Golan-Globus produced a distinct line of low-budget action films from 1979 to 1989.
Golan-Globus was named for Israeli producer Menahem Golan and his cousin Yoram Globus (b. 1929 and 1941 respectively in Israel). The duo initially produced Israeli films, then came to the United States in 1979. They bought controlling interest in Cannon Films and forged a business model of buying bottom-barrel scripts and putting them into production. This tapped into a ravenous market for action films.
By 1986, when company earnings reached their apex with 43 films in one year, Cannon shares had soared hundredfold. However during the late 1980s the market had cooled and Cannon Films was severely stretched, having purchased Thorn-EMI, and faced bankruptcy and SEC investigation. Cannon Films went to new owners in 1989. Golan became the head of 21st Century Film Corporation while Globus went on to preside over MGM/UA, which ironically now owns the rights to most of Cannon's film library.
Film critic Roger Ebert said of Golan-Globus in 1987, "No other production organization in the world today has taken more chances with serious, marginal films."
For all those NYC Cannon followers: The Apple is playing next Friday, June 16th, at the Landmark Sunshine on the Lower East Side, at midnight.
Longtime Cannon supporter Michael Winner, the colorful UK director of the first three Death Wish films as well as the questionable The Wicked Lady with Faye Dunaway, has just published his autobiography, Winner Takes All.
CannonFilms, Inc., 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14949, in which Cannon was sued in federal court by the Jeffrey Brothers, a California pair who claimed that they had intellectual property interests in many concepts related to arm wrestling, including the "over the top" technique that formed the basis of the film of the same name.
However during the late 1980s the market had cooled and CannonFilms was severely stretched, having purchased Thorn-EMI, and faced bankruptcy and a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.
CannonFilms also made a movie based on the famous Mattel toy-line Masters of the Universe, starring Dolph Lundgren as He-man.
Cannon was reportedly unsatisfied with Carl Macek's first version of the movie which was almost a straight adaptation of the anime Megazone 23.
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