The Cannon Group
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| Industry | Motion picture production, Releasing & showcasing |
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| Fate | Bankruptcy |
| Founded | October 23, 1967 |
| Defunct | 1993 |
| Headquarters | United States (Also owned studios and cinema chains throughout the UK, Israel and Europe |
| Key people | Dennis Friedland & Christopher C. Dewey (1967-1979) Menahem Golan (1979-1989)[1] Yoram Globus (1979-1993) Giancarlo Parretti (1989-1990) Ovidio G. Assonitis (1989-1993) Christopher Pearce (1990-1993) |
| Products | Motion pictures, Video releasing, Cinema Chains (UK & Europe) |
| Subsidiaries | Cannon Video, Cannon Cinemas (Various other mergers Cannon International, Cannon France) |
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The Cannon Group Inc. was a group of companies including Cannon Films which produced a distinctive line of low to medium budget films from 1967 to 1993. The extensive group also owned amongst others, a large international cinema chain and a video film company which invested heavily in the video market, buying the international video rights to several classic film libraries.
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[edit] History
[edit] 1967–1979
Cannon Films was incorporated on October 23, 1967. It was formed by Dennis Friedland & Chris Dewey (both in their early twenties at the time). By 1970, they had produced films (such as Joe with Peter Boyle) on a larger production scale than a lot of major distributors. They managed this by keeping their budgets tight to a limit of $300,000 per picture or less in some cases. However, as the 1970s moved on, a string of unsuccessful movies had already seriously drained Cannon’s capital. Added to this were changes in film production tax laws, which led to a drop in stock prices for Cannon. 1978 saw the German release of the science fiction musical The Apple, under the original title, Star Rock. Other notable films co-produced by Friedland and Dewey included Blood on Satan's Claw and Michael Reeves' The Sorcerers.
[edit] 1979–1985
By 1979, Cannon had hit serious financial difficulties and Friedland and Dewey sold Cannon to Israeli cousins Menahem Golan (who had directed The Apple) and Yoram Globus for a mere $500,000. The two cousins forged a business model of buying bottom-barrel scripts and putting them into production.
They tapped into a ravenous market for action films in the 1980s, and although they are most remembered for the Death Wish sequels and Chuck Norris action pictures such as The Delta Force and Invasion U.S.A., and even the vigilante thriller Exterminator 2 (the sequel to 1980’s The Exterminator), Cannon’s output was actually far more varied, with musical/comedy films like Breakin’, Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, The Last American Virgin, and the U.S. release of The Apple, period romance pictures like Lady Chatterley's Lover (1981), Bolero, and Mata Hari (1985), science fiction and fantasy films like Hercules, Lifeforce and The Barbarians, as well as serious pictures like John Cassavetes’ Love Streams, Zeffirelli’s Otello (a film version of the Verdi opera), Norman Mailer’s Tough Guys Don’t Dance, Andrei Konchalovsky’s Runaway Train, Shy People, and action/adventure films such as the 3-D Treasure of the Four Crowns, King Solomon’s Mines, Cobra and American Ninja.
One of Cannon’s biggest hits was the Vietnam action picture Missing in Action, with Chuck Norris. But Cannon had put the movie presently known as Missing in Action 2: The Beginning into production first. Only after the two movies were finished did they realize that the planned second movie was vastly superior to the planned first movie. So, the “first” movie became an awkward prequel.
During these years, Cannon worked with entertainment advertising company Design Projects, Inc. for most of the one-sheet posters, trade advertising, and large billboards prominently displayed at the Cannes Film Festival each year. Substantial pre-sales of the next years' films were made based on the strong salesmanship skills of Menahem Golan, Danny Dimbort, and the advertising created by Design Projects. The deposits made from these sales financed production of the first film in the production line-up, which when completed and delivered to theatre owners around the world, generated enough money to make the next film in the line-up, and so on. Slavenberg Bank, in the Netherlands, provided "bridge" financing until the pre-sales amounts were collected.
[edit] 1986–1989
By 1986, when company earnings reached their apex with 43 films in one year, Cannon Films shares had soared hundredfold. Golan remained as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, while Globus served as Executive Vice President and Co-Chair.
During this year, Cannon Films released Robotech: The Movie (also called Robotech: The Untold Story) for a limited run in Mesquite, Texas. Cannon was reportedly unsatisfied with Carl Macek’s first version of the movie, which was almost a straight adaptation of the anime Megazone 23. It was at their insistence that footage from The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross (the series adapted as the Robotech Masters segment of the Robotech TV series) and Megazone 23 be spliced together to produce a more action-oriented movie. Macek recalls that, although he himself was unhappy with this revised version, Menahem Golan, after viewing it, happily said: “Now that’s a Cannon movie!” Nevertheless, Robotech: The Movie was unsuccessful in its brief Texas run and saw no further release. Carl Macek has gone on record as disowning it.
Film critic Roger Ebert said of Golan-Globus in 1987, “No other production organization in the world today has taken more chances with serious, marginal films.” He did so with reasons. That year Cannon gained its greatest artistic success: its Dutch production The Assault won the 1986 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and a Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Golan and Cannon Films were famous for making huge announcements and over-promoting movies that did not live up to expectations, or even exist. For instance, Lifeforce (1985) was to be “the cinematic sci-fi event of the ’80s” and Masters of the Universe (1987) “the Star Wars of the ’80s.” Additionally, Cannon owned the film rights to Spider-Man, and planned to make a Spider-Man movie in the mid-1980s.[2]
Cannon chiefs Menahem Golan and his cousin Yoram Globus agreed to pay Marvel Comics $225,000 over the five-year option period plus a percentage of the film’s revenues.[2] The rights would revert to Marvel if a film was not made by April 1990.[3]
Tobe Hooper, then preparing both Invaders From Mars and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, was mooted as director. Golan and Globus misunderstood the concept of the character ("They thought it was like The Wolf Man", said director Joseph Zito)[4] and instructed writer Leslie Stevens, creator of The Outer Limits, to write a treatment reflecting their misconception. In Stevens’ story, a corporate scientist intentionally subjects ID-badge photographer Peter Parker to radioactive bombardment, transforming him into a hairy, suicidal, eight-armed monster. The human tarantula refuses to join the scientist’s new master-race of mutants, battling a succession of mutations kept in a basement laboratory.[4][5]
Unhappy with the debasement of his comic book creation, Marvel’s Stan Lee pushed for a new story and screenplay, written for Cannon by Ted Newsom and John Brancato.[6] The variation on the origin story had Otto Octavius as a teacher and mentor to a college-age Peter Parker. The cyclotron accident which "creates" Spider-Man also deforms the scientist into Doctor Octopus and results in his mad pursuit of proof of the Fifth Force. Ock reconstructs his cyclotron and causes electromagnetic abnormalities, anti-gravity effects, and bilocation which threatens to engulf New York and the world. Joseph Zito, who had directed Cannon’s successful Chuck Norris film Invasion USA, replaced Tobe Hooper. The new director hired Barney Cohen to rewrite the script. Cohen, creator of TV's Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Forever Knight, added action scenes, a non-canonical comic for the villain, gave Doc Ock the catch phrase, "Okey-dokey", and altered his goal from the Fifth Force to a quest for anti-gravity. Producer Golan (using his pen name "Joseph Goldman") then made a minor polish to Cohen's rewrite. Zito scouted locations and studio facilities in both the U.S. and Europe, and oversaw storyboard breakdowns supervised by Harper Goff. Cannon planned to make the film on the then-substantial budget of between $15 and $20 million.[2]
While no casting was finalized, Zito expressed interest in actor/stunt man Scott Leva, who had posed for Cannon's promotional photos and ads, and made public appearances as Spider-Man for Marvel. The up-and-coming actor Tom Cruise was also discussed for the leading role. Zito considered Bob Hoskins as Doc Ock. Stan Lee expressed his desire to play Daily Bugle editor J. Jonah Jameson.[7] Lauren Bacall and Katharine Hepburn were considered for Aunt May, Peter Cushing as a sympathetic scientist, and Adolph Caesar as a police detective.[6] With Cannon finances siphoned by the expensive Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and Masters of the Universe, the company slashed the proposed Spider-Man budget to under $10 million. Director Zito opted out, unwilling to make a compromised Spider-Man. The company commissioned low-budget rewrites from writers Shepard Goldman, Don Michael Paul, and finally Ethan Wiley, and penciled in company workhorse Albert Pyun as director, who also made script alterations.[5]
Scott Leva was still associated with the character through Marvel (he had appeared in photo covers of the comic), and read each draft. Leva commented, "Ted Newsom and John Brancato had written the script. It was good but it needed a little work. Unfortunately, with every subsequent rewrite by other writers, it went from good to bad to terrible."[7] Due to Cannon's assorted financial crises, the project shut down after spending about $1.5 million on the project.[4] In 1989, Pathé, owned by corrupt Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti, acquired the overextended Cannon. The filmmaking cousins parted, Globus remaining associated with Pathé, Golan leaving to create 21st Century Film Corporation, keeping a number of properties (including Spider-Man) in lieu of a cash buy-out. He also extended his Spider-Man option with Marvel up to January 1992.[3]
Golan shelved the low-budget rewrites and attempted to finance an independent production from the original big-budget script, already budgeted, storyboarded and laid out.[8] At Cannes in May 1989, 21st Century announced a September start date, with ads touting the script by "Barney Cohen, Ted Newsom & John Brancato and Joseph Goldman."[9] As standard practice, Golan pre-sold the unmade film to raise production funds, with television rights bought by Viacom and home video rights by Columbia Pictures, which wanted to establish a studio franchise. Stephen Herek was attached as director at this point.[10] Golan submitted this "new" screenplay to Columbia in late 1989 (actually the 1985 script with an adjusted "1989" date) and the studio requested yet another rewrite. Golan hired Frank LaLoggia, who turned in his draft but grew disenchanted with 21st Century. Neil Ruttenberg was hired for one more draft, which was also "covered" by script readers at Columbia.[11] Columbia’s script analysts considered all three submissions "essentially the same story." A tentative production deal was set. Said Stan Lee in 1990, "21st Century [is] supposed to do Spider-Man and now they're talking to Columbia and the way it looks now, Columbia may end up buying Spider-Man from 21st Century."[12]
In 1988, they released David Winning’s debut feature STORM. However, that same year, a string of box office flops drained Cannon’s capital and the market had cooled. The multi-million dollar production of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), whose original $36 million budget was reduced to half ($17 million) by Cannon, had failed at the box office.[13] Cannon signed an agreement with Warner Bros. to handle part of Cannon’s assets; however, the financial loss was staggering. Cannon Films was severely stretched, having purchased Thorn EMI, and faced bankruptcy, and a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation began which indicated that Cannon Films had fraudulently misstated its financial reports.
On the verge of failure, Cannon Films was taken over by Pathé Communications, a holding company which was controlled by Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti, whom during the same period would also eventually acquire Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) as well. Golan and Globus had signed a contract with Parretti in hopes that Pathe Communications would be able to save Cannon’s financial problems and bankruptcy. Parretti had been able to obtain refinancing through the lending company, Credit Lyonnais, and $250 million to pay off Cannon Films’ debt. Then, by early 1989, Parretti had only further damaged Cannon Films, and what seemed to be a successful turnaround in Cannon’s problems only worsened. Parretti had lied that Cannon Films was moving ahead, when in fact the company had continued operating in the red. Golan, citing differences with both Parretti and Globus, resigned from his position as Chief Executive Officer and left Cannon Films.
One of the final movies produced by both Golan and Globus to get a wide release under the Cannon Films banner was the Jean-Claude Van Damme post-apocalyptic actioner Cyborg. This film was conceived to use both the costumes and sets built for an intended sequel to Masters of the Universe and the aforementioned live-action version of Spider-Man. Both projects were planned to shoot simultaneously by Albert Pyun. After Cannon Films had to cancel deals with both Mattel and Marvel Entertainment because of their financial troubles, they needed to recoup the money spent on both projects.
As part of his severance package from Pathe Communications, Golan took the rights to Marvel’s characters Spider-Man and Captain America. (Golan struggled to obtain financing for Spider-Man with Carolco Pictures in the early 1990s but was unsuccessful. Golan was able to put Captain America into production and released direct to video through his 21st Century Film Corporation.) Not to let those pre-production works go to waste, Pyun then wrote the story of Cyborg (with Chuck Norris in mind), suggesting it to Cannon Films, and Jean-Claude Van Damme got attached. Some television stations still give the film’s title as Masters of the Universe 2: Cyborg which often confuses many into thinking a sequel to that film was made.
[edit] 1990–1993
Following Golan’s resignation as CEO of Cannon Films, he became the head of 21st Century Film Corporation while Globus went on to continue working with Parretti, who appointed Globus to preside briefly over MGM/UA (whose part in Cannon history today is explained below in Distribution).
Parretti’s continued presidency over Cannon Films, and his significantly poor business and financial decisions, raised suspicions in the industry, and once again from the SEC. Parretti recruited Ovidio G. Assonitis, a veteran prolific film producer and businessman, to be appointed as the new Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 1990, when Cannon was renamed as the new Cannon Pictures Inc.
It was later discovered that Parretti breached his contract with Assonitis through Pathe, and was terminated as CEO the same year and replaced by Christopher Pearce. Assonitis later received a default judgement of $2.9 million from Pathe for the breach of contract with Parretti. Cannon Pictures continued to release films such as A Man Called Sarge, American Ninja 4: The Annihilation and No Place to Hide until 1993, when Parretti’s problems with the company had finally began to catch up with him.
Parretti defaulted on the bond payments to Credit Lyonnais on Cannon’s financial reorganization plans, and furthermore, Parretti also defaulted on the payments he made for his acquisition of MGM, which he also controlled. The Securities and Exchange Commission sought another investigation into Cannon Films, and it was later discovered that Parretti had tampered with evidence, and later fled the United States before being sentenced.
Cannon officially came to an end in 1993, with Street Knight being the last film the company would release. Yoram Globus and Christopher Pearce later joined together & moved to 21st Century Film Corporation until 1996.
In 1993, the Golan-Globus film Alien from L.A., starring model Kathy Ireland, was used as the basis of episode #516 of the movie-mocking television show Mystery Science Theater 3000.
[edit] Distribution
The Cannon Group’s first films in the United States were distributed independently and released on home video on the small Paragon Video label. Then they made a deal with MGM, and their movies were distributed for home video (and later some films theatrically) by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, appearing in the ubiquitous gray MGM Video "big boxes".
Later, Golan and Globus had a falling out with MGM, supposedly over the erotic unrated film Bolero, with Bo Derek, which ended up being released under the USA Home Video label. Their movies were then released on home video for a short time by Media Home Entertainment, with some of the larger films, like Masters of the Universe and Over the Top, distributed by either TriStar or Warner Bros. Cannon then partnered with HBO and began its own video label, which lasted into the 1990s.
Today, the worldwide theatrical and home video rights (as well as international TV rights) to a majority of Cannon's product are owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, with the following exceptions:
- Certain Cannon films distributed by Warner Bros. in most territories (including certain territorial home video rights to Superman IV: The Quest for Peace) are now owned by WB themselves (worldwide theatrical and all other rights in other European territories for Superman IV are now with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer).
- MGM owns theatrical and home video rights to Lifeforce. The television rights however, belong to Sony Pictures Television (due to Sony-owned production company TriStar Pictures distributing the film in the U.S.). Sony also holds some digital rights, as it was formerly seen on Sony-owned website Crackle. (Since then, MGM posted it on Hulu.) For a short time, Sony co-distributed most of the MGM library on TV.
- Theatrical and home video rights to most Cannon films made after 1987 are now with WB (these include Masters of the Universe and Little Dorrit).
- Cannon films made through its merger with Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment (such as Link) are now with EMI successor StudioCanal, with Anchor Bay Entertainment handling US home video rights.
- MGM does not own the home video rights to The Company of Wolves, a Cannon/ITC Entertainment co-production that has been released on DVD by Hen's Tooth under license from international rights holder ITV Global Entertainment Ltd..
In all cases (except worldwide television rights to Lifeforce), Trifecta Entertainment & Media handles domestic television rights to the Cannon library (these rights were previously owned by Viacom Enterprises, Paramount Domestic Television, CBS Paramount Domestic Television, and CBS Television Distribution). CTD and ancestor companies had owned TV rights to Superman IV until 2006, after which Warner Bros. Television took over these rights for three years, and in 2009 back to Paramount, through television licensee Trifecta. Paramount Pictures owns the rights to distribute the Cannon library on digital platforms (except Lifeforce).
Mr Golan is still producing and directing films. Mr Globus is the president of the Globus Group which has interests in film production/distribution and runs a 140 screen cinema chain in Israel called Globus Max.
[edit] List of Golan-Globus productions
[edit] References
- ^ "THE MEDIA BUSINESS; Golan Quits Cannon Group To Form His Own Company". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1989/03/01/business/the-media-business-golan-quits-cannon-group-to-form-his-own-company.html?scp=2&sq=Cannon%20Films&st=cse. Retrieved 2010-08-08.
- ^ a b c Ronald Grover (2002-04-15). "Unraveling Spider-Man's Tangled Web". Business Week. http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/apr2002/nf20020415_7441.htm. Retrieved 2010-08-08.
- ^ a b Janet Shprintz (1998-08-19). "Spider-Man's legal web may finally be unraveled". Variety. http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=print_story&articleid=VR1117479641&categoryid=13. Retrieved 2010-08-09.
- ^ a b c Michael A. Hiltzik (2002-03-24). "Untangling the Web". Los Angeles Times Magazine.
- ^ a b Edward Gross (2002). Spider-Man Confidential. Hyperion.
- ^ a b Patrick Daniel O’Neill (March 1990). Screenwriter Ted Newsom. Fictioneer Books Ltd..
- ^ a b Jankiewicz, Pat (July 2002). "Scott Leva, the Man Who Was Almost Spider-Man". Starlog/Comics Scene Presents Spider-Man 1 (1): 62–64.
- ^ Sheldon Teitelbaum (September 1987). "Spider-Man - The Movie: For Cannon Films it was a web too far.". Cinefantastique.
- ^ "21stCenturyAd1989". Variety. 1989-05-05. p. 11.
- ^ David Hughes. The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made ISBN1-55652-449-8
- ^ Steve Ryfle (May/June 2002). Spider-Man’s Tangled Web. CS Publications.
- ^ Dan Hagen (1990). "Publisher Stan Lee Speaks". Fictioneer Books Ltd. journal=David Anthony Kraft's Comics Interview Magazine.
- ^ Michael A. Hiltzik (1998-09-29). "Spidey’s Movie Mess". Los Angeles Times. http://www.teako170.com/spidey.html. Retrieved 2010-08-08.
