Allied Stars
Allied Stars Ltd is a film production company created by Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed in the late 1970s.
Al-Fayed appointed his son, Dodi Fayed as the chief executive.[1] Allied Star's first production was the 1980 musical Breaking Glass, which flopped, costing Al-Fayed £50,000. The next production backed by Allied Stars was the drama Chariots of Fire, in which Al-Fayed invested £3 million and purchased a 25% stake in the film. The film was also financed by Twentieth Century Fox and distributed by Alan Ladd, Jr.'s The Ladd Company.[2] Dodi Fayed was barred from the set of Chariots of Fire by the director, David Putnam, after he distributed cocaine to the cast. Putnam also described Fayed as "one of the laziest human beings I've ever come across...So the idea of him being an executive producer was always going to be hopeless because he had the attention span of the average flea".[3] Putnam's allegations were rejected by Michael Cole, Al-Fayed's spokesperson.[4]
Before the completion of Chariots of Fire, Al-Fayed sold his stake for a share of the profits if the film succeeded.[1] The film was a huge success and earned Allied Stars $6 million.
Keith Allen's 2011 documentary on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Unlawful Killing, was funded by Al-Fayed at a cost of £2.5 million, and produced by Allied Stars.
References
- ^ a b Bower, Tom (1998). Fayed: The Unauthorized Biography. Macmillan. ISBN 9780333745540.
- ^ James Chapman (10 December 2005). Past and Present: National Identity and the British Historical Film. I.B.Tauris. pp. 274–. ISBN 978-1-85043-807-6. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
- ^ "David Puttnam: I threw Dodi Fayed off Chariots of Fire set for trying to give the cast cocaine". Daily Mail. 2012-07-14. Retrieved 2012-07-27.
- ^ "In Defense of Dodi". AlFayed.com. 2012-07-18. Retrieved 2012-07-27.