Producer Mark Ciardi (Million Dollar Arm, Secretariat, Invincible, Miracle, The Rookie), Tom Duterme (former executive at YouTube, Google) and William Chang and Ash Vasudevan (of Edge Venture Capital and co-creators of The Million Dollar Arm contest and reality show) have joined forces to form Aspire Entertainment.
The new venture’s mission is to create aspirational stories about characters who overcome adversity. The company will provide scripted and unscripted premium original content to assorted distribution platforms, while maintaining a strong presence in feature film production.
Ciardi recently produced Disney Pictures’ Million Dollar Arm and his company, Mayhem Pictures, specializes in inspirational sports stories. Chang, and Vasudevan, were portrayed in the movie as the real-life creators of the Million Dollar Arm, India’s talent-hunt contest for Major League Baseball pitching prospects. On the set of the “Million Dollar Arm movie, Chang and Vasudevan forged a close relationship with Ciardi that eventually led to discussions about launching a new kind of content company.
Ciardi brings his knowledge of Hollywood to Aspire, Chang and Vasudevan their vision of technology intersecting with media and entertainment and venture capital. Duterme, an ex-YouTube/Google exec responsible for strategy and corporate development for YouTube, among other ventures, has broad knowledge and global perspective of new and expanding distribution platforms.
