Industry | Entertainment |
---|---|
Founded | 1968 |
Defunct | 1985 |
Fate | Bankruptcy |
Headquarters | Atlanta, Georgia |
Key people | Edward L. Montoro |
Products | Motion pictures |
Film Ventures International (FVI) was an independent film production and distribution company originally located in Atlanta, Georgia, during the 1970s. FVI garnered a notorious reputation within the industry for producing films that were highly derivative of many blockbusters of the era. The company mainly specialized in producing and distributing B movies and horror fare. [1]
The entrepreneur who spearheaded the company was Edward L. Montoro. He wrote, directed, and produced the company's first feature film Getting Into Heaven in 1968. The adult film was made for $13,000 and grossed almost 20 times its cost. [2]
FVI was known for acquiring Italian genre films and distributing them within the United States. These films included the 1968 spaghetti Western Boot Hill , a sequel to the famous Trinity films, and the 1974 horror thriller Beyond the Door starring Juliet Mills.
FVI acquired Beyond the Door for $100,000 and the film went on to earn $9 million at the box office, making it one of the most successful independent releases of that year. Detailing a woman possessed by a demon, Beyond the Door was labeled a rip-off of The Exorcist . Warner Bros. promptly filed a lawsuit, claiming copyright infringement. The lawsuit failed after it was determined Warner Bros. had no rights to key horror scenes depicted in The Exorcist.
FVI produced and distributed Grizzly in 1976, one of the first of the Jaws imitations. [3] Montoro financed the film for $750,000 and it was directed by William Girdler. Grizzly was a surprise hit, earning more than $39 million and becoming the most financially successful independent film of 1976. Montoro decided to keep the profits for himself, resulting in a lawsuit against FVI by Girdler and producer/screenwriters Harvey Flaxman and David Sheldon. FVI eventually returned the profits to the filmmakers. [4] Montoro's FVI worked with Girdler on the animal horror thriller Day of the Animals the following year, though this collaboration did not achieve the success of Grizzly.
Montoro eventually moved FVI's headquarters to Hollywood and began churning out multiple genre films over the next seven years, including Search and Destroy (1979) starring Don Stroud, The Dark (1979) starring William Devane, The Visitor (1979) starring Glenn Ford, H. G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come (1979) starring Jack Palance, Kill or Be Killed (1980), Kill and Kill Again (1981), the sequel to Kill or Be Killed, The Incubus (1981) starring John Cassavetes, Texas Lightning (1981) starring Cameron Mitchell, Pieces (1982) starring Christopher George, They Call Me Bruce? (1982), The Pod People (1983), Vigilante (1983) starring Robert Forster, The House on Sorority Row (1983), Mortuary (1983) starring Bill Paxton, The Power (1984), Alley Cat (1984), and Mutant (1984) starring Bo Hopkins. [1] [5] [6]
In 1980, FVI acquired the rights to the Italian film Great White , a thinly veiled Jaws rip-off starring James Franciscus and Vic Morrow. Montoro and FVI spent over $4 million in advertising in the U.S., but Universal Pictures promptly filed a lawsuit, claiming that the film was too derivative of Jaws. Universal won the lawsuit and Great White was pulled from the theaters after just one week of release. The failure of Great White was a major monetary loss for FVI. [1] [7]
By 1984, FVI was on the verge of collapse due to multiple financial issues, including the release failure of Great White, the poor box-office performance of the studio's final film Mutant, and a pending divorce settlement of Montoro's. Surprising many within the industry, Montoro took $1 million from FVI and vanished, never to be seen again. Film Ventures International officially closed its doors in 1985, filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and later being purchased by the INI Entertainment Group. Montoro's whereabouts remain unknown to this day, though it is believed he fled to Mexico. [1]
In 1987, Film Ventures International attempted to return to film production with a co-venture of April Films to set up a film project called The Prank, and received a three-picture co-production deal over the next 12 months and with the acquisition of co-production and distribution of other ventures, after becoming a subsidiary of INI Entertainment Group (at that time it was called Independent Network Inc.). [8] That year, Film Ventures International acquired the rights to two feature films, namely Operation: Take No Prisoners and Phantom Empire, two of the action films that were churned out for a ten-picture acquisition and in-house production blueprint for the next twelve months, slated to go through 1988. [9]
Some of their films, including fan favorites Pod People and Cave Dwellers , were eventually riffed by the cult TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000 . [10] [11] [12]
William Friedkin is an American film and television director, producer and screenwriter closely identified with the "New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in documentaries in the early 1960s, he directed the crime thriller film The French Connection (1971), which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director, and the supernatural horror film The Exorcist (1973), which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director.
William Peter Blatty was an American writer, director and producer. He is best known for his 1971 novel, The Exorcist, and for his 1974 screenplay for the film adaptation of the same name. Blatty won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Exorcist, and was nominated for Best Picture as its producer. The film also earned Blatty a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama as producer.
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The Exorcist is a 1973 American supernatural horror film directed by William Friedkin and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on his 1971 novel of the same name. It stars Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran, Jason Miller and Linda Blair. It follows the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother's attempt to rescue her through an exorcism conducted by a pair of Catholic priests.
Great White is a 1981 Italian horror film directed by Enzo G. Castellari, having originally been assigned to Ruggero Deodato. In the film James Franciscus and Vic Morrow attempt to save hundreds of swimmers in a coastal resort after a large great white shark starts terrorizing the area and eating tourists.
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Grizzly is a 1976 American horror thriller film directed by William Girdler, about a park ranger's attempts to halt the wild rampage of an 18 ft (5.5 m) tall, 2,000 lb (910 kg) Man-eating grizzly bear that terrorizes a National Forest, having developed a taste for human flesh. However, a drunken hunting party complicates matters. It stars Christopher George, Andrew Prine and Richard Jaeckel. Widely considered a Jaws rip-off, Grizzly used many of the same plot devices as its shark predecessor, which had been a huge box office success during the previous year. The giant grizzly bear in the film was portrayed by a Kodiak bear named Teddy, who was 9 ft (2.7 m) tall.
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Beyond the Door is a 1974 supernatural horror film directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis and Roberto Piazzoli, and starring Juliet Mills, Gabriele Lavia, and Richard Johnson. The plot follows a San Francisco housewife who becomes demonically possessed in the midst of a pregnancy. The film was a co-production between the United States and Italy. It was released in the United Kingdom in an extended cut under the title Devil Within Her.
Edward L. Montoro was an American film producer and distributor known for releasing exploitation films and B-movies during the 1970s and 1980s through his company Film Ventures International. Montoro became notorious for producing and promoting films such as Beyond the Door (1974) and Grizzly (1976) which were highly derivative of the 1970s blockbuster hits The Exorcist and Jaws, respectively.
Day of the Animals is a 1977 American natural horror film directed by William Girdler, based on a story by producer Edward L. Montoro. The film reunited Girdler and Montoro with stars Christopher George and Richard Jaeckel from the previous year's Grizzly. It co-stars Lynda Day George and Leslie Nielsen.
Abby is a 1974 American blaxploitation horror film about a woman who is possessed by a Yoruba sex spirit. The film stars Carol Speed as the title character, William H. Marshall and Terry Carter. It was directed by William Girdler, who co-wrote the film's story with screenwriter Gordon Cornell Layne.
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Convoy Buddies is a 1975 Italian-Spanish adventure-comedy film directed by Giuliano Carnimeo and starring Michael Coby and Paul L. Smith.
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Grizzly II: Revenge is a 1983 American action thriller horror film that was not properly released until 2020. It was directed by André Szöts and is a sequel to the 1976 film Grizzly that was directed by William Girdler and David Sheldon. The film is about a giant grizzly named Tawanda, who seeks revenge after her cub was killed by poachers. It stars Steve Inwood, Louise Fletcher, John Rhys-Davies, Deborah Raffin and Deborah Foreman; actors George Clooney, Laura Dern and Charlie Sheen, who were all relatively unknown at the time, all had small roles in the film.