\/"},"modified":"2018-07-12T19:00:52","modified_gmt":"2018-07-12T19:00:52","slug":"us-outfit-fun-academy-to-move-into-uk-distribution-with-sgt-stubby-an-unlikely-hero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2018\/07\/12\/us-outfit-fun-academy-to-move-into-uk-distribution-with-sgt-stubby-an-unlikely-hero\/","title":{"rendered":"US outfit Fun Academy to move into UK distribution with &#8216;Sgt Stubby: An Unlikely Hero&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Geoffrey Macnab\/ Screendaily\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>US-based educational entertainment company Fun Academy is moving into UK theatrical distribution with the release of the $22m computer animation\u00a0<em>Sgt. Stubby: An Unlikely Hero\u00a0<\/em>later this year. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The prodution and distribution outfit \u00a0is partnering with\u00a0Jade Films, the company owned and founded by Dave Woodward, also the head of theatrical sales at UK disributor\u00a0Thunderbird Releasing,\u00a0to physically release the film on over\u00a0100 screens in the UK and Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>Directed by France-based UK filmmaker Richard Lanni and with an English-language voice cast of Helena Bonham Carter, Gerard Depardieu, and Logan Lerman, the film is based on the true story of America\u2019s most decorated dog \u2013 a stray with a stubby tail rescued from the streets of New Haven, Connecticut, by a young \u201cdoughboy\u201d on the eve of the US\u2019s entry into the First World War. The dog and his rescuer Robert Conroy end up in the trenches together. Heroic mutt Stubby is eventually promoted to the rank of sergeant in the US Army.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sgt Stubby: An Unlikely Hero<\/em>\u00a0was made in partnership with Technicolor-owned animation and visual effects company Mikros Image Animation, which has been involved in further recent animated projects such as\u00a0<em>Sherlock Gnomes<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Captain Underpants<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Georgia-based Fun Academy Motion Pictures was founded in to 2016 to make educational content to be released commercially. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fun Academy Media Group, formerly Labyrinth Media &amp; Publishing. which is headquartered in in Ireland and is collectively owned by a group of Irish tech entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n<p>The film was financed by private equity and debt finance and accessed Canadian and French tax credits.<\/p>\n<p>Fun Academy released\u00a0<em>Sgt Stubby t<\/em>heatrically itself in the US earlier this year where it has grossed a reported $5.1m to date.\u00a0\u201cIt was a case of being creative and building relationships with exhibitors,\u201d \u00a0said Emily Cantrill, producer and head of creative at Fun Academy. \u201cWe had a very small p&amp;a budget but what we did in America and what we also are trying to replicate [in the UK] is that we had a non-profit organisation, a dog\u2019s group, adoption centres, military groups and veterans\u2019 groups that we partnered with. We had over 100 in the end. They were given a percentage of box office.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Exhibitors that screened the film in the US included AMC and Cinemark.<\/p>\n<p>Two Stubby sequels are now in the works, following the heroic dog in this post-war life. \u00a0\u201cWhen Stubby came home from France, his story continued,\u201d \u00a0explained Cantrill,\u00a0\u201dHe went on tour with Robert Conroy; he met US presidents and he toured in vaudeville with the likes of Harry Houdini. We\u2019re going to do a story on that part of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The third film, meanwhile, will cover the period when Conroy studied law at Georgetown University with the faithful Stubby by his side. The dog died in 1926. His remains are preserved in the Smithsonian Museum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Geoffrey Macnab\/ Screendaily\u00a0 US-based educational entertainment company Fun Academy is moving into UK theatrical distribution with the release of the $22m computer animation\u00a0Sgt. Stubby: An Unlikely Hero\u00a0later this year. \u00a0 The prodution and distribution outfit \u00a0is partnering with\u00a0Jade Films, the company owned and founded by Dave Woodward, also the head of theatrical sales at UK &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2018\/07\/12\/us-outfit-fun-academy-to-move-into-uk-distribution-with-sgt-stubby-an-unlikely-hero\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>US outfit Fun Academy to move into UK distribution with &#039;Sgt Stubby: An Unlikely Hero&#039; - Thunderbird Entertainment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thunderbird.tv\/2018\/07\/12\/us-outfit-fun-academy-to-move-into-uk-distribution-with-sgt-stubby-an-unlikely-hero\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US outfit Fun Academy to move into UK distribution with &#039;Sgt Stubby: An Unlikely Hero&#039; - Thunderbird Entertainment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Geoffrey Macnab\/ Screendaily\u00a0 US-based educational entertainment company Fun Academy is moving into UK theatrical distribution with the release of the $22m computer animation\u00a0Sgt. 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