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99-708: In the mid-1980s, The Cannon Group, Inc. began expanding its operation into Africa, taking advantage of cheap locations and labor in countries such as Zimbabwe and South Africa . Avi Lerner opened Nu Metro Entertainment, a film production company based in Johannesburg to accommodate production demands in the countries. During this time, Lerner executive produced many films, such as American Ninja 2: The Confrontation and River of Death for Cannon as well as Howling IV: The Original Nightmare for Harry Alan Towers . After pressure from anti-apartheid forces, Cannon closed its African operations in 1988, Lerner created

198-532: A Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film . Meanwhile, Otello , based on the opera of the same name , also received a Golden Globe nomination that year. Golan and Cannon Films tended to over-promote films that did not live up to expectations. For instance, Lifeforce (1985) was to be "the cinematic sci-fi event of the '80s " and Masters of the Universe (1987) was dubbed "the Star Wars of

297-525: A $ 10 million agreement with the BBC that August for the latter to broadcast both companies' films. By 1988, a cooling in the film market and a series of box office disappointments—including the multimillion-dollar production of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987), whose original $ 36-million budget was slashed to $ 17 million—had once again put Cannon in financial woes. The company signed an agreement with Warner Bros. to handle part of their assets; however,

396-990: A 3D conversion in post-production. Conan the Barbarian was first released on August 17, 2011 in France , Belgium , Iceland , and the Philippines . It was released in Australia , Italy , and Israel on August 18; in the United States , Canada , and Spain on August 19, in Switzerland on August 21, in the United Kingdom on August 26, among others. Conan the Barbarian was released on DVD, Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D on November 22, 2011 by Lionsgate Home Entertainment . In its first weekend, Conan made $ 10,021,215 in 3,015 theaters and opened at #4 in

495-530: A brief effort of developing Red Sonja with Rose McGowan as the lead, Robert Rodriguez had mentioned in July 2008 he had been in discussions to produce Conan also. Dirk Blackman and Howard McCain were announced in August to have been hired for a re-write of the script, with the intention of returning to the original source material and in the desire of making an R-rated film. In November 2008, Brett Ratner

594-588: A business model of buying bottom-barrel scripts and putting them into production. They produced such films in a variety of genres, although their biggest successes were with action films . They tapped into a ravenous market for B movies in the 1980s. After buying the rights to the 1974 film Death Wish , Cannon produced three sequels to it in the 1980s, all starring Charles Bronson . Despite negative reviews, these films were financially successful, especially Death Wish II (1982), which earned over $ 40 million on an $ 8 million budget. Other major hits for Cannon were

693-437: A clause wishing for immediate start on production. Lionsgate and Sony Pictures entered negotiations for distribution, with the film seeing many directors, prominently Brett Ratner , before settling on Nispel in 2009 and subsequently bringing together a cast and crew. Filming began on March 15, 2010, and concluded June 5, 2010. The film was first released on August 17, 2011, in four countries, Belgium , France , Iceland , and

792-917: A deal was reached with The Recon Group , a Chinese investment firm, for them to purchase a majority stake in the Millennium Films subsidiary. The deal was signed and a $ 20 million downpayment was secured. However, this deal was later announced to be off in August 2017 due to the Chinese government clamping down on overseas business investments. The same year, Millennium Films was merged into Nu Image to form Millennium Media. In 2017, Millennium faced sexual harassment allegations alleging hostile workplace and rampant sexual harassment and gender disparity. In 2018, actor Terry Crews testified in front of Congress that he had been threatened by Avi Lerner of Millennium Media not to testify in his sexual assault case. The Cannon Group, Inc. The Cannon Group, Inc.

891-564: A deal which allowed Pathé to distribute Lambada , Midnight Ride and American Ninja 4 . Under Pearce, Cannon Pictures announced it will keep contracts with players Charles Bronson , Chuck Norris and Michael Dudikoff signed under Golan's management and revealed a slate of films in 1991, Fifty/Fifty now starring Peter Weller and Robert Hays , No Place to Hide with Kris Kristofferson and Drew Barrymore , The Hitman with Chuck Norris , The Human Shield and Rescue Me both with Michael Dudikoff . Richard Inouye joined

990-661: A documentary about Cannon Films, written and directed by Mark Hartley , and produced by Brett Ratner . That same year, the Israeli documentary The Go-Go Boys: The Inside Story of Cannon Films was launched at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival . As is noted at the end of Electric Boogaloo , Golan and Globus announced The Go-Go Boys shortly after they were approached to appear in Boogaloo , yet in true Cannon fashion, their movie beat Hartley's to release by 3 months. In 2015, Globus sold "Globus Max" and returned to Hollywood to launch

1089-440: A domestic distribution deal with Warner Bros. for its theatrical product. Soon after announcing a new slate of films and the distribution deal with Warner Bros., Parretti made a $ 1.2 billion bid for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , backed by Crédit Lyonnais . The bid was accepted and Parretti merged Pathé Communications and MGM to create MGM-Pathé Communications . With the merger majority of the former Cannon Group library became part of

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1188-416: A few of the fairy tales. Film critic Roger Ebert said of Golan-Globus in 1987, "no other production organization in the world today—certainly not any of the seven Hollywood 'majors'—has taken more chances with serious, marginal films than Cannon." That year, Cannon gained its greatest artistic success: its 1986 Dutch production The Assault won the 1987 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and

1287-446: A group of investors for $ 14 million. The sale would include the office building at 8200 Wiltshire Blvd, where Cannon Pictures was based. Parretti tried to push the deal through quickly to release some capital for MGM-Pathé, However, the deal fell through less than two months later due to financing problems and MGM-Pathé Communications had been granted an easement on financial conditions that were placed upon it by its lenders as part of

1386-467: A lengthy period of litigation between Marvel, Sony and several other parties over the film rights. Cannon's films proved to be much more popular in the United Kingdom than in its native United States, which is why Cannon acquired several British cinema chains during the 1980s, and founded the mail-order video distribution service Videolog as a joint venture with Columbia House Europe, Ltd. in

1485-688: 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. The success of Joe brought more attention to the company. As the 1970s moved on, a string of unsuccessful films seriously drained Cannon's capital. This, along with changes to film-production tax laws, led to a drop in Cannon's stock price. 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 $ 500,000. The two cousins forged

1584-415: A message. Zym and Marique confront Conan and Zym finally recognizes him as the boy he left alive. Amidst their battle, Marique poisons Conan with a boomerang sword and he is rescued by Tamara. They jump into the sea and return to Conan's ship, where he recovers. The boat is attacked by Zym's men but Conan and his gang defeat them. Conan departs for Zym's kingdom. His friend Artus sends Tamara after him, and

1683-409: A new TV show called Sam Bolt: Texas Ranger , which would later become Walker, Texas Ranger . Shortly afterwards, they announced that Joe Lara had been signed to an exclusive 10-picture deal with the new company. Lara was currently in production on American Cyborg: Steel Warrior which would not be included in the overall deal, however no films were made from this deal. By mid-1992, the merger

1782-566: A new company, Nu Image, to produce original, low budget films alongside his brother Danny Lerner and other Cannon employees Trevor Short, Danny Dimbort and Boaz Davidson . From 1992, Nu Image began producing multiple films a year, mainly in the action genre. Many of its films went direct-to-video , however some, such as Shark Attack debuted on television . Many stars, writers and directors from The Cannon Group, Inc. appeared in films for Nu Image, including David Bradley , Michael Dudikoff , Sam Firstenberg and Billy Drago . They also built

1881-447: A new film production company, "Rebel Way Entertainment." The company seeks to reconnect young and web-crazy audiences with the traditional theatrical experience. As of February 2023, their only film is Deported (2020), directed by Tyler Spindel . Conan the Barbarian (2011 film) Conan the Barbarian is a 2011 American sword and sorcery film based on the character of the same name created by Robert E. Howard . The film

1980-486: A new generation of action talent such as Bryan Genesse and Joe Lara . However, their efforts to break into the mainstream with mockbusters such as Freefall starring Eric Roberts , Jeff Fahey and Pamela Gidley , created to capitalise on the success of Sylvester Stallone 's Cliffhanger failed to make much of an impact. Freefall ended up going direct-to-video . After the successes of creature features such as Anaconda and Deep Blue Sea released in

2079-569: A second time, in apparent favor of the Immortals film. Ron Perlman took on the character in March 2010. Bob Sapp portrays Ukafa, "a leader of Kushite Tribemen from the savannahs of Kush. Ukafa is Khalar Zym's second in command, jealous that Zym's daughter, Marique, will one day be warlord. He obeys his leader but plots the overthrow of his daughter. He is a mighty warrior and unbeatable in battle—until he meets Conan." Rachel Nichols joined

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2178-588: A series of action movies starring Chuck Norris , including Missing in Action (1984), Invasion U.S.A. (1985) and The Delta Force (1986). Missing in Action was criticized heavily as being a preemptive cash-in on the Rambo franchise . James Cameron 's story treatment for Rambo: First Blood Part II was floating around Hollywood in 1983, which Golan and Globus reviewed and were " inspired " by. The writers of MIA even gave Cameron credit saying their film

2277-579: A temporary title for the film, until it was changed to Conan 3D . Finally, early in December 2010, the title was definitely changed to Conan the Barbarian , the same title as the 1982 film. In January 2010, Jason Momoa was selected for the role of Conan. Momoa beat Kellan Lutz for the role. He was enrolled in an intense six-week training programme at a stunt and martial arts academy in Los Angeles for his part, while still finalising negotiations for

2376-455: A warlord and formidable warrior, brilliant, cruel, weathered and tanned by the many campaigns he has waged and won. He is driven in his quest to find the Queen of Acheron and has been building an empire to do so." Rose McGowan also stars as "an evil half-human/half-witch", as announced by Variety in March 2010. She plays Marique, the daughter of Khalar Zym (Stephen Lang). Although the part

2475-506: Is a new interpretation of the Conan myth and is not related to the films featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger . It stars Jason Momoa in the title role, alongside Rachel Nichols , Rose McGowan , Stephen Lang , Ron Perlman , and Bob Sapp , with Marcus Nispel directing. Morgan Freeman narrates the film. The film had spent several years in development at Warner Bros. before the rights were shifted to Nu Image/Millennium Films in 2007, with

2574-492: Is fatally impaled. Conan and Tamara become trapped on a bridge as Zym uses the mask's power to call forth his wife. Her spirit begins to possess Tamara's body. Conan destroys the bridge, causing Zym to fall into the lava below as he and Tamara escape. Conan returns Tamara to her birthplace, then travels to his old village. He recalls the memory of his father, content that he has avenged his death and recovered his father's sword, thereby restoring his honor. There had been talk in

2673-505: Is more faithful to the Robert E. Howard books, Conan the Barbarian forsakes three-dimensional characters, dialogue, and acting in favor of unnecessary 3D effects." At Metacritic the film received a score of 36 out of 100, based on reviews from 29 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews . Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale. Not all reviews were negative. Betsy Sharkey of

2772-501: The Los Angeles Times wrote that "it is with a certain amount of guilt that I say it's kind of a wicked blast to watch." Scott Weinberg of Twitchfilm.com stated, "Some action scenes are tighter and more cohesive than others, but there's little denying that Nispel's Conan moves like a shot, tosses a lot of hardcore lunacy at the screen, and shows a decent amount of respect for basic matinée action-fests." Although criticizing

2871-512: The 3-D Treasure of the Four Crowns , King Solomon's Mines , and the vigilante thriller sequel Exterminator 2 . The Cannon Group's biggest financial success was with the 1986 action film Cobra , which starred Sylvester Stallone ; not a low-budget film, it earned $ 160 million on a $ 25 million budget. Cannon produced musical and comedy films such as Breakin' , Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo , The Last American Virgin , and

2970-492: The Cannes Film Festival each year. Substantial pre-sales of the next years' films were made based on the strong salesmanship skills of Globus. 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. Slavenburg's bank  [ nl ] in

3069-579: The Philippines , prior to the North American release on August 19. Born on a battlefield, Conan is the son of Corin, a barbarian chieftain and blacksmith. As a child, he proves himself a skilled but violent warrior to his father. One day, Conan's village is attacked by Khalar Zym, a warlord who wishes to reunite the Mask of Acheron to revive his dead wife Maliva, an evil sorceress, and conquer Hyboria. The mask, crafted by sorcerers and used to subjugate

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3168-605: The Superman property) for a 1987 release. Cannon also further expanded their French assets, with the aim of becoming the largest film distributor in France. By 1986, output reached an apex with 43 films in one year. Golan remained chairman of the board, while Globus served as president. In 1986, Cannon attempted to produce film adaptations of the stage plays Zorba and American Buffalo , but these films never materialized. Another film project that ultimately never materialized

3267-509: The '80s." Diversifying from film production, Cannon had begun purchasing film distributors and movie theaters . The purchases ranged from European companies ( Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment , Tuschinski Theatres, a 49-screen theater chain in the Netherlands , and the 53-screen Cannon Cinema Italia ) to the sixth-largest chain in the United States , the 425-screen "marginally profitable" Commonwealth Theaters . Additionally, Cannon owned

3366-543: The California Superior Court in Los Angeles entered a final judgement in a separate civil suit against Parretti, ordering him to pay $ 1.48 billion to Credit Lyonnais. After Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment against Parretti and Florio Fiorini accusing them of fraud in 1999, Italian authorities arrested both men and held them for extradition to the United States. Parretti was released by

3465-643: The Ice Cave with Michael Moriarty and Sally Kellerman and A Man Called Sarge . The new slate of pictures was expected to cost $ 50 million The company managed to post a small operating profit before the end of the year. JAM was rebranded as Lambada to cash in on the craze and released in 1990. After the MGM-Pathé Communications merger, Parretti agreed to sell Pathé's 60% majority stake in Cannon Pictures to Assonitis and

3564-745: The Jewel of the East with Richard Chamberlain and Sharon Stone returning to their roles, Return of the Delta Force and American Ninja Apprentice with Michael Dudikoff , David Bradley and Steve James' daughter Debbi, alongside new original projects The Sniper with Mickey Rourke and Bruce Willis and The Golem with Al Pacino and Nastassja Kinski , but Golan died before any were produced. In 2014, there were two documentary films released about Cannon Films. RatPac Entertainment released Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films ,

3663-583: The MGM buyout. At the same board meeting, Assonitis and Cannon Pictures vice-chairman William J. Immerman were fired and replaced by Danny Dimbort. Cannon's marketing and casting operations were shut down by Pathé. All of Cannon Pictures' marketing was placed under Pathé's existing operations. Former Cannon Group production head Christopher Pearce was named as Assonitis' replacement and in November 1990, he bought Pathé's stake in Cannon Pictures for $ 14 million with

3762-600: The MGM library (certain rights for other media and select films during the Thorn EMI merger now lie with other entities). As MGM-Pathé Communications had a distribution deal with Warner Bros. (and who had part financed Parretti's takeover bid), Parretti axed the MGM/UA Home Video department as one of his first acts in charge, resulting in the loss of eighty jobs. Crédit Lyonnais foreclosed on Parretti in July 1991 after he defaulted on loan payments and sued for

3861-560: The Netherlands (which had provided Cannon's start-up capital in 1979) and their principal loan officer, Frans Afman, provided bridge financing until the pre-sales amounts were collected; this role was inherited by Credit Lyonnais after their purchase of Slavenburg's in 1983. In 1982, The Cannon Group, Inc. entered into a relationship with MGM/UA Entertainment Co. with the latter company serving as Cannon's distributor for North American theatrical and video releases; this would not be

3960-700: The Tokyo Film Festival. A judge blocked all sales made at Tokyo and blocked any further sales that were due to take place at MIFED 1994. To prevent any fraudulent deals at MIFED, a warning appeared in Screen International and other publications stating all business must be done with the court appointed trustee and not with Pearce. The United States bankruptcy court set a deadline of January 11, 1995 for creditors of Cannon Pictures to submit their claim and evidence of debt. Cannon Pictures, its library of 135 films, as well as 112 films from

4059-596: The U.S. release of The Apple ; erotic period drama pictures such as Lady Chatterley's Lover (1981), Bolero , and Mata Hari (1985); science fiction and fantasy films such as Hercules , Lifeforce , and The Barbarians ; and serious pictures such as John Cassavetes ' Love Streams , Franco Zeffirelli 's Otello (a film version of the Verdi opera ), Norman Mailer 's Tough Guys Don't Dance , and Andrei Konchalovsky 's Runaway Train and Shy People . During these years, Cannon prominently advertised at

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4158-500: The United States domestic box office. By the end of its run, the film had grossed $ 21,295,021 domestically and $ 27,500,000 internationally, for a worldwide total of $ 48,795,021. The film was a box office bomb , making less than its $ 90 million budget. The film has received generally negative reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 25% based on reviews from 152 critics, with average score of 4.3/10. The website's consensus states: "While its relentless, gory violence

4257-405: The cast as Tamara, described as "the Queen's servant, bodyguard and best friend. She and many other female bodyguards to the queen have been in hiding most of their lives because of the curse of Acheron, which would take the queen’s life to bring almost immortal power to its king. When Khalar Zym, a powerful warlord with ambitions to become the king of Acheron, storms the monastery and captures all of

4356-399: The character to be "powerfully built, intelligent, graceful, master swordsman, skilled blacksmith, de facto leader of Cimmerians and Conan's father. He resolves to answer the terrible request of his dying wife and cuts Conan out of her so she can see him. He then shoulders the burden of raising Conan, which proves to be daunting given the boy's savage nature. Corin teaches his son the meaning of

4455-509: The company and two investment bankers, Robert Blake and Runa Alam, by the Independent Artists Picture Corp. The lawsuit claimed interference and breach of contract in connection with IAPCs plans to buy Cannon Pictures stock in a takeover bid, which would have seen Blake purchase Christopher Pearce's stock and Blake and Alam would then take control of the day-to-day operations of the company. During this time, Pearce

4554-675: The company announced and impressive line-up several new productions and releases, Fifty/Fifty , Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection and TOP KICK with Chuck Norris , WINGS with Michael Dudikoff , American Ninja 4 with Dudikoff and David Bradley , JAM to be directed by Joel Silberg , Dusted (later released as Death Warrant with Jean-Claude Van Damme ), Keaton's Cop with Lee Majors , Midnight Ride with Michael Dudikoff and Mark Hamill , an untitled film starring Charles Bronson , Crack House with Richard Roundtree and Jim Brown , Rockula , The Rose Garden with Maximilian Schell and Liv Ullmann , The Secret of

4653-959: The company in February 1991 as vice-president and CFO. American Ninja V and the unmade Ants of God were added to the slate at the AFM in 1991 and Warner Home Video signed an agreement to distribute Cannon Pictures' output in North America, UK, Japan, Italy and Australia for ten years. Cannon Pictures greatly expanded its slate in time for the Cannes Film Festival in 1991 with a total of 18 films, in addition to those already announced, there was; American Kickboxer 1 , Black Cat Run with Michael Dudikoff , The Borrower , Deep End from Boaz Davidson , Delta Force 3: The Killing Game , Dream Lover from Boaz Davidson , Ninja: The American Samurai , Solemn Oath and Terminal Bliss . When Crédit Lyonnais foreclosed on Parretti in July 1991,

4752-421: The company's previous incarnation, 21st Century Film Distribution officially went up for sale on August 14, 1997 with the auction taking place on September 15. The property was sold to Imperial Entertainment. In February 1998, a judge ruled that Ovidio G. Assonitis had been wrongfully terminated from the company by Parretti and Pathé. The judge awarded Assonitis $ 2.9 million in damages, but by this time, Pathé

4851-553: The company, but shortly after the takeover, a group of creditors including Charles Bronson and Everyvision Inc. sued Cannon Pictures to force it into bankruptcy. The creditors succeeded in pushing the company into Chapter 11 bankruptcy . Soon afterwards, it was discovered Christopher Pearce was selling disputed Cannon titles, including Twin Sitters , Delta Force 3 , American Samurai , Street Knight , Tobe Hooper's Night Terrors and American Cyborg: Steel Warrior at

4950-526: The court of appeal in Perugia shortly thereafter, ordered to remain in his home town of Orvieto and report to the police three times a week, even though authorities in Rome had requested he be held pending a decision on the extradition. In 1989, Parretti reorganized Cannon Pictures, Inc. as the low-budget distribution arm of Pathé led by veteran Italian film producer Ovidio G. Assonitis . That year at MIFED,

5049-513: The female pureblood descendant of the sorcerers of Acheron to unleash the mask's power. Conan frees Lucius' prisoners, who kill Lucius. Zym and his daughter, the sorceress Marique, attack a monastery to find the pureblood descendant of the necromancers of Acheron. Fassir, a monk, tells his student, Tamara, to flee, knowing she is whom Zym seeks. Conan rescues Tamara and captures Zym's righthand man, Remo. After learning Tamara's identity, Conan catapults Remo into Zym's camp, killing him and sending Zym

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5148-434: The film rights to Spider-Man , and planned to make a Spider-Man film in the mid-1980s. Golan and Globus agreed to pay Marvel Comics $ 225,000 over the five-year option period, plus a percentage of the film's revenues. The rights would revert to Marvel if a film was not made by April 1990. Marvel and Sony would eventually complete a film in 2002 directed by Sam Raimi after the rights had been re-secured, following

5247-561: The film was difficult, describing it as being like "a dog on many leashes" and that it was "the worst experience that I had and I was as unhappy with the result" but that "I am happy though that none of this got in the way of Jason's career path…I always stood by the decision to make Conan with him." Shaun Smith and Scott Wheeler's work on the film was nominated at the Saturn Awards for Best Make-Up , but lost to X-Men: First Class . Lionsgate and Ignition Creative were nominated at

5346-458: The film, Ratner was off the project due to his busy schedule. Regardless, Gatta was hopeful of still meeting the intention of Millennium to start filming on August 24 in Bulgaria. June 2009 revealed Marcus Nispel would take the reins as director to the film. Sean Hood was announced in February 2010 to be rewriting the script once more for the producers. Early in pre-production, Conan was

5445-432: The film. Momoa intended to add 10 pounds of muscle to his 215-pound frame, with the help of The Bourne Ultimatum 's stunt performer David Leitch , and the martial arts stunt coordinator for The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions , Chad Stahelski . Leo Howard was cast as the younger Conan in the film, as the first 15 minutes focused on Conan's youth. The casting call for Conan's father, Corin, reveals

5544-626: The final films produced by Golan and Globus that received a wide release under the Cannon Films banner was the post-apocalyptic action film Cyborg . This film was conceived to use both the costumes and sets built for an intended sequel to Masters of the Universe and the ill-fated live-action version of Spider-Man . Both projects were planned to shoot simultaneously under the direction of Albert Pyun . Not to let that pre-production work go to waste, Pyun wrote Cyborg , with Chuck Norris in mind, suggesting it to Cannon Films. Jean-Claude Van Damme

5643-668: The financial loss was staggering. Following the purchase of the Thorn EMI assets, Cannon Films was severely stretched, and faced bankruptcy ; in May 1987, Cannon sold its 2,000-title Thorn-EMI library for $ 85 million to Weintraub Entertainment Group . Shortly afterwards, Cannon dropped out of the HBO/Cannon Video joint venture with HBO due to Cannon's ongoing financial problems. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began an investigation into Cannon's financial reports, suspecting that Cannon had fraudulently misstated them. On

5742-476: The first films to be produced by Millennium Films was the remake The Wicker Man starring Nicolas Cage . The film was a critical and commercial failure. They continued on with a focus on sequels and remakes of notable properties such as Day of the Dead and Rambo . After the commercial success of Rambo , Millennium Films entered into a multi-year deal with Lionsgate to produce several big-budgeted films,

5841-432: The first of which was Conan the Barbarian . The deal would be extended over the years with successful box-office hits ( The Mechanic ) and box office bombs ( The Legend of Hercules ). Another notable success was Olympus Has Fallen starring Gerard Butler . In November 2010, First Look filed for bankruptcy. Nu Image formed Millennium Entertainment, LLC to assume the assets of First Look. Millennium Entertainment

5940-553: The four films he had made for Cannon. Cannon Pictures posted a net profit of $ 1.3 million for the nine months ending September 1992 and secured a new $ 15 million line of credit from the ING Bank in Amsterdam after Crédit Lyonnais refused to lend more until their loans were fully repaid, which wasn't due for another four years. In February 1993, Cannon ran out of money to continue production of Walker, Texas Ranger , due to

6039-408: The indictments of funding partner Banca Nazionale del Lavoro , then embroiled in a scandal over unauthorized loans to Iraq , and producers were desperately trying to raise more money to complete the miniseries . CBS Productions later stepped in with additional funds to complete the production. In August 1993, Cannon reported a net profit of $ 1 million for its second quarter, double the same period

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6138-491: The last time Cannon dealt with MGM. In 1984, Cannon expanded further into Europe, signing with UGC for French distribution, and acquiring Kenneth Rive's Gala Films, which was absorbed into Cannon Group's U.K. distribution arm. On June 25, 1985, Cannon bought the rights to produce future films based on the comic book character Superman from the Salkinds , and struck a distribution assignment with Warner Bros. (owners of

6237-481: The late 1990s of a second Conan sequel following Conan the Destroyer , about an older Conan, set to be titled King Conan: Crown of Iron ; however, due to Schwarzenegger's election in 2003 as governor of California , this project came to an end. Warner Bros. spent seven years trying to get the project off the ground, with development attempts made by The Wachowskis , John Milius , and Robert Rodriguez who

6336-470: The late 1990s, Nu Image produced a spate of low budget franchises to capitalise on the trend including; Tobe Hooper 's Crocodile , Shark Attack , Spiders , Killer Rats , Octopus and Raging Sharks and various sequels were produced from 1999 to 2005. While not critically successful, the films were extremely successful on television and home media. In 1999, Nu Image formed a subsidiary label, Millennium Films, for higher-budget productions. From

6435-466: The mid-1980s. Cannon Cinemas were a familiar sight in the United Kingdom until the late 1990s, when MGM Cannon cinemas were sold to Virgin who retained the multi screen sites and sold the traditional sites to a new ABC Cinemas . Cannon purchased the Thorn EMI film assets from businessman Alan Bond in April 1986 for £175 million; Cannon Screen Entertainment and archrival The Rank Organization jointly signed

6534-537: The mid-2000s, the main Nu Image company gradually began producing fewer films, with Millennium Films releasing more with a greater level of financing than previously. In 2005, it purchased Nu Boyana Film Studios in Bulgaria. In March 2007, Nu Image acquired a controlling 52% stake in independent film and home video company First Look Studios . As a result, Nu Image and Millennium Films were given an additional outlet for home video and theatrical distribution. One of

6633-468: The novitiates, she is separated from Ilira, the one she must protect. With all of her strength and will, Tamara is determined to find and rescue her. She finds herself in league with Conan because of a mutual need to find Khalar Zym. She is not in the least intimidated by Conan’s size or grim demeanor and their alliance eventually blossoms into something that surprises them both." Stephen Lang plays Khalar Zym, described to be "commanding in size and manner,

6732-504: The previous year, due to the success of Walker, Texas Ranger . Cannon Pictures was sued for $ 14 million in December 1993 by Pictor Insurance Co. and the Peter Miller Corp. for breach of contract over Cannon pulling out of a financing agreement with the two companies. With this additional pressure, Christopher Pearce began exploring selling his stock in Cannon Pictures, but this resulted in another lawsuit being filed against

6831-764: The producers in November 2009 about an unspecified role. This never came to fruition. Principal photography was first hoped to be started in Spring 2008. Nothing was set until Ratner came on board. Filming had a set date for August 24, 2008, in Bulgaria . Ratner departed in May that year, and the start-date for filming was pushed back, with South Africa being revealed as another filming destination. Filming finally began in Bulgaria on March 15, 2010, wrapping on June 15. The Bulgarian shooting locations were Nu Boyana Film Studios , Bolata , Pobiti Kamani , Bistritsa , Zlatnite Mostove , Pernik , and Vitosha . The film had

6930-559: The publicly traded Cannon Pictures into one single entity called the Cannon Entertainment Group. The merger was announced alongside a slate of pictures including Chicago Loop with James Spader , Cold to the Touch with Chuck Norris , Teen Angel from Boaz Davidson, Ivory to be directed by Aaron Norris , Delta Force IV: The Deadly Dozen directed by Brian Hutton and White Sun with Michael Dudikoff , as well as

7029-436: The removal of Paretti, his wife Maria Cecconi, his daughter Valentina Parretti, Yoram Globus , Florio Fiorini, Danny Dimbort, Antonio Pares-Neira and Lewis Horowitz from the board of directors. Parretti was pushed out of management control of MGM-Pathé Communications and the board and countersued Crédit Lyonnais , claiming they destroyed his ability to make money at MGM-Pathé, in an attempt to wrestle control back. Parretti

7128-491: The right to the project in an unrevealed seven-figure deal, with Malmberg and Millennium's Avi Lerner, Boaz Davidson, Joe Gatta, and George Furla set to produce. The deal was brokered by Gatta, who originally made the deal between Paradox and Warner in 2002. Production was aimed for a Spring 2006 start, with intention of having stories more faithful to the Robert E. Howard creation. After the partnership on Rambo , Nu Image, Millennium, and Lionsgate partnered on this film due to

7227-405: The rights after and various groups took interest in producing, including New Line Cinema , Hollywood Gang, and Millennium Films . Due to development-time frustrations felt when the rights were with Warner, Malmberg made deal terms where he was asking for $ 1 million for a one-year option, with another $ 1 million for each year's renewal. In August 2007, it was announced that Millennium had acquired

7326-468: The sale of Cannon Pictures was questioned by the bank because Christopher Pearce was a board member of MGM-Pathé Communications at the time of the sale and the disclosure of interest of Pearce was not stated in documentation. Crédit Lyonnais' legal filings against Parretti also name Danny Dimbort, a member of the board of both companies, for receiving $ 140,000 "for services rendered, although Mr Dimbort did not perform any services to justify payments". Globus

7425-435: The stock characters and cliché -ridden script, Variety magazine also gave a mildly positive review, stating "With all earnestness, Nispel embraces the property's classic roots, placing this new Conan squarely within the tradition of sword-and-sorcery pics." Momoa said making the film was a great experience but that it was "taken over" and that the end result was a disappointment. Director Marcus Nispel said that making

7524-475: The strength of that relationship, and the happiness by Millennium producers with the handling of Rambo . Lionsgate were announced to be handling North America 's distribution in January 2008. At this point, Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer had been courted to write the script. Nu Image/Millennium founders Lerner and Danny Dimbort were set to fully finance the film at an estimated $ 100 million. With

7623-472: The studio was freaked out by it. A lot of the dialogue that we’d come up with to support that, and really give it a deviant, complicated feel, had to be taken out. So I just figured, 'OK, then, I'll just act it and make it as uncomfortable as possible without any dialogue!'" When asked about preparation to play a witch, McGowan stated that her costume had significance in her preparation and that makeup for her character took 6 hours. Dolph Lundgren had spoken to

7722-400: The sword: a hot blade must be cooled and tempered. When Khalar finally corners him and tortures him to death, he shows no regret nor pain, hiding his concern for his son's safety from the eyes of the enemy." Mickey Rourke first entered negotiations. Originally, talks had happened before but after a period of no talk, offers were returned to Rourke in February 2010. Rourke left the project for

7821-482: The two spend the night together. The next day, as she is returning to the boat, Tamara is captured by Zym's men. Conan asks Ela-Shan for help breaking into Zym's castle. Zym uses Tamara's blood to mend the mask, planning to use her body as a vessel for his wife's soul. After confronting a tentacled monster that guards Zym's dungeons, Conan frees Tamara and battles Zym, eventually reclaiming the sword Marique had stolen from his father. He also cuts off Marique's hand and she

7920-625: The verge of failure, Cannon Films was taken over by Pathé Communications , a holding company controlled by Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti . Financed by the French bank Crédit Lyonnais , already involved with Cannon for years, Pathé Communications' takeover of Cannon immediately began a corporate restructuring and refinancing of $ 250 million to pay off Cannon's debt. By 1989, Golan, citing differences with both Parretti and Globus, resigned from his position and left Cannon to start 21st Century Film Corporation , while Globus remained with Pathé. One of

8019-579: The world, was broken into pieces and scattered among the barbarian tribes to prevent unification. After locating Corin's tribe's piece and slaughtering the entire village, Zym leaves Conan the only survivor. Years later, Conan, now an adult, is a pirate and hunts Zym, seeking revenge for his father's death. In the city of Messantia, he meets Ela-Shan, a thief being chased by Lucius, one of Zym's soldiers that Conan recognizes from his village's slaughter. He allows himself to be captured alongside Ela-Shan to confront Lucius. Torturing him, Conan learns that Zym seeks

8118-527: Was a live-action film based on Barbie , with planned plotline concerning the doll showing her owner that her dreams could come true. A live-action movie based on the property wouldn't emerge until 2023. Other areas of interest included plans for television adaptation of Cannon properties., and following up their adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin with a total of 12 fairy tale films as the Cannon Movie Tales series; Cannon wound up releasing only

8217-402: Was a middle-management reshuffle at Cannon Pictures with an aim to maximise revenue from Cannon's releases. The Hitman proved to be an early success for the new team. Cannon later sued Vision International and its chairman Mark Damon for $ 15 million over Chuck Norris' involvement in the film, Sidekicks . Cannon Pictures retained Chuck Norris under an "exclusive services" contract that

8316-469: Was also exploring a sale to Panda Pictures, but this deal collapsed in another lawsuit with Panda claiming $ 20 million in damages from Cannon Pictures after Pearce reportedly lied about the company's financial condition. In 1994, Cannon Pictures released its last film, Hellbound in select theatres in Los Angeles. Shortly afterwards, Christopher Pearce sold controlling interest in Cannon Pictures to VMI Acquisitions Inc. The new owners settled some debts at

8415-488: Was an American group of companies, including Cannon Films , which produced 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. Some of their best known films include Joe (1970), Runaway Train (1985) and Street Smart (1987), all of which were Oscar -nominated. Cannon Films

8514-485: Was bankrupt and had been foreclosed on by Credit Lyonnais. New Cannon, Inc. was formed by Menahem Golan in 2001 and he hired Evgeny Afineevsky to act as the company's president. Afineevsky would be based in Los Angeles, while Golan would be based in Tel Aviv. Crime and Punishment , which was originally shot in 1993 under Golan's 21st Century Film Corporation but was not released before 21st Century's bankruptcy,

8613-475: Was cancelled after the backers couldn't come to an arrangement with Crédit Lyonnais . Cannon continued with development of Walker, Texas Ranger after CBS picked the series up for 13 episodes. Cash flow problems began to have a serious impact on the company. In October 1992, James Spader sued Cannon Pictures over his $ 1 million fee for his Chicago Loop pay-or-play deal; and a suit from Michael Dudikoff followed in December, stating he had not been paid from

8712-819: Was cast in the lead role. Following Golan's departure from Cannon, he became the head of 21st Century Film Corporation , an independent company. The Cannon Group was renamed and restructured by Parretti with Globus being made co-president of Pathé Communications and chairman of Cannon International and Alan Ladd Jr. was brought in as chairman of Pathé Entertainment. In 1989, Pathé greenlit three films, The Russia House with Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer , Quigley Down Under starring Tom Selleck and Fires Within with Jimmy Smits . They also announced Shattered directed by Wolfgang Petersen , Not Without My Daughter with Sally Field , Company Business starring Gene Hackman and Mikhail Baryshnikov as well as Ridley Scott's Thelma & Louise . They signed

8811-509: Was closest to completing development but left the project for Grindhouse . Boaz Yakin was hired in 2006 to start again, however, in June 2007 the rights reverted to Paradox Entertainment , though all drafts made under Warner remained with them. Paradox's CEO Fredrik Malmberg told Variety "we have great respect for Warner Bros., but after seven years, we came to the point where we needed to see progress to production." Paradox were auctioning

8910-541: Was eventually dismissed from the Crédit Lyonnais suits and set up foreign sales company, Melrose Entertainment, which handled much of Cannon Pictures' sales, alongside that of Global Pictures, another company run by Pearce. In the wake of the Crédit Lyonnais foreclosure on MGM-Pathé Communications , Pearce stepped down as president of Global Pictures, being replaced by Avi Lerner. In early 1992, there

9009-407: 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

9108-482: Was inspired by his script treatment. The Cannon Group ignited a worldwide ninja craze with "The Ninja Trilogy", a film series which consisted of Enter the Ninja (1981), Revenge of the Ninja (1983), and Ninja III: The Domination (1984), all starring Sho Kosugi , as well as American Ninja (1985) and its sequel American Ninja 2: The Confrontation (1987). Other action/adventure films they produced included

9207-461: Was later convicted of perjury and evidence tampering in a Delaware court for statements he made in a 1991 civil case, brought by Credit Lyonnais to validate their removal of Parretti, to the effect that a document he claimed allowed him to retain control of MGM was authentic; he fled the country for Italy before he could be sentenced or extradited to France, where he was wanted on criminal charges related to his use of MGM's French assets. In 1997,

9306-527: Was made in the 1980s by Menahem Golan . Cannon Pictures loaned Norris to the makers of Sidekicks for a cameo role under the agreement that he would not appear in more than 30% of the movie and Cannon objected to Norris receiving "above the title billing" for the film. At the Cannes Film Festival in 1992, Pearce and Yoram Globus announced they were merging Globus' privately held Melrose Entertainment, Pearce's privately owned Global Pictures and

9405-400: Was originally written as a male character called Fariq, McGowan impressed the producers with her take of the role, so her character was rewritten to be female. McGowan attempted to inject an Electra complex for the character, noting: “Initially, that obsession with trying to seduce her father was not scripted; it was something that the writer and I talked about quite a bit. But, unsurprisingly,

9504-500: Was prematurely announced to be the director of Conan to The Hollywood Reporter by Lerner, something which displeased him as he pointed out "I am not doing Conan now. This is totally premature. For now, Conan is only a development deal. I have a deal at Paramount and I'm doing Beverly Hills Cop IV first, no matter what. Avi shouldn't be telling you or anyone else in the press what I'm doing." However, Gatta revealed in May 2009 that after six months of discussions on developing

9603-415: Was sold in August 2014. The company's library and distribution assets had been sold to a consortium consisting of its current management and Virgo Investment Group. The new owners renamed the company Alchemy in January 2015, finally cutting ties to its former sister company Millennium Films, which remained under the control of Avi Lerner . Alchemy filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy on June 30, 2016. In 2017,

9702-969: Was taken over by Vision Films later that year and Afineevsky went on to form New Generation Films to produce Oy Vey! My Son Is Gay!! from a script by Golan. He went on to make documentaries, Cries from Syria and Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom , which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and the Primetime Emmy Award in the Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking category. Golan continued to produce and direct films after New Cannon, including Children of Wax with Armand Assante and Udo Kier , A Dangerous Dance and Marriage Agreement . In 2013, Golan announced sequels to several films he had produced The Cannon Group, Inc. in partnership with MGM including Allan Quatermain and

9801-618: Was their first offering alongside a slate of new films including Death Game , a remake of Fritz Lang's M , Kumite (later made as Final Combat but never released) and Open Heart (released in 2002 as Return from India ). By the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, New Cannon had completed Death Game and Return from India and announced a new project, Beauty and the Beast to be directed by Pharaoh Phillips alongside sales for previously released films Train to Hell and In Search of A Woman , an unreleased title from PM Entertainment . The company

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