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Carolco Pictures, Inc., Carolco International N.V., or Anabasis Investments was an American independent film production company that, within a decade, went from producing such blockbuster successes as Terminator 2: Judgment Day and the first three movies of the Rambo series (First Blood, Rambo: First Blood Part II, and Rambo III) to being bankrupted by box office bombs such as Cutthroat Island and Showgirls.

History[link]

Early years[link]

The company was founded through the partnership of two film investors, Mario Kassar and Andrew Vajna. Their goal was to make their new studio a major independent production company producing A-movies. Their earliest films were co-produced with Canadian theater magnate Garth Drabinsky.

One of the first Anabasis/Carolco films was First Blood (1982), followed by the sequel Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) (released the year it was renamed Carolco) with Sylvester Stallone. The release of the two Rambo films were so instrumental to Carolco's financial success that the studio focused more on big-budget action films, with major stars such as Stallone (who later signed a ten-picture deal with the studio) and Arnold Schwarzenegger attached. These films, aimed at appealing to a worldwide audience, were financed using a strategy known as "pre-sales", in which domestic and foreign distributors invested in these marketable films in exchange for local releasing rights.^[1]

Also in 1985, Carolco started a distribution deal with then-fledging production company TriStar Pictures. TriStar released a majority of Carolco's films from that point on in the U.S. and some international countries until 1994.

Carolco entered home video distribution as well. Independent video distributor International Video Entertainment (IVE) was going through financial difficulties and was near bankruptcy. In 1986, Carolco purchased IVE in the hopes of "turning the company around". The deal was finalized a year later.^[2] IVE became LIVE Entertainment, later Artisan Entertainment, which was bought by Lions Gate Home Entertainment.

On August 28, 1987, Carolco acquired television syndicator Orbis Communications for $15.4 million and initiated television production and distribution. They also purchased the former De Laurentiis Entertainment Group production facility in Wilmington, North Carolina, and established Carolco Home Video, with LIVE Entertainment as output partner.

Jose Menendez was a member of the Board of Directors of Carolco until August 1989, when he and his wife were murdered by their sons Lyle and Erik Menendez.

After his partnership with Kassar, Vajna created a sister studio to Carolco, Cinergi Pictures, in November 1989. Cinergi started to release films with The Walt Disney Company through Hollywood Pictures and Touchstone Pictures.

1990–1994[link]

In 1990, Carolco went on to acquire the rights to the Terminator franchise from Hemdale Film Corporation. The company re-hired Terminator director James Cameron (who had worked as a screenwriter on Rambo) and Arnold Schwarzenegger to star in a multi-million-dollar budgeted sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). It was the highest-grossing film of the year, and as it turned out, the most successful film in Carolco's history. Also in 1990, Carolco entered into a joint venture with New Line Cinema to start Seven Arts Pictures, a distribution company which primarily released much of Carolco's low-budget output.

Carolco struggled for some years to secure the rights to Spider-Man, a property that James Cameron was keen to produce as a film. Plans fell through, although it would eventually be made as a Sam Raimi film for Columbia Pictures. Toward the end of shooting True Lies, Variety carried the announcement that Carolco had received a completed screenplay from Cameron.^[3] This script bore the names of James Cameron, John Brancato, Ted Newsom, Barry [sic] Cohen and "Joseph Goldmari", a typographical scrambling of Golan's pen name ("Joseph Goldman") with Marvel executive Joseph Calimari.^[4] The script's text was identical to what Golan had submitted to Columbia the previous year, with the addition of a new 1993 date. Cameron stalwart Arnold Schwarzenegger was frequently linked to the project as the director's choice for Dr. Octopus.^[5][6] In 1993, Carolco restructured itself and was forced to sell its shares in Live Entertainment to a group of investors led by Pioneer Electric Corporation^[7] As late as 1995, Internet industry sources such as Baseline Hollywood still listed both Neil Ruttenberg (author of one of the 1990 "Doc Ock" variations submitted to Columbia), and James Cameron as co-writers.^[8]

Bankrupt[link]

Though budgets for their feature films grew, box office revenue fell. Following the disastrous releases of Cutthroat Island and Showgirls by new distribution partner MGM in 1995, Carolco filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and the company closed soon after. Most of Carolco's assets were purchased by 20th Century Fox for $50 million.^[9]

Out of the ashes rose a new partnership between Carolco's owner (Mario Kassar) and Cinergi's owner (Andrew G. Vajna) in 2002: C2 Pictures.

Carolco's library today[link]

In 2000, after 20th Century Fox's acquisition, the assets of Carolco were later sold off to other companies, most already sold during Carolco's existence. Today, the ancillary rights to a majority of Carolco's library are held by French production company StudioCanal, since its parent company, Canal+ Group, owned a stake in Carolco (eventually buying out its partners). In the United States, television and internet rights to the theatrical library are held by Paramount Pictures, with Trifecta Entertainment & Media (inherited from CBS Television Distribution and predecessor company Worldvision Enterprises, once a Spelling Entertainment company) handling TV syndication on Paramount's behalf. However, there are certain exceptions, such as Cliffhanger, which Sony Pictures Television distributes. CBS also continues to distribute Orbis/Carolco's television library, with the exception of the Orbis-distributed Live Aid concert, whose rights are currently held by Warner Music Group.

Lionsgate continues to hold the U.S./Canadian home video rights (via a new output deal with StudioCanal), while the international home video rights are held by a different company for each country. For example, the UK rights are with Momentum Pictures, a subsidiary of Alliance Atlantis, although StudioCanal's acquisition of Optimum has seen some of Momentum's versions re-issued under Optimum, and the Australian rights rest with Universal Studios. Also, Lionsgate spun off its Canadian distribution arm as Maple Pictures in 2005, hence the Canadian video rights rest with Maple.

The only Carolco films not included in the deal are the following (the US distribution rights to these have been retained by their original theatrical distributors, noted in parentheses):

• Cliffhanger (TriStar Pictures)
• Aces: Iron Eagle III (New Line Cinema)
• Last of the Dogmen and Showgirls were both sold to French company Chargeurs during their productions, as Carolco did not have enough money to continue financing them. Chargeurs is now known as Pathé, which controls the distribution of these films. Dogmen is distributed by Savoy Pictures/HBO (The Savoy library has since passed on to NBCUniversal's Focus Features division) and Showgirls is released through MGM/United Artists.
• Prince of Darkness, Shocker, and They Live, The Wizard (Universal Studios, although in the case of these films, Universal has always had the U.S. rights, while Carolco was solely responsible for international rights)
• Hamlet (Warner Bros., Carolco funded the film and held some European distribution rights, but WB remains the domestic home video rights holder, though TV and digital distribution rights are with Paramount and Trifecta due to the former owning certain Nelson Entertainment films for these media. The copyright to the film is controlled by Icon Distribution, Inc.)

In the cases of Cliffhanger, Hamlet, Last of the Dogmen, and the Universal films, the various international rights holders did change from the originals.

Additionally, the television and digital rights to Cutthroat Island and Stargate remain with MGM, who also owns the rights to the Stargate franchise, having produced four TV series (three live-action and one animated) and two direct-to-DVD films (Stargate: The Ark of Truth and Stargate: Continuum).

Also, Lionsgate owns some ancillary rights to Wagons East!.

Filmography[link]

1978[link]

• The Silent Partner (distributed by EMC)

1980s[link]

1980[link]

• The Changeling (distributed by Associated Film Distribution)

1982[link]

• Superstition (with Panaria, distributed by Almi Pictures)
• First Blood (distributed by Orion Pictures)

1985[link]

• Rambo: First Blood Part II

1987[link]

• Angel Heart
• Extreme Prejudice
• Nightflyers (distributed by The Vista Organization)
• John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness (Universal Pictures handled American and Canadian distribution, Carolco distributed the film in all other territories)

1988[link]

• Pound Puppies and the Legend of Big Paw (with The Maltese Companies)
• Rambo III
• Red Heat
• Iron Eagle II
• John Carpenter's They Live (Universal Pictures handled American and Canadian distribution, Carolco distributed the film in all other territories)
• Watchers (distributed by Universal Pictures)

1989[link]

• DeepStar Six
• Pathfinder (subtitled version of a film made in Norway)
• Lock Up (with White Eagle)
• Johnny Handsome
• Shocker (with Universal Pictures)
• Music Box

[edit] Releases distributed by New Line/Seven Arts

• Food of the Gods II

1990s[link]

1990[link]

• Mountains of the Moon
• Total Recall
• Air America
• Jacob's Ladder
• Narrow Margin
• Hamlet (with Warner Bros. Pictures, Icon Productions, and Nelson Entertainment)

Releases distributed by New Line/Seven Arts[link]

• Repossessed
• King of New York

Made-for-TV films[link]

• Babies
• Dangerous Passion
• Shattered Dreams

1991[link]

• L.A. Story
• The Doors (with Bill Graham Films and Imagine Entertainment)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (with Lightstorm Entertainment and Le Studio Canal+)

Releases distributed by New Line/Seven Arts[link]

• Queens Logic
• Sweet Talker
• Dice Rules
• Defenseless
• The Dark Wind (with Silver Pictures and Le Studio Canal+)
• Rambling Rose
• Get Back

Made-for-TV films[link]

• Chernobyl: The Final Warning (with Turner Pictures)

1992[link]

• Basic Instinct (with Le Studio Canal+)
• Universal Soldier^[10]
• Chaplin

Releases distributed by New Line/Seven Arts[link]

• Aces: Iron Eagle III
• Light Sleeper

TV films[link]

• Mario and the Mob (with Warner Bros. Television and American Broadcasting Company)

1993[link]

• Cliffhanger (with Le Studio Canal+)

1994[link]

• Mona Must Die (US distribution unknown)
• Wagons East!
• Stargate (with Le Studio Canal+, distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

1995[link]

• Showgirls (with United Artists and Le Studio Canal+)^[11]
• Last of the Dogmen (with Savoy Pictures)
• Cutthroat Island (distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Carolco Pictures at the Internet Movie Database
• Carolco website

See also Samuel Goldwyn (disambiguation)

Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn centre frame, circa 1916
Born	Schmuel Gelbfisz c. July 1879 Warsaw, Russian Empire (present day Warsaw, Republic of Poland)
Died	31 January 1974(1974-01-31) (aged 94) Los Angeles, California, USA
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California
Other names	Samuel Goldfish, Mister Malaprop
Years active	1917-1953
Spouse	Blanche Lasky (1910-1915) Frances Howard (1925-1974)

Samuel Goldwyn (c. July 1879 – January 31, 1974) was an American film producer. He was most notably well known for being the founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios in Hollywood.^[1]

Biography[link]

Goldwyn was born Schmuel Gelbfisz in Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire to a Hasidic, Polish Jewish family. At an early age, he left Warsaw on foot and penniless. He made his way to Birmingham, England, where he remained with relatives for a few years using the name Samuel Goldfish. In 1898, he emigrated to the United States, but fearing refusal of entry, he got off the boat in Nova Scotia, Canada, before moving on to New York in January 1899. He found work in upstate Gloversville, New York, in the bustling garment business. Soon his innate marketing skills made him a very successful salesman at the Albano Glove Company. After four years, as vice-president for sales, he moved back to New York City.^{[citation needed][2]}

Paramount[link]

In 1913, Goldfish along with his brother-in-law Jesse L. Lasky, Cecil B. DeMille, and Arthur Friend formed a partnership, The Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company, to produce feature length motion pictures. Film rights for the stage play The Squaw Man were purchased for $4000 and Dustin Farnum was hired for the leading role. Shooting for the first feature film made in Hollywood began on December 29, 1913.^[3]

In 1914, Paramount was a film exchange and exhibition corporation headed by W. W. Hodkinson. Looking for more movies to distribute, Paramount signed a contract with the Lasky Company on June 1, 1914 to supply 36 films per year. One of Paramount's other suppliers was Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Company. The two companies merged on June 28, 1916 forming The Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. Zukor had been quietly buying Paramount stock, and two weeks prior to the merger, became president of Paramount Pictures Corporation and had Hodkinson replaced with Hiram Abrams, a Zukor associate.^[4]

With the merger, Zukor became president of both Paramount and Famous Players-Lasky, with Goldfish being named chairman of the board of Famous Players-Lasky, and Jesse Lasky first vice-president. After a series of conflicts with Zukor, Goldfish resigned as chairman of the board, and as member of the executive committee of the corporation on September 14, 1916. Goldfish was out as an active member of management, although he still owned stock and was a member of the board of directors. Famous Players-Lasky would later become part of Paramount Pictures Corporation, and Paramount would become one of Hollywood's major studios.^[5][6]

Goldwyn Pictures[link]

In 1916, Goldfish partnered with Broadway producers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn, using a combination of both names to call their movie-making enterprise Goldwyn Pictures. Seeing an opportunity, Samuel Gelbfisz then had his name legally changed to Samuel Goldwyn, which he used for the rest of his life. Goldwyn Pictures proved successful but it is their "Leo the Lion" trademark for which the organization is most famous.

On April 10, 1924, Goldwyn Pictures was acquired by Marcus Loew and merged into his Metro Pictures Corporation. Despite the inclusion of his name, Goldwyn never produced any films at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Samuel Goldwyn Productions[link]

From the trailer for The Hurricane (1937)

Before the sale and merger of Goldwyn Pictures in April 1924, Goldwyn had established Samuel Goldwyn Productions in 1923 as a production-only operation (with no distribution arm). Their first feature was Potash and Perlmutter, released in September 1923 through First National Pictures. Some of the early productions bear the name "Howard Productions", named for Goldwyn's wife Frances Howard.

For 35 years, Goldwyn built a reputation in filmmaking and an eye for finding the talent for making films. William Wyler directed many of his most celebrated productions and he hired writers such as Ben Hecht, Sidney Howard, Dorothy Parker, and Lillian Hellman. (According to legend, at a heated story conference Goldwyn scolded someone—in most accounts Mrs. Parker—who recalled he had once been a glove maker and retorted: "Don't you point that finger at me. I knew it when it had a thimble on it!" Another time, when he demanded a script that ended on a happy note, she said: "I know this will come as a shock to you, Mr. Goldwyn, but in all history, which has held billions and billions of human beings, not a single one ever had a happy ending."^[7])

For more than three decades, Goldwyn made numerous films and reigned as the most successful independent producer in the US. Many of his films were forgettable, however his collaboration with John Ford resulted in Best Picture Oscar nomination for Arrowsmith (1931). William Wyler was responsible for most of Goldwyn's highly lauded films with Best Picture Oscar nominations forDodsworth (1936), Dead End (1937), Wuthering Heights (1939), The Little Foxes (1941) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1948). The leading actors in several of Goldwyn films, especially those directed by William Wyler, were also Oscar-nominated for their performances.

Throughout the 1930s, Goldwyn released all his films through United Artists, but beginning in 1941, and continuing almost through the end of his career, Goldwyn released his films through RKO Radio Pictures.

Oscar[link]

In 1946, the year he was honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, Goldwyn's drama The Best Years of Our Lives, starring Myrna Loy, Fredric March, Teresa Wright and Dana Andrews, won the Academy Award for Best Picture. In the 1950s Samuel Goldwyn turned to making a number of musicals including the 1952 hit Hans Christian Andersen (his last with Danny Kaye, with whom he had made many others), and the 1955 hit Guys and Dolls starring Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Frank Sinatra, and Vivian Blaine, which was based on the equally successful Broadway musical. This was the only independent film that Goldwyn ever released through MGM.

In his final film, made in 1959, Samuel Goldwyn brought together African-American actors Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Pearl Bailey in a film rendition of the George Gershwin opera, Porgy and Bess. Released by Columbia Pictures, the film was nominated for three Oscars, but won only one. It was also a critical and financial failure, and the Gershwin family reportedly disliked the film and eventually pulled it from distribution. The film turned the opera into an operetta with spoken dialogue in between the musical numbers. Its reception was a huge disappointment to Goldwyn, who, according to biographer Arthur Marx, saw it as his crowning glory and had wanted to film Porgy and Bess since he first saw it onstage in 1935.

Awards[link]

• In 1957, Goldwyn was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes.

• On March 27, 1971, Goldwyn was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Richard Nixon.^{[citation needed]}

Death[link]

Goldwyn died at his home in Los Angeles in 1974 from natural causes, at the probable age of 94. He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. In the 1980s, Samuel Goldwyn Studio was sold to Warner Bros. There is a theater named after him in Beverly Hills and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1631 Vine Street.

Marriages[link]

Goldwyn was married to Blanche Lasky, a sister of Jesse, from 1910 to 1915. In 1925, he married actress Frances Howard to whom he remained married for the rest of his life. Their son, Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., would eventually join his father in the business.

Grandchildren[link]

Samuel Goldwyn's grandchildren include

• Francis Goldwyn, founder of the Manhattan Toy Company and Managing Member of Quorum Associates LLC
• Tony Goldwyn, actor
• John Goldwyn, film producer
• Peter Goldwyn, the current vice-president of Samuel Goldwyn films
• Catherine Goldwyn, created Sound Art, a non-profit organization that teaches popular music all over Los Angeles
• Liz Goldwyn, has a film on HBO called Pretty Things, featuring interviews with queens from the heyday of American burlesque; her book, an extension of the documentary titled, Pretty Things: The Last Generation of American Burlesque Queens, was published in October 2006 by HarperCollins.^{[citation needed]}

Nephew[link]

Goldwyn's relatives include Fred Lebensold (see Lebensold Family), an award-winning architect (best known as the designer of multiple concert halls in Canada and the United States). Fred was the son of Sam's younger sister, Manya (who, despite the best efforts of Sam and his brother Ben in 1939 and 1940, could not be extricated from the Warsaw Ghetto and perished in the Holocaust).^{[citation needed]}

The Samuel Goldwyn Foundation[link]

Samuel Goldwyn's will created a multi-million dollar charitable foundation in his name. Among other endeavors, the Samuel Goldwyn Foundation funds the Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards, provided construction funds for the Frances Howard Goldwyn Hollywood Regional Library, and provides ongoing funding for the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital.

The Samuel Goldwyn Company[link]

Several years after the Sr. Goldwyn's death, his son, Samuel Goldwyn Jr., initiated an independent film and television distribution company dedicated to preserving the integrity of Goldwyn's ambitions and work. In 1997, the company's assets were acquired by MGM.

Goldwynisms[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Samuel Goldwyn

Samuel Goldwyn was also known for malapropisms, paradoxes, and other speech errors called 'Goldwynisms' ("A humorous statement or phrase resulting from the use of incongruous or contradictory words, situations, idioms, etc.") being frequently quoted. For example, he was reported to have said, "I don't think anybody should write his autobiography until after he's dead."^[8] Some famous Goldwyn quotations are misattributions. For example, the statement attributed to Goldwyn that "a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on" is actually a well-documented misreporting of an actual quote praising the trustworthiness of a colleague: "His verbal contract is worth more than the paper it's written on". The identity of the colleague is variously reported as Joseph M. Schenk^[9] or Joseph L. Mankiewicz^[10] Goldwyn himself was reportedly aware of - and pleased by - the misattribution.

Upon being told that a book he had purchased for filming, The Well of Loneliness, couldn't be filmed because it was about lesbians, he reportedly replied: "That's all right, we'll make them Hungarians." The same story was told about the 1934 rights to The Children's Hour with the response "That's okay; we'll turn them into Armenians."^[11] Upon being told that a dictionary had included the word "Goldwynism" as synonym for malapropism, he raged: "Goldwynisms! They should talk to Jesse Lasky!"^{[citation needed]}

Having many writers in his employ, Goldwyn may not have come up with all of these on his own. In fact Charlie Chaplin took credit for penning the line, "In two words: im-possible"; and the quote, "the next time I send a damn fool for something, I go myself," has also been attributed to Michael Curtiz.^{[citation needed]}

In the Grateful Dead's Scarlet Begonias,^[12] the line "I ain't often right but I've never been wrong" appears in the bridge - this is very similar to Goldwyn's "I’m willing to admit that I may not always be right, but I am never wrong."

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Samuel Goldwyn

• Samuel Goldwyn at the Internet Movie Database
• American Masters: Sam Goldwyn
• The American Presidency Project

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (June 2010)

Brad Ira Fiedel (born March 10, 1951 in New York City) is an American movie music composer. Raised in the Village of Bayville, on Long Island's tony North Shore, Fiedel graduated from The Barlow School in upstate New York.

After college, he became a popular and progressive composer, and in the 1980s, he worked on several successful movies, predominantly in the action and thriller genres, and pioneered the use of electronic instruments and synthesizers—almost disappearing from the mainstream at the end of the 1990s.^[1] He has also served as the keyboardist for Hall and Oates.^[2]

He began his career in film in the late 1970s, and wrote extensively for television films and minor cinema releases, until director James Cameron hired him to score the science fiction film The Terminator in 1984, setting the wheels in motion for a successful career. The metallic, pounding main theme has since become the defining work of his career.

Since then, Fiedel has scored many popular and successful movies, including Fright Night (1985) and its sequel Fright Night II (1988), The Big Easy (1987), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), The Accused (1988), Blue Steel (1990), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Blink (1994), and True Lies (1994), although in recent years, Fiedel has moved on to other creative areas, writing original musicals and designing and building a surf resort in Saladita Mexico. His last major theatrical score was in 1995, and although he enjoyed a brief period of renewed interest following the release of Terminator 3 in 2003, when Marco Beltrami wrote an orchestral arrangement of his theme, he shows no sign of returning to the movie music field.

Fiedel is married to the actress Ann Dusenberry.

Partial filmography[link]

• Just Before Dawn (1981)
• Eyes of Fire (1983)
• The Terminator (1984)
• Fright Night (1985)
• Desert Bloom (1986)
• Nowhere to Hide (1987)
• The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)
• Fright Night II (1988)
• The Accused (1988)
• True Believer (1989)
• Blue Steel (1990)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
• Striking Distance (1993)
• True Lies (1994)
• Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
• Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) – themes only
• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008) – themes only
• Terminator Salvation (2009) – themes only

References[link]

External links[link]

• Brad Fiedel at Allmusic
• Brad Fiedel at the Internet Movie Database
• Movie Music UK biography