Hemdale Film Corporation

Hemdale Film Corporation
Industry Film
Fate Defunct
Founded 1967 (as The Hemdale Company)
Founders David Hemmings
John Daly
Defunct 1995
Headquarters London, England, United Kingdom
Los Angeles, California, United States[1]
Key people
 John Daly
Derek Gibson

Hemdale Film Corporation, known as Hemdale Communications after 1993, was an independent British-American film production company and distributor founded in London in 1967 as the Hemdale Company. The company was founded by actor David Hemmings and John Daly, naming the company from a combination of their surnames.[2] Hemmings left the company in 1971, and Daly purchased his stock.[3] The company produced numerous acclaimed films, often in conjunction with companies such as TriStar and Orion Pictures, including Platoon (1986) and The Last Emperor (1987), back-to-back winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture.

History

Hemdale began as an investment company to cut the high personal taxes on British actors.[3] Eventually, the company went public as Hemdale Ltd. and began diversifying. Hemdale partnered with Patrick Meehan of Worldwide Artists, who once managed the band Black Sabbath,[4] invested in feature films, financed stage productions such as Grease, and became involved in boxing promotions such as The Rumble in the Jungle match between George Foreman and Muhammed Ali.[3] Hemdale also distributed cable TV to hotels, which, in 1974, was its major source of revenue.[3] After producing and distributing British films throughout the 1970s, Hemdale relocated to Hollywood in 1980 and focused extensively on movie-making.[3][5] A distribution agreement was made with Orion Pictures. John Daly was Hemdale's chairman and president. In 1981 Derek Gibson joined the company as executive vice president and head of production. Daly and Gibson were then credited together as executive producers on all Hemdale films.[6]

Among Hemdale's best known films are The Terminator, The Return of the Living Dead, Hoosiers, Salvador, River's Edge, Platoon, and The Last Emperor; the latter two were back-to-back recipients of the Academy Award for Best Picture. Hemdale produced and or financed over 80 films during this period. The company suffered a credit line withdrawal from its French bank Crédit Lyonnais due to a number of Government bank inquiries. The bank's difficulties forced it to withdraw Hemdale's line of credit, causing the company to file for bankruptcy protection.[7]

In 1991, Hemdale sold its valuable assets to another company that Daly and Gibson ran at cut-rate prices, which became Hemdale Communications.[8] Erik Parkinson joined the new company as president of Hemdale Pictures Corporation and Hemdale Home Video.[9] That same year, the new Hemdale created a collection of many video cassette titles released by Hemdale Home Video around the United States of America. Its first title was the Home Video reissue of the original Terminator in 1991,[10] via a distribution deal it signed with the old Hemdale company, then renamed NSB Film Corporation, to release some films from the latter's 150-title library.[8][11] In 1993, Hemdale Pictures was rechristened as Hemdale Communications.[8] In 1995, the video rights to some of Hemdale's higher-profile titles were licensed to LIVE Entertainment (now Lionsgate).

In 1992, NSB sued Daly and Gibson for selling the Hemdale remnants to Parkinson's company,[8] and Crédit Lyonnais Bank Nederland for breach of contract, racketeering, fraud, equitable subordination and contributing to its bankruptcy.[12][13] The next year, Crédit Lyonnais filed another lawsuit against NSB, resulting in the bank foreclosing on both NSB and its Hemdale library and forcing NSB to severe ties with Hemdale Home Video to release some of its titles.[11] In 1994, NSB and Crédit Lyonnais settled their year-old ligation.[13]

In March 1995, Daly and Gibson left the company, to be succeeded in their positions by Eric Parkinson.[14][15] That November, the company was reorganized; Parkinson was relegated to running only the video division, and former studio tax attorney Ray Bennett became chairman of Hemdale, while Larry Glauber became CEO. On November 9, 1995, Hemdale filed for involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy.[16][17]

Aftermath

After the studio closed, the Hemdale library was then incorporated into Consortium de Réalisation, a French holding company set up by Crédit Lyonnais to handle the rights to titles acquired by Credit Lyonnais Bank. In 1999, the library was incorporated into the Orion Pictures output now owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer via PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, after MGM acquired the Consortium de Réalisation library from PolyGram (ironically, Orion was the theatrical distributor for a number of Hemdale's films). One significant exception is The Last Emperor, a Hemdale production whose rights are now held by its producer, Jeremy Thomas. Hemdale licensed each of the US media rights to different companies; for example, Columbia Pictures handled US Theatrical only. Most of the foreign productions Hemdale distributed have subsequently returned to their original owners (such as Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, which producer Tokyo Movie Shinsha now controls worldwide).

The company's last new credit was the Virgin Games video game adaptation The Terminator, which showed up on the game's start up screen as Hemdale's The Terminator.

Films

Release Date Title Notes
December 18, 1972Imagesdistributed by Columbia Pictures
April 24, 1981Cattle Annie and Little Britchesdistributed by Universal Pictures
September 25, 1981Carbon Copydistributed by Avco Embassy Pictures
October 16, 1981Strange Behaviordistributed by World Northal
June 24, 1983Yellowbearddistributed by Orion Pictures
October 1983Escape from the Bronx
April 1984Treasure of the Yankee Zephyr
June 1984A Breed Apartdistributed by Orion Pictures
September 28, 1984Irreconcilable Differencesco-production with Warner Bros.
October 26, 1984The Terminatordistributed by Orion Pictures
November 16, 1984Special Effectsdistributed by New Line Cinema
November 1984Perfect Strangers
January 25, 1985The Falcon and the Snowmandistributed by Orion Pictures
August 16, 1985The Return of the Living Deaddistributed by Orion Pictures
January 1986Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf
February 9, 1986A Killing Affair
April 18, 1986At Close Rangedistributed by Orion Pictures
April 23, 1986Salvador
November 1, 1986Inside Out
November 14, 1986Hoosiersdistributed by Orion Pictures
November 21, 1986Body Slamdistributed by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group
November 21, 1986Defense of the Realm
December 19, 1986Platoondistributed by Orion Pictures
May 8, 1987River's Edgedistributed by Island Pictures
May 15, 1987Made in U.S.A.distributed by TriStar Pictures
May 1987My Little Girl
June 12, 1987Burke & Wills
July 10, 1987The Whistle Blower
July 30, 1987High Tidedistributed by TriStar Pictures
August 1, 1987Love at Stakedistributed by TriStar Pictures
September 18, 1987Hotel Colonialdistributed by Orion Pictures
September 25, 1987Best Sellerdistributed by Orion Pictures
November 1987Slate, Wyn & Me
1988Scenes from the Goldmine
February 5, 1988The Supergrass
March 25, 1988High Season
April 15, 1988The Last Emperordistributed by Columbia Pictures
May 25, 1988The Tale of Ruby Rose
September 15, 1988War Party
November 23, 1988Buster
December 23, 1988The Boost
January 13, 1989Ha-Holmim
January 21, 1989Cheap Shots
January 27, 1989Cohen and Tate
March 3, 1989Out Cold
April 28, 1989Criminal Law
May 19, 1989Miracle Mile
June 2, 1989Vampire's Kiss
July 21, 1989Shag
August 18, 1989Blood Red
September 22, 1989The Time Guardian
October 6, 1989The Everlasting Secret Family
November 10, 1989Staying Together
January 5, 1990Love or Money
January 26, 1990Incident at Raven's Gate
April 20, 1990Chattahoochee
May 6, 1990The Belly of an Architect
??, 1990Wishful Thinking
September 21, 1990Don't Tell Her It's Me
November 2, 1990Vincent & Theo
November 21, 1990Hidden Agenda
April 12, 1991Impromptu
April 19, 1991Kill Line
June 14, 1991Bright Angel
September 27, 1991Prime Targetdistribution
November 1991Thousand Pieces of Golddistribution
February 28, 1992Complex Worlddistribution
March 13, 1992Highway to Helldistribution
May 29, 1992Cold Heavendistribution
June 15, 1992Beautiful Dreamersdistribution
??, 1992Round Numbersdistribution
August 7, 1992Bed & Breakfastdistribution
August 21, 1992Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberlanddistribution
August 26, 1992Knock Outsdistribution
September 1, 1992The Legend of Wolf Mountaindistribution
October 14, 1992Murder Bluesdistribution
??, 1992Merlin - The True Story of Magicdistribution
March 5, 1993Love Your Mamadistribution
April 25, 1993The Magic Voyagedistribution
??, 1993Breakfast of Aliensdistribution
September 10, 1993The Seventh Coindistribution
September 15, 1993Laser Moondistribution
October 6, 1993In a Moment of Passiondistribution
January 5, 1994Quest of the Delta Knightsdistribution
January 19, 1994Future Shockdistribution
??, 1994The Polar Bear Kingdistribution
May 4, 1994Confessions of a Hitmandistribution
June 3, 1994The Princess and the Goblindistribution
September 13, 1994Savage Landdistribution
October 19, 1994The Story of Christmasdistribution
January 3, 1995The Littlest Vikingdistribution
March 28, 1995Across the Moondistribution
May 20, 1995Mosquitodistribution
October 24, 1996One More Shotco-distribution with Tapeworm Video Distributors
October 31, 1997Grizzly Mountainco-distribution with Legacy Releasing and LIVE Entertainment

References

  1. ↑ "Release date not set for movie shot in S.C." Associated Press (November 6, 1988). Retrieved on April 1, 2011.
  2. ↑ "High-risk Movie Mogul". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Lambie, Ryan (7 April 2015). "The Rise and Fall of Hemdale". Den of Geek.
  4. ↑ John Daly biography - Yahoo Movies Archived February 24, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ Thomas, Bob. "Independent filmmakers may produce over half of releases." Associated Press (October 23, 1986). Retrieved on April 1, 2011.
  6. ↑ "High-risk Movie Mogul". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  7. ↑ "Hemdale Communications Inc. files a voluntary petition for bankruptcy…". archive.is. 2012-07-11. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Staff, Variety (1994-03-02). "Former Hemdale exex target of NSB lawsuit". Variety. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  9. ↑ Brennan, Judy (1992-10-27). "Creditors file request to put NSB Corp. into default". Variety. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  10. ↑ Staff, Variety (1991-05-06). "Hemdale Sets Up Homevid Division". Variety. Retrieved 2018-01-22.
  11. 1 2 Ayscough, Suzan (1993-05-12). "CL, guilds pact against Hemdale". Variety. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  12. ↑ Brennan, Judy (1993-03-26). "Hemdale haunts Lyonnais". Variety. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  13. 1 2 Cox, Dan (1994-04-04). "Former Hemdale unit settles Guild/Bank suit". Variety. Retrieved 2018-08-27.
  14. ↑ Allbusiness.com Hemdale Communications Inc. announces resignation of chairman John Daly and president Derek Gibson; March 6, 1995 Archived January 22, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  15. ↑ Staff, Variety (1995-03-13). "Shakeup At Hemdale". Variety. Retrieved 2018-01-22.
  16. ↑ Nielsen Business Media (1995-11-25). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc.
  17. ↑ "TCR_Public/951109.MBX". www.bankrupt.com. Retrieved 2018-01-23.
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