It came out of the company, Associated Artists Productions (AAP), run by Stark and Eliot Hyman, which would buy old movies and resell them to television.

Stark and Hyman wanted to move into production but AAP's main stockholder, Louis Chesler, did not, leading to the formation of Seven Arts.

Future Seven Arts films in development at this stage included The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone, The Sergeant, The Powder Keg, The Watch that Ends the Night with Tyrone Guthrie and The Long Walk with Laurence Harvey.

It was agreed that three properties originally owned by Seven Arts would instead be produced by the Mirsch Corporation – West Side Story, By Love Possessed and Two for the Seesaw.

This announced, among other things, formation of the Seven Arts-Bryanston Film company (see below), a $5 million investment in real estate in the Bahamas, and an acquisition of the Famous Artists Agency.

[11] In July 1962, Seven Arts announced it would make twenty films for MGM over the next few years which it called "the largest single pact ever negotiated with a major distributor by an independent producing company."

[9] The MGM deal included Lolita, The Main Attraction, Tamahine, The Night of the Iguana, A Global Affair, Sunday in New York, Of Human Bondage, The Careful Man directed by Joshua Logan, A Candle for St Jude by Rumer Godden, This Property is Condemned, Film of Memory (from a French play), The Wild Affair, Meet Me in Monte Carlo (a musical with Alain Delon and Nancy Kwan), Not That Kind of Girl, and The New Adventures of Robin Crusoe.

Furthermore, Seven Arts announced they would invest in the following movies: The Anatolian Smile from Elia Kazan, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne from John Huston, an untitled Vittorio de Sica movie, Robert Rossen's The Hostage from the play by Brendan Behan, Dr Strangelove, Richard Brooks' The Streetwalker, Sammy Going South, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and adaptations of Reflections in a Golden Eye and Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad.

Some of its actors under contract included Nancy Kwan, Sue Lyon, Keir Dullea, Victor Buono, Alain Delon and Sandy Dennis.

It was also developing No Strings, Reflections in a Golden Eye, Settled Out of Court, A Candle for St Jude, This Property is Condemned and Conspiracy of Silence.

A Bryanston film that Seven Arts released in the US, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, was also a box office disappointment.

Seven Arts and Bryanston discussed making Tom Jones together but decided not to due to the rising cost; this movie was picked up by United Artists and became a critical and box-office phenomenon.

[19] In his last year as head of production, Stark said he "hated ten" of the eleven films he made, the exception being Arrividerci Baby.