The Cannon Group, Inc.

The Cannon Group, Inc. was an American group of companies, including Cannon Films, which produced a distinctive line of low-to medium-budget films from 1967 to 1994. The extensive group also owned, amongst others, a large international cinema chain and a video film company that invested heavily in the video market, buying the international video rights to several classic film libraries.

The company was much more popular in the United Kingdom than in its native United States, which is likely due to the company's ownership of several cinema chains in the UK.

History

1967–1979: Beginnings

Cannon Films was incorporated on October 23, 1967. It was formed by Dennis Friedland and Chris Dewey while they were in their early 20s. They had immediate success producing English-language versions of Swedish soft porn films directed by Joseph W. Sarno: Inga (1968), aka Jag - en oskuld and To Ingrid, My Love, Lisa (1968), aka Kvinnolek. By 1970, they had produced films on a larger production scale than a lot of major distributors, such as Joe, starring Peter Boyle. They managed this by tightly limiting their budgets to $300,000 per picture—or less, in some cases. However, as the 1970s moved on, a string of unsuccessful movies seriously drained Cannon’s capital. This, along with changes to film-production tax laws, led to a drop in Cannon's stock price.

Cannon

A cannon (plural: cannon or cannons) is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellants to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in calibre, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees, depending on their intended use on the battlefield. The word cannon is derived from several languages, in which the original definition can usually be translated as tube, cane, or reed. In the modern era, the term cannon has fallen into decline, replaced by "guns" or "artillery" if not a more specific term such as "mortar" or "howitzer", except for in the field of aerial warfare, where it is often used as shorthand for autocannon.

First invented in China, cannon were among the earliest forms of gunpowder artillery, and over time replaced siege engines—among other forms of ageing weaponry—on the battlefield. In the Middle East, the first use of the hand cannon is argued to be during the 1260 Battle of Ain Jalut between the Mamluks and Mongols. The first cannon in Europe were in use in Iberia by the mid-13th century. It was during this period, the Middle Ages, that cannon became standardized, and more effective in both the anti-infantry and siege roles. After the Middle Ages most large cannon were abandoned in favour of greater numbers of lighter, more maneuverable pieces. In addition, new technologies and tactics were developed, making most defences obsolete; this led to the construction of star forts, specifically designed to withstand artillery bombardment though these too (along with the Martello Tower) would find themselves rendered obsolete when explosive and armour piercing rounds made even these types of fortifications vulnerable.

Menahem Golan

Menahem Golan (Hebrew: מנחם גולן‎; May 31, 1929 – August 8, 2014) was an Israeli director and producer. He is best known as the co-owner, with his cousin Yoram Globus, of The Cannon Group, a company that specialized in low-to-mid budget American films during the 1980s after Golan and Globus achieved significant success as filmmakers in their native Israel during the 1970s.

Golan produced movies featuring such stars as Sean Connery, Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Charles Bronson, and was known for a period as a producer of comic book-style movies like Masters of the Universe, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Captain America, and his aborted attempt to bring Spider-Man to the silver screen. Using the pen name of Joseph Goldman, Golan also wrote and "polished" film scripts. Golan produced about 200 films, directed 44, and won eight Violin David Awards as well as The Israel Prize in Cinema.

Early life

Menahem Golan was born on May 31, 1929, in Tiberias, then Mandate Palestine. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Russian Poland. He spent his early years in Tiberias, then studied directing at the Old Vic School and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and film making at New York University. During the Israeli War of Independence, Golan served as a pilot in the Israeli Air Force.

Christopher Reeve

Christopher D'Olier Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author, and activist. He achieved stardom for his acting achievements, in particular his motion picture portrayal of the comic book superhero Superman.

Reeve appeared in other critically acclaimed films such as Street Smart (1987) and The Remains of the Day (1993). He received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the television remake of Rear Window (1998).

On May 27, 1995, Reeve became a quadriplegic after being thrown from a horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Virginia. He required a wheelchair and a portable ventilator for the rest of his life. He lobbied on behalf of people with spinal-cord injuries and for human embryonic stem cell research, founding the Christopher Reeve Foundation and co-founding the Reeve-Irvine Research Center.

In October 2004, Reeve died suddenly of cardiac arrest at 52 while co-directing Everyone's Hero.