"[14][15] He claimed EMI would make 14 films in 18 months with such stars as Peter Sellers and Roger Moore at a cost of £5–10 million in total.
[16] His aim was to keep budgets down and create a varied slate which would increase the chances of appealing to audiences and making a sufficient return to continue productions.
Forbes clashed with Bernard Delfont and their American backers, in this case Columbia, over the artistic and commercial value of director Joseph Losey's film The Go-Between (1970).
Forbes felt as though he did not have the support of the EMI board, arguing that he never had the funds to market his films, in contrast with those available to Anglo-EMI, which was headed by Nat Cohen.
However urgent the pressure, the new Elstree should not have kicked off with duds like The Man Who Haunted Himself (Roger Moore) or Hoffman (Peter Sellers).
Most horribly significant was the grudging, purblind treatment of Bryan’s own excellent The Raging Moon, which made only too clear the intransigent mediocrity of the people in key positions.
This company, headed by Mike Havas would handle domestic distribution of MGM and EMI-produced films in the United Kingdom.
In July 1970 MGM-EMI announced they would make four co-productions: The Go-Between, Get Carter, The Boyfriend and The Last Run directed by John Boorman.
In particular, long-term duopoly rival Rank had by now greatly reduced its own investment in British film production to a token presence.
[42] Meanwhile, dependent on support from the most profitable parts of EMI, the company's financial position meant that they had to avoid backing any risky productions.
EMI backed out of funding Life of Brian (1979) at the last moment, after Bernard Delfont read the script and objected to its treatment of religion.
In April 1978, EMI announced they would make films with the newly formed Orion Pictures, including Arabian Adventure (1979) and other projects.
Spikings announced a slate of films under his auspices: The Jazz Singer with Neil Diamond, The Elephant Man (both 1980), Honky Tonk Freeway (1981) Franco Zeffirelli's biopic of Maria Callas, Discoland, The Awakening, and The Knight directed by Ridley Scott.
In March 1980, EMI were only making one film in Britain The Mirror Crack'd, which was released at the end of the year, but was a box-office failure.
Lord Delfont announced that the company had purchased two British scripts, The Defense by John Mortimer and Off the Record by Frederick Forsyth.
In March 1981, Spikings admitted AFD has not "gotten off to a flying start" and would be wound up, with Universal taking over distribution of EMI Films.
[69] In December 1984, Thorn EMI offered investors the chance to invest in several films by issuing £36 million worth of shares.
The films were A Passage to India (1984), Morons from Outer Space, Dreamchild, Wild Geese II and The Holcroft Covenant[70] (all 1985).
[75] On August 6, 1985, Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment agreed deals with various production outfits such as John Bradbourne and Richard Goodwin, Jeremy Thomas, Euan Lloyd and Chris Chrisafis, Verity Lambert and Simon Perry in order to gave the independent outfits "complete freedom" to develop motion pictures.
"[79] In November 1985, Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment was placed up for sale with interested buyers including Rank, Cannon, Robert Maxwell, Heron Communications, and a management buyout led by Gary Dartnall.
[2] In February 1987, WEG received $461 million in financing from Columbia Pictures, Cineplex Odeon and others in the form of securities, bank loans and advances.
[87] With Stigwood's partnership, WEG was to finance a film version of Evita with Oliver Stone as writer/director and Meryl Streep as Eva Perón.
[90] In January 1988, Barney Rosenzweig was hired as chairman of the television unit, corporate vice president and a member of the executive committee.
Later that month, Jerry Weintraub left the company and forged a deal with Warner Bros., while Columbia still remained indebted to releasing WEG films.
[94] Film Asset Holding Co., a company formed by WEG's two primary bank creditors, sued Weintraub over his structuring of a sale of the Peter Pan story to Sony Pictures Entertainment in the fall of 1990.
[96] After the company shut down its assets were reorganized into the WEG Acquisition Corp, and are currently held by Sony, while the television rights are controlled by Paramount Pictures.
During the 1960s, decolonization and competition with jet-powered air travel weakened the group's results and it ended up selling its maritime assets to the Chargers Gatten in 1964.
Having become specialised in the maintenance and resale of business aircraft, Fraissinet-Transair becomes the Financière Robur in tribute to the hero of Jules Verne, Robur-le-Conquérant.
The continued consolidation in January 1996 with the acquisition of the group Lumière de Jean Cazès, the second French catalogue of film and audiovisual rights, having itself acquired the British catalogue Weintraub (formerly Thorn EMI) in 1991, while Lumiere Pictures and Television formed earlier in 1992 as a merger between two French companies: Jean Cazes' Initial Groupe (est.
[citation needed] In the 1990s to early 2000s, Warner Home Video formerly handled the distribution of StudioCanal titles through the Canal+ Image label in the United Kingdom on VHS and DVD.