PolyGram Filmed Entertainment

PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
PolyGram Pictures, Inc.
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, Inc.
PolyGram Film Productions, B.V.

Former type	Corporation
Founded	1979
Founder(s)	Philips
Defunct	1999
Headquarters	Universal City, California & London, England
Owner(s)	Philips (1979-1998) Universal Studios (1998-1999)
Divisions	Working Title Films Interscope Communications Propaganda Films Gramercy Pictures PolyGram Television Rogue Pictures

PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (PFE) (aka PolyGram Films and PolyGram Pictures) was a film studio, founded in 1979 as an European competitor to Hollywood, but eventually sold to Universal Pictures in 1998 and folded in 1999.

Among its most successful films were Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Dead Man Walking (1995), Fargo (1996), Trainspotting (1996) and Notting Hill (1999).

History

The Dutch music company PolyGram (owned by Philips) created PFE in 1979 to consolidate its existing film companies. It invested US$200 million with the intention of developing a European film studio that could produce and distribute films internationally on a scale to match the major Hollywood studios.

Following the style of its music business, the company produced films through a number of creatively semi-autonomous 'labels', such as Working Title Films in the UK and Propaganda Films and Interscope Communications in the United States – It also built up its own network of distribution companies.

Film production within PolyGram differed from traditional Hollywood studios, in that power to make ('green light') a film was not centralised in the hands of a small number of executives, but instead was decided by negotiations between producers, management and marketing. PFE President, Michael Kuhn, claimed that "movies sort of green lit themselves."

The company was based in the United Kingdom, and invested heavily in British film making — some credit it with reviving the British film industry in the 1990s. Despite a successful production history, Philips decided to sell PFE to the beverage (liquor) conglomerate Seagram in 1999.

PFE's assets were merged into Seagram's existing film studio, Universal Pictures, after Seagram was dissatisfied with offers to buy the studio (ironically, one of the bidders for PolyGram was Canal+ Group, owned by Vivendi, which would later take over Seagram). Most of its library of films produced up until 1996 is now controlled by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, after Universal sold those films to them. Universal owns the rest of the pre-1996 films, mainly those produced by their former joint venture Gramercy Pictures (such as Dazed and Confused and Mallrats), and the library from 1996 to 1999 including PolyGram Television.

PolyGram Filmed Entertainment took over the distribution of Manga Entertainment's titles in Australia and New Zealand in late 1996 after Siren Entertainment's license to the Manga Video catalogue expired, but PolyGram lost the license to the Manga Video catalogue in 1998 after Madman Entertainment took over the licenses. This was due to Manga Entertainment being moved from Island Records to Palm Pictures.

Production companies

• Working Title Films (UK), acquired by PFE in 1991.
• Propaganda Films (US), acquired in 1991.
• Interscope Communications (US)
• A&M Films (theatrical film division of A&M Records)
• Island Pictures (theatrical film division of Island Records), acquired Dec. 1994.
• Cinéa (France)

Distribution company

In 1992, PolyGram partnered with Universal Pictures to create a joint venture called Gramercy Pictures. Gramercy primarily distributed PolyGram films in the USA. After PolyGram's folding into Universal in 1999, Gramercy merged with October Films to form USA Films, which eventually became Focus Features.

Selected films

Among the films directly produced by PFE were:

• Animal Farm (1954) (re-release on VHS)
• Fritz the Cat (1972) (now distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Arrow Films)
• Heavy Traffic (1973)
• Endless Love (1981) (distributed by Universal Pictures)
• An American Werewolf in London (1981) (distributed by Universal Pictures)
• Missing (1982) (distributed by Universal Pictures)
• Flashdance (1983) (distributed by Paramount Pictures)
• A Chorus Line (1985) (distributed by Columbia Pictures and Embassy Pictures)
• Clue (1985) (distributed by Paramount Pictures)
• Batman (1989, plus sequels in 1992, 1995, and 1997) (distributed by Warner Bros.)
• Backbeat (1994)
• Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (1994) (distributed by Walt Disney Pictures)
• Land and Freedom (1995)
• Jack & Sarah (1995, co-production with Granada Productions and Le Studio Canal +)
• Home for the Holidays (1995) (distributed by Paramount Pictures)
• When We Were Kings (1996)
• Trainspotting (1996) (distributed by Miramax Films in the United States)
• Eddie (1996) (co-production with Island Pictures and distributed by Hollywood Pictures)
• The Relic (1997) (distributed by Paramount Pictures in the US)
• Spice World (1997) (distributed by Columbia Pictures in the Americas)
• What Dreams May Come (1998)
• Hard Rain (1998) (distributed by Paramount Pictures in the US)
• Barney's Great Adventure (1998) (co-production with Lyrick Studios)
• Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) (co-production with Summit Entertainment and distributed by Gramercy Pictures in the US)
• Return to Paradise (1998)
• Arlington Road (1999, US rights owned by Screen Gems)

Working Title Films

• Drop Dead Fred (1991)
• London Kills Me (1991)
• Map of the Human Heart (1992)
• Posse (1993)
• The Young Americans (1993)
• Romeo Is Bleeding (1994)
• The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) (co-production with Warner Bros.)
• Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
• Dead Man Walking (1995)
• French Kiss (1995) (co-production with 20th Century Fox)
• Fargo (1996)
• Bean (1997)
• The Borrowers (1998)
• The Big Lebowski (1998)
• Elizabeth (1998)
• Notting Hill (1999)

Propaganda (Gold Circle Films)

• Wild at Heart (1990)
• Candyman (1992) (co-production with TriStar Pictures)
• Bob Roberts (1992)
• Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993) (co-production with Walt Disney Pictures)
• Kalifornia (1993)
• A Pig's Tale (1995)
• Mad Love (1995) (co-production with Touchstone Pictures)
• Barb Wire (1996)
• Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco (1996) (co-production with Walt Disney Pictures)
• Sleepers (1996) (co-distributed by Warner Bros. in US and Canada and Hollywood Pictures worldwide)
• The Game (1997)
• Being John Malkovich (1999)

Interscope (Saturn Films)

• The Air Up There (1994)
• Terminal Velocity (1994)
• Bad Company (1995, with Touchstone Pictures)
• Jumanji (1995, with TriStar Pictures)
• Operation Dumbo Drop (1995 with Walt Disney Pictures)
• Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)
• Kazaam (1996)
• What Dreams May Come (1998)
• Very Bad Things (1998)

Gramercy Pictures

• Dazed and Confused (1993)
• Double Dragon (1994)
• Canadian Bacon (1995)
• Mallrats (1995)
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996)

Rogue Pictures

• Orgazmo (1997)

See also

• 100 Films and a Funeral, a documentary film about the rise and fall of PFE.

References

• Michael Kuhn, One Hundred Films and a Funeral: The Life and Death of Polygram Films, Thorogood, 2002. ISBN 1-85418-216-1.