PRESS RELEASE

Sunn Allied to focus on niche pix
Venture will globally distribute eight to 12 acquisitions

by Melissa Byrd

Minority-produced urban and faith-based films have a home to call their own at
the newly created joint distribution venture, Sunn Allied Releasing.

The venture, an undertaking by Lang Elliott (prez-CEO of Sunn Classic Pictures)
and attorneys Leroy Bobbitt and Virgil Roberts, will globally distribute eight to 12 acquisitions.

"The urban product in all genres is becoming more and more valuable," Bobbitt and Roberts said.
"From the early release of 'Shaft' in 1971 to 'Shaft 2000,' the demand for this product
can no longer be ignored."

Sunn Allied will participate in numerous film fests in the coming months to spark buzz
about its projects, including the Urbanworld, African American and Pan African Film Fests.

www.variety.com/article

6/28/2006
Meyer Shwarzstein of Brain Media, wrote:

“Congrats, Lang. The timing for these is very good.
We’ve done very well with films in this category and there’s a demand for more.”
Best,
Meyer

Contact Information:
Sunn Allied Releasing LLC
c/o Sunn Classic Pictures, Inc.
69-730 Highway 111, Suite 213
Rancho Mirage, CA 92270
760-321-9300

Media Contact:
Charlie Barrett
The Barrett Company
Los Angeles
310-471-5764

Virgil Roberts once dreamed of following in the footsteps of diplomat Ralph Bunche. At UCLA, he majored in political science with an emphasis in international relations, and was co-creator of UCLA’s African American Studies Center, one of the first Black Studies programs in the United States.

As an intern for the Voice of America during the summer of race riots in 1967, however, Roberts was profoundly affected by the historic shifts in the American body politic and despite a Ford Foundation Foreign Affairs Scholar Fellowship he elected to attend Harvard Law School. Roberts received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in spring 1972 with a new ambition: to become a civil rights attorney. Employment opportunities with civil rights organizations were limited, so he began his legal career as an associate with a prominent Los Angeles law firm: Pacht, Ross, Warne, Bernard & Sears. There, he worked primarily as a civil litigator.

In 1976, Roberts formed the law firm of Manning & Roberts, continuing his civil litigation practice and representation of entertainment clients. Notable among the numerous civil rights and civil liberties matters handled by the firm was Roberts’ representation of the NAACP in the Los Angeles school desegregation case (Crawford vs. Board of Education).

Manning & Roberts also was chiefly responsible for Mayor Tom Bradley's creation of the Los Angeles/Africa Task Force, designed to promote and facilitate commerce between Los Angeles and various African countries.

Roberts joined Solar Records as executive vice president and general counsel in 1981, became president of Dick Griffey Productions (DGP) in 1982 and president of Solar Records in 1990. One of the most successful African American-owned record companies in the 80's, Solar had an impressive roster of gold and platinum-selling artists including Babyface, The Whispers, The Calloways, Shalamar, Midnight Star, The Deele, Lakeside, Dynasty, Klymaxx, Absolute, Jody Watley, Howard Hewett, Jeffrey Daniel, Vanity, and Richie Havens.

In 1996, Roberts left Solar/DGP to form the law firm of Bobbitt & Roberts. He is managing partner of the firm, which specializes in representing entertainment industry clients, concentrating on television, film, music, theater licensing, and merchandising.

Roberts has served as a board member and/or officer of the Beverly Hills Bar Association, the Beverly Hills Barristers Association, the Los Angeles Barristers Association, the Langston Law Club, the Los Angeles Legal Aid Foundation, the Beverly Hills Bar Scholarship Foundation, the California Teacher Credentialing Commission, the Black Entertainment & Sports Lawyers Association (BESLA), and the CORO Foundation.

He also has served as chairman of the Los Angeles Education Partnership, as treasurer of the Los Angeles Private Industry Council, as vice chairman of the Public Education Fund Network, as a trustee of the Committee for Economic Development, as a board member of Los Angeles Education Alliance for Restructuring Now, and as a trustee of Marlborough School.

Past chairman of the board of the California Community Foundation, a philanthropic organization with nearly $700,000,000 in assets, Roberts also was board chair of the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project (LAAMP). Under Roberts’ leadership, LAAMP raised and spent more than $120,000,000.00 to reform public education in the Los Angeles basin.

Roberts’ current commitments include the boards of Community Build, an organization formed after the riots of 1992 to work for change in South Los Angeles; Occidental College, Families in Schools, the Alliance for College Ready Public Schools, and the Alliance of Artists and Record Companies (AARC).

A frequent lecturer at law schools such as Harvard and UCLA, Roberts has participated in panel discussions for many organizations, among them the National Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the National Association of Black-Owned Broadcasters, BESLA, the National Association of Securities Professionals, and the American Law Institute.

Listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, and Who's Who among Black Americans, Roberts has been honored by the Los Angeles Urban League, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, the University of Southern California (USC) School of Education, and the UCLA Black Alumni Association. At Harvard Law School, Roberts was a recipient of the Felix Frankfurter Scholarship.

Roberts, who has traveled extensively in the Caribbean and Africa, has traced his ancestral roots to the small village of Pita in Guinea.

Roberts is married to writer/editor Brenda (Banks) Roberts, former news deputy for Mayor Tom Bradley and author of “Jazzy Miz Mozetta,” a children’s book that won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award for its illustrations. Virgil and Brenda are the proud parents of two daughters, Gisele Simone and Hayley Tasha.

Leroy Bobbitt is a founding partner of the law firm of Bobbitt & Roberts. Prior to forming Bobbitt & Roberts, Mr. Bobbitt spent 22 years with the international law firm of Loeb and Loeb, spending 16 of those years as a partner. While at Loeb and Loeb, he specialized in Entertainment Law and handled major transactions in motion pictures, television, music and legitimate theater. Mr. Bobbitt’s legal career began as an associate in the corporate department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York.

Mr. Bobbitt has represented such diverse clients as Paramount Pictures, the National Association of Television Program Executives, Black Entertainment Television, Bank of California, Beneficial Corporation, Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland, Prism Entertainment Corporation, Hollywood Center Studios, RKO Pictures, Carolco Pictures, Barbara Taylor Bradford and Timothy Leary.

Mr. Bobbitt is a member of the American Bar Association, the National Bar Association and the Langston Bar Association and has served on the Board of Directors and as President of the Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association and has served two terms as a member of the Board of Visitors of the Stanford Law School. He has lectured at UCLA and USC Law Schools, as well as at various Entertainment Law conferences around the country.

Mr. Bobbitt graduated from Michigan State University in 1966 with an undergraduate degree in and received his Juris Doctor degree from Stanford Law School in 1969.

Mr. Bobbitt is married to Andrea Bobbitt, a coordinator of community education with the Inglewood School District. Leroy and Andrea have two daughters, Dawn Bobbitt and Antoinette Gill and are the proud grandparents of granddaughter, Lauryn and two grandsons, Alex and Jonathan Gill. Mr. Bobbitt is also an avid golfer and participates in numerous golf tournaments.