Fries Home Video
Exec V.P. / Chief Operating Officer was Len Levy. (December 16, 1987 Variety). He went on to run PM Home Video for a time after leaving Fries in or around 1991.
Fries released what it described as it’s first “A” title to be acquired by the company, Wish You Were Here. (December 16, 1987 Variety)
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Magnum Entertainment
Personnel:
Danny Kopels - V.P. Chief Operating Officer
Jim Brown appointed national sales manager. He previously worked with Kopels at Continental Video, at Embassy Home Entertainment as sales director, and at CBS / Fox Video as sales manager. (12-16-87 Variety)
Vestron
Vestron and Hemdale had a court battle over VHS rights to Platoon. (December 16, 1987 Variety — ‘Platoon’ Video Talks Falls Apart, Dashing Hope For Xmas Release; Fear Paycable Will Sap Potential” by Tom Bierbaum).
Vestron and Hemdale had another legal issue over Best Seller and the virtually direct-to-video Body Slam. Hemdale terminated a [...]
Cinetel Films
7-film production slate of thrillers and action-adventures announced with “an approximate collective budget of $25,000,000″ announced. Titles: 976-Evil, Out of the Dark, Honor Betrayed, Hit List, The Lorch Team, High Voltage, and “an untitled revenge story to be directed by Armand Mastroianni skedded to begin principal photography in the spring of 1988.” (December 17, [...]
Miscellaneous
BTF Productions introduced $19.95 tape called “Dinner With A Naked Lady.” Vanessa Giorgio was the naked lady in question. The producers, “[n]ewlywed couple Jim and Terri Mandell,” used wedding gift money to finance the $16,000 production. “Terri Mandell notes costs were significantly reduced by husband Jim composing and recording the score through [...]
Nelson Home Entertainment
December 9, 1987 Variety — “Nelson Vid Section Chops 20 Workers After a Tough Year.” … Company recently named Peter Graves senior V.P. at Nelson Entertainment Group … Reg Childs is Nelson Entertainment’s President and COO.
Academy Entertainment
Based in Vermont, the company was headed by Robert Baruc, later of A-Pix / Unapix and Screen Media.
December 9, 1987 Variety — Academy acquired four films during Mifed — Rebel High (Jakobs Productions), New York’s Finest (Platinum Pictures and Chuck Vincent Productions), Watch the Shadows Dance (Hemdale Film Corp.), and Doom Asylum (Films Around [...]
Vista Home Video
December 2, 1987 Variety — Vista Organization Ltd.’s CEO is Sy Malamed. See IVE entry and Heron Communications entry for details.
IVE / LIVE
December 2, 1987 Variety — “IVE To Acquire All Vista Stock; On Heels of Heron Deal Dispute.” Newbury Park, California-based International Video Entertainment has signed a letter of intent to acquire all stock in the Vista Organization Home Video Corp. (ed note: domestic home video distributors of movies like Wardogs and Blood Tracks) in exchange [...]
Heron Communications
December 2, 1987 Variety — Heron named chief financial officer Richard Randall executive Vice President. Nine months prior he left Chappell & Co., where he was also executive Vice President.
December 2, 1987 Variety — “Lorimar Sues Karl, Wants Accounting.” Lorimar Home Video Inc. has sued former president Stuart Karl, alleging that he [...]
The VCR
December 2, 1987 Variety — Sales of VCRs in October ‘87 to dealers improved by 9.3% when compared to figures from a year prior — 1,387,602 in October ‘86 to 1,516,339 in October ‘87 according to the Electronics Industries Association. 10-month total for ‘87 stands at 10,666,213 VCRs sold, and is predicted to reach 13,700,000 [...]
Empire Pictures (Charles Band)
December 2, 1987 Variety — Empire Pictures has added Intruder and Entangled to its production slate. “Both pics represent Empire’s gradual progression into higher-budgeted films. Under the Empire Entertainment banner, Empire Pictures and Urban Classics will split a slate of over 30 pictures to go into production within the next 12 months.” The [...]
Archives: John Carl Buechler’s Miner’s Massacre
For those of you in the United States, this movie will air on TMC on Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 2:30 AM.
This is one of my earliest reviews. It’s probably from October or November of 2003. The film holds a special place in my heart because it marked what had to be the [...]
Archives: Jean-Claude La Marre’s Go For Broke Films
In recent years Jean-Claude La Marre has had a part in various companies that have done fairly well within the direct-to-video “urban” market — Warning Films, Nu-Lite Entertainment, Black Christian Movies. Comparisons of La Marre to Tyler Perry aren’t very hard to make, although La Marre probably started making his movies before Perry. [...]
Archives: Malcolm McDowell in Pact with the Devil
Infamous producer and former child actor Harry Alan Towers has almost surely been involved with the production of more than a hundred movies. Footnotes on film history like Howling IV, Night Terrors, American Ninja 3, Delta Force 3, and Chuck Norris’ The Hitman are among them. I don’t know much about him, but [...]
Archives: Nu Image’s MosquitoMan
Written in 2005 around the time of its release, this piece looks at a perfectly acceptable creature flick that does exactly what it’s supposed to do. The film, MosquitoMan, also known under the cooler title Mansquito, was directed by Tibor Takács as part of a package of films pre-sold by Nu Image’s international sales [...]
The commentary track to UFO Films’ Darkdrive
I need to get my hands on this.
From what I know Darkdrive was the first film produced by Phillip J. Roth’s Unified Film Organization. I’ve always been told that Roth was quite the eccentric character. Reportedly he’s a conspiracy theorist, and that’s why so many of UFO’s movies involve shadowy government [...]
Sharks in Venice makes me feel like it’s 1999 again
Someone was kind enough to send me a copy of Nu Image’s seventh dipping into the killer shark genre, and it’s a doozy. It hits stores on January 27th through First Look, and it’s been indicated that the movie will debut on the SciFi Channel sometime in December.
I cannot say enough to praise Sharks [...]
Uwe Boll’s Seed
A twisted, dark, depraved, Michael Pare-starring serial killer movie from Uwe Boll and it’s actually really good if you’re willing to ignore some silliness. For the first forty minutes or so Uwe Boll had created a mortal Jason Voorhees for the 21st century, but the effect wore off after time. Michael Pare picks [...]
WatchUsDie.com (2001)
I want to bring the fantastic resume of producer Keith W. Strandberg to your attention. He has screenwriter credit for all five of the No Retreat, No Surrender Films, Gary Daniels’ Bloodmoon, and Superfights. He has producing credit on the last three No Retreat films and Bloodmoon.
Then of course, there is WatchUsDie.com. [...]