Industry | Film production Film Distribution Post Production |
---|---|
Founded | 1977 |
Founder | Jake Eberts |
Headquarters | United Kingdom |
Website | goldcrestfilms |
Goldcrest Films is an independent British distribution, production, post production, and finance company. Operating from London and New York, Goldcrest is a privately owned integrated filmed entertainment company.
Goldcrest Films oversees the production, distribution and marketing of films produced by Goldcrest and third-party acquisition in addition to monetising Goldcrest's library of over 100 titles. Goldcrest Films recent slate includes Slumber, Come and Find Me , [1] Stonewall (directed by Roland Emmerich), [2] BBC's EARTH: One Amazing Day (directed by Peter Webber), [3] and Joe Dante's Labirintus. [4]
Goldcrest was founded as Goldcrest Films International by Jake Eberts in January 1977 as a feature film enterprise. [5] [6] As of 1981, the UK National Coal Board Pension Fund was a major stakeholder in this company. [6]
It enjoyed success in the 1980s and the 1990s with films such as Chariots of Fire (1981), Gandhi (1982), Local Hero (1983), The Killing Fields (1984), Hope and Glory (1987), All Dogs Go To Heaven (1989), A Room With a View (1985), the cult television series Robin of Sherwood (1984–86) and the live-action/animated musical comedy film Rock-a-Doodle (1991). The company also benefited from the new investment of Channel 4 in film production. The company won two Academy Awards for Best Picture, for Chariots of Fire in 1981, [7] [8] and Gandhi in 1982. [9] [10]
After these initial successes the company backed more expensive productions with established Hollywood stars that often ran over schedule and budget culminating in Revolution (1985), The Mission (1986) and Absolute Beginners (1986) that all disappointed at the box office, despite The Mission winning the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. [11]
On June 11, 1985, Goldcrest Films had set up a deal with Japanese financer Nippon Herald to finance pictures for up to $2 million. [12] The company ran into financial difficulties, and eventually seeking bids from UK firms in 1987, which included George Walker, and Hemdale, who had a successful film reputation, were offering bids from the studio, but they turned down each time. [13] After attempted takers, Masterman, which was jointly owned by Brent Walker and Ensign Trust would be shown as a possible buyer for the Goldcrest holdings, of which they outbid various offers from other companies, which included a joint bid of Granada Television, the ITV franchisee, and home video and feature film distributor Virgin Vision, which has been touted among other firms. [14]
Pearson Longman established Goldcrest Films and Television in 1981, led by the founder of Goldcrest Films, John Eberts, and chaired by James Lee, chief executive of Pearson Longman. [6] At inception, the new concern owned 40% of Goldcrest Films. [6]
Goldcrest Post Production opened in Soho, London in 1982 and in West Village, New York in 2000. Recent expansion and investment has culminated in the opening of central London's largest purpose built Dolby ATMOS Premier sound mixing theatre at Goldcrest's Dean Street, Soho premises. Offering full picture and sound post production services to both the Film and Television industry, Goldcrest Post Production credits include Jason Bourne, Carol, American Honey, Morgan, The Danish Girl.
Goldcrest Films' financing arms, Goldcrest Pictures and Goldcrest Capital Partners, structure transactions in the media sector. From 2006 to 2008 — the first two years of operation — the companies provided services on 18 films, including Twilight , Tropic Thunder , Knowing , Eagle Eye , Revolutionary Road and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging . Goldcrest Capital also raises funds and provides services on UK independent feature films. The first two films of this new initiative were Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights - produced by Douglas Rae and Robert Bernstein of Ecosse Films and Kevin Loader and co-financed with the UK Film Council, Film4 and Screen Yorkshire - and Phyllida Lloyd’s biopic of Margaret Thatcher, The Iron Lady . This starred Meryl Streep and was produced by Damian Jones for Pathé, Film4 and the UK Film Council with the participation of Canal+ and Cine Cinema.
Film | Year | Budget | Worldwide gross |
---|---|---|---|
Chariots of Fire | 1981 | $5.5 million | $59 million |
Escape from New York | 1981 | $6 million | $50 million |
Gandhi | 1982 | $22 million | $52.8 million (US only) |
An Unsuitable Job for a Woman | 1982 | N/A | N/A |
The Plague Dogs | 1983 | N/A | N/A |
Secrets | 1983 | N/A | N/A |
Local Hero | 1983 | N/A | $5.9 million |
The Ploughman's Lunch | 1983 | N/A | N/A |
Runners | 1983 | N/A | N/A |
The Dresser | 1983 | N/A | $5.3 million |
Another Country | 1984 | N/A | N/A |
Cal | 1984 | N/A | N/A |
The Killing Fields | 1984 | $14.4 million | $34.7 million |
Nemo | 1984 | N/A | N/A |
Dance with a Stranger | 1985 | N/A | $2.3 million |
Smooth Talk | 1985 | N/A | $16,785 |
Revolution | 1985 | $28 million | $346,761 |
Mr. Love | 1985 | £486,000 | $4,264 |
The Frog Prince | 1986 | $1.5 million | N/A |
Winter Flight | 1986 | N/A | $2,729 |
Absolute Beginners | 1986 | £8.4 million | $1 million |
The Mission | 1986 | $24.5 million | $17.2 million |
Knights & Emeralds | 1986 | £1.1 million | N/A |
White Mischief | 1987 | $5.3 million | $3.1 million |
Matewan | 1987 | $4 million | $1.7 million |
Hope and Glory | 1987 | $3 million | $10 million |
Black Rainbow | 1989 | $7 million | N/A |
All Dogs Go to Heaven | 1989 | $13.8 million | $27.1 million |
Rock-a-Doodle | 1991 | $18 million | $11.7 million |
Space Truckers | 1996 | $25 million | $1,614,266 |
Driftwood | 1997 | N/A | N/A |
Clockwatchers | 1997 | N/A | $537,948 |
Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis | 1997 | N/A | £46,244 |
Elvis and Anabelle | 2007 | N/A | N/A |
Cass | 2008 | N/A | N/A |
The Iron Lady | 2011 | $13 million | $114.9 million |
Title | Year | Series |
---|---|---|
Forever Young | 1983 | First Love |
P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang | 1984 | First Love |
Those Glory Glory Days | 1984 | First Love |
Tottie: The Story of a Doll's House | 1984 | |
Concealed Enemies | 1984 | |
Robin of Sherwood | 1984–86 | |
Sharma and Beyond | 1986 | First Love |
Arthur's Hallowed Ground | 1986 | First Love |
Chariots of Fire is a 1981 British historical sports drama film directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Colin Welland and produced by David Puttnam. It is based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice. Ben Cross and Ian Charleson star as Abrahams and Liddell, alongside Nigel Havers, Ian Holm, John Gielgud, Lindsay Anderson, Cheryl Campbell, Alice Krige, Brad Davis and Dennis Christopher in supporting roles. Kenneth Branagh makes his debut in a minor role.
The United Kingdom has had a significant film industry for over a century. While film production reached an all-time high in 1936, the "golden age" of British cinema is usually thought to have occurred in the 1940s, during which the directors David Lean, Michael Powell, and Carol Reed produced their most critically acclaimed works. Many British actors have accrued critical success and worldwide recognition, such as Audrey Hepburn, Olivia de Havilland, Vivien Leigh, Glynis Johns, Maggie Smith, Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Ian Mckellen, Joan Collins, Judi Dench, Julie Andrews, Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman, Emma Thompson, Anthony Hopkins and Kate Winslet. Some of the films with the largest ever box office returns have been made in the United Kingdom, including the fourth and fifth highest-grossing film franchises.
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) since the awards debuted in 1929. This award goes to the producers of the film and is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible to submit a nomination and vote on the final ballot. The Best Picture category is traditionally the final award of the night and is widely considered as the most prestigious honor of the ceremony.
Orion Releasing, LLC is an American film production and distribution company co-owned by Amazon through Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, the company produced and released films from 1978 until 1999 and was also involved in television production and syndication throughout the 1980s until the early 1990s. It was formed in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Bros. and three former senior executives at United Artists. From its founding until its buyout by MGM in the late 1990s, Orion was considered one of the largest mini-major studios.
Gandhi is a 1982 epic biographical film based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi, a major leader in the Indian independence movement against the British Empire during the 20th century. A co-production between India and the United Kingdom, the historical drama was directed and produced by Richard Attenborough from a screenplay written by John Briley. It stars Ben Kingsley in the title role. The biographical film covers Gandhi's life from a defining moment in 1893, as he is thrown off a South African train for being in a whites-only compartment and concludes with his assassination and funeral in 1948. Although a practising Hindu, Gandhi's embracing of other faiths, particularly Christianity and Islam, is also depicted.
David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, HonFRSA, HonFRPS, MRIA is a British-Irish film producer, educator, environmentalist and former member of the House of Lords. His productions include Chariots of Fire, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, The Mission, The Killing Fields, Local Hero, Midnight Express and Memphis Belle. In 1982, he received the BAFTA for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema, and in 2006 he was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Sir John Boorman is a British filmmaker. He is best known for directing feature films such as Point Blank (1967), Hell in the Pacific (1968), Deliverance (1972), Zardoz (1974), Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), Excalibur (1981), The Emerald Forest (1985), Hope and Glory (1987), The General (1998), The Tailor of Panama (2001) and Queen and Country (2014).
Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The company has been responsible for backing many films made in the United Kingdom. The company's first production was Walter, directed by Stephen Frears, which was released in 1982. It is especially known for its gritty, kitchen sink-style films and period dramas.
Barbara Dana Broccoli is a British-American film and stage producer, best known internationally for her work on the James Bond film series. With her half-brother Michael G. Wilson, Broccoli controls the James Bond film franchise.
Ian Charleson was a Scottish stage and film actor. He is best known internationally for his starring role as Olympic athlete and missionary Eric Liddell in the Oscar-winning 1981 film Chariots of Fire. He is also well known for his portrayal of Rev. Charlie Andrews in the 1982 Oscar-winning film Gandhi.
Revolution is a 1985 British historical drama film directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Robert Dillon, and starring Al Pacino, Donald Sutherland, and Nastassja Kinski. The film stars Pacino as a fur trapper in the Province of New York who involuntarily gets enrolled in the Revolutionary forces during the American Revolutionary War.
Hugh Hudson was an English film director. He was among a generation of British directors who would begin their career making documentaries and television commercials before going on to have success in films.
Jake Eberts, OC was a Canadian film producer, executive and financier. He was known for risk-taking and producing a consistently high caliber of movies including such Academy Award-winning titles as Chariots of Fire, Gandhi (1982), Dances with Wolves (1990), and the successful animated feature Chicken Run (2000).
The 54th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored films released in 1981 and took place on March 29, 1982, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards in 22 categories. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Howard W. Koch and directed by Marty Pasetta. Comedian and talk show host Johnny Carson hosted the show for the fourth consecutive time. One week earlier, in a ceremony held at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, on March 21, the Academy Scientific and Technical Awards were presented by hosts Lloyd Bridges and Fay Kanin.
The Ladd Company was an American film production company founded by Alan Ladd Jr., Jay Kanter, and Gareth Wigan in 1979.
Screen International is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company.
Brent Walker was a British company involved in property, gambling, distilled beverages and pubs. It was founded by George Walker, the brother of the boxer Billy Walker.
Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group unit, and is based at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California. Animated films produced by Warner Bros. Pictures Animation are also released under the studio banner.
Rupert Frazer is a British actor.
Sue Bruce-Smith was a British film producer. Variety described her as an "industry titan". She spent most of her career with Film4, and was serving as its deputy director at the time of her death. She specialised in financial and marketing strategy for distribution.