Founding and early years (1983–1986) The company was founded as a video distribution company in summer 1983 by
Moshe Diamant and Sunil Shah. In 1984, it bought out the video distribution rights to shows handled by various syndicators, including
Viacom Enterprises and
Ziv International for a 200-title agreement. Also that year, it expanded into the world of theatrical film distribution and production, with a lineup of fully-funded films (three films per year), some of which were exhibited at the
Cannes Film Festival; the theatrical film division was headed up by William Dunn. Diamant met with filmmaker
William Malone in 1985 and Malone pitched him a
science-fiction horror film in the vein of
Alien. The resulting film was
Creature. TWE additionally entered into an agreement with Sarlui's Continental Motion Pictures; Continental would handle worldwide distribution on the titles TWE produced (aiming for six to ten pictures per year), and Continental gained access to the TWE library. In 1986,
Media Home Entertainment inked a deal with TWE for Media to distribute TWE's theatrical titles on videocassette. In mid 1986, Eduard Sarlui, brought his company Continental Motion Pictures into TWE. Sarlui became CEO and chairman, while Paul Mason was installed as President of Production; TWE's output increased considerably. This was primarily due to them acquiring the rights to Italian genre titles from filmmakers such as
Joe D'Amato; TWE would retitle and dub them and release them straight to video. Sarlui was the first entertainment client of Slavenburg Bank, before it was acquired by
Crédit Lyonnais and introduced many independent film companies to the bank.
Founding of Epic Productions and acquisition of Empire International Pictures (1986–1989) The company employed a pre-sales model for their product and through the mid-to-late 1980s continued to produce modest direct to video hits such as
Moon in Scorpio starring
Britt Ekland and
Interzone. They also continued to distribute films such as
Killer Klowns from Outer Space. In 1987, they signed a multi-picture deal with Italian producer
Ovidio G. Assonitis. The first of the films to be produced was
The Farm, released as
The Curse, a
science-fiction horror film starring
Wil Wheaton and
Claude Akins, based on
H. P. Lovecraft's short story
The Colour Out of Space. The film earned $1,169,922 from its opening weekend, and finished with a gross of $1,930,001 at the
box office. The film also sold considerably well on home video. In 1986, Diamant and Sarlui created a sister company entitled
Epic Productions; Sarlui would remain chairman and CEO of Trans World Entertainment and Diamant would become CEO and Chairman of Epic. A line of credit of $60 million was arranged with French bank
Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland for Epic to produce films that would be distributed under an exclusive marketing agreement with
RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video. Assonitis' next two films for Trans World Entertainment,
The Bite and
Amok Train, were retitled as
Curse II: The Bite and
Beyond the Door III respectively by RCA/Columbia Pictures to capitalize on the success of
The Curse and Assonitis' 1974 mega-hit
Beyond the Door, despite no connections between the films. On October 22, 1986, TWE announced plans to make multiple high-budget films that would begin production within the next nine months; their sales effort included a package of pictures from Continental Motion Pictures, led by Helen Sarlui, who by now was serving as vice president of TWE's video division, and included the signing of deals with various writers, including
Steven de Souza, who was signed to write three films and given an opportunity to make his directorial debut and serve as overall creative consultant of the studio. On February 18, 1987, while TWE was in the stages of prepping 20 projects for release, the company started its own domestic distribution division, paying out $5 million in royalties to the studio for its own first four feature films; additionally, Dino Constantine Conte had signed a three-picture agreement with the studio in order to serve as producer of TWE's film productions, beginning with
November Man, and announced a second picture in TWE's two-picture deal with film star
Beau Bridges. On April 8, 1987, Shah, who was president of TWE, was bought out by Sarlui who became a partner of TWE. In late August 1987, TWE signed another six-picture agreement with Media; their previous deal brought MHE the home video rights to such films as
Full Moon in Blue Water,
Kansas,
Killer Klowns from Outer Space,
Hardcover,
Cinderella Rock and
Teen Witch; the new deal included the video rights to titles like
Rage of Honor,
Programmed to Kill and
Iron Warrior. All rights reverted from Heron to TWE by 1989.
Full Moon in Blue Water and
Kansas premiered at the
1988 Cannes Film Festival and TWE became the star of the film market. TWE acquired 50% of
Mark Damon's Vision P.D.G. International, who handled TWE's overseas sales. and the
Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica. Crédit Lyonnais foreclosed on Empire, forcing founder Band out. The bank then approached Epic with an offer to extend their line of credit from $60 million to $200 million to absorb Empire's assets into Epic and restructure the company.
Donald Cammell was tapped to direct, with shooting slated to begin in Mexico in November 1988, but after months of pre-production on location, Brando apparently dropped out of the project, citing insurance issues. In 1989, the company entered into a distribution deal with
Triumph Releasing Corporation to distribute the films theatrically. The first film came out of the deal was
Triumph of the Spirit, which was packaged by TWE. During this time, Trans World Entertainment and Epic Productions continued to produce and release films such as ''
Ghosts Can't Do It, starring Bo Derek and Anthony Quinn, and Honeymoon Academy'', with
Robert Hays and
Kim Cattrall.
Vision International deal and exit from film production (1990–1991) President of Production Paul Mason departed the company in 1990, and the company was still producing five pictures a year, including
Ski Patrol, and releasing Italian imports such as
Top Model 2, directed by Pasquale Fanetti. However, the restructuring following the acquisition of Empire by Crédit Lyonnais caused friction between Diamant, Sarlui and the bank. By this time, Crédit Lyonnais had financed the takeover of
The Cannon Group, Inc. and
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by Italian financier
Giancarlo Parretti, who was close to defaulting on his loans. Diamant and Sarlui discovered that the Crédit Lyonnais restructuring was also hiding bad debt incurred by the bank. Former company directors Diamant and Sarlui immediately filed a lawsuit against the bank for $100 million for breach of contract and various damages; January 1993 saw Crédit Lyonnais file a countersuit against Diamant and Sarlui, claiming they overstated the company's financial position and stole money from the bank. During this time, Vision International cut ties with Crédit Lyonnais completely, instead receiving backing from Mercantile National and Kredietbank Luxembourg. However, the ongoing lawsuits with Crédit Lyonnais put pressure on Vision International's producing interest, which lead to founder Mark Damon to depart the company in June 1993. In a May 1993 judgement, Crédit Lyonnais was barred from foreclosing on Trans World Entertainment due to the ongoing lawsuit by Sarlui and Diamant. Eventually Diamant joined Damon at his new company, Mark Damon Productions, in 1994 once the issues between Vision International and Crédit Lyonnais were resolved. Sarlui continued to be a shareholder in Mark Damon Productions, but no longer held an active position in the company. Once the lawsuits were settled, Crédit Lyonnais paid compensation to both Diamant and Sarlui, and Trans World Entertainment was absorbed into Epic Productions, under Crédit Lyonnais control.
Sale to PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and MGM ownership (1997–1998) After Crédit Lyonnais successfully combined the assets of The Cannon Group Inc., Cannon Pictures and Pathé Communications, folding all 3 of them into MGM, and sold the company back to
Kirk Kerkorian for a reported $1.3 billion (which was the same amount
Giancarlo Parretti had purchased it from Kerkorian for, also a significant overall loss for the bank), they sought to do the same with the assets of Epic Productions, Trans World Entertainment, Empire International, Vision International and other film libraries they now owned (which also included films from
Castle Rock Entertainment (home video rights only),
Nelson Entertainment,
Sherwood Productions and its successor Gladden Entertainment,
Hemdale Film Corporation, Dino De Laurentiis Communications,
Fries Entertainment,
Embassy Pictures (home video rights only, library owned by
StudioCanal via
Paravision International),
21st Century Film Corporation and
Scotti Bros. Pictures. The bank merged the libraries into the "Epic Film Collection" or simply the "Epic library" (organized into different holding companies named after the Greek alphabet, i.e. "Alpha Library Company") and began to take bids on the property. MGM,
The Walt Disney Company,
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and
Live Entertainment all submitted bids, with the ultimate winner being PolyGram with an offer of $225 million. Despite this success, however, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment sold their library to MGM the following year for $235 million, following being taken over by
Seagram and the subsequent folding into
Universal Pictures in 1999. MGM would place the library under
Orion Pictures' control in order to avoid a video distribution pact MGM had with
Warner Home Video; this resulted, after a legal battle, in MGM breaking their video distribution agreement with Warner earlier than intended, and MGM then began to release these movies under their own branding, being distributed internationally through
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (though these libraries are still held within the former Orion Pictures). Meanwhile, in November 2002, the government conducted an auction for Crédit Lyonnais' residual ten-percent stake, which was won by
BNP Paribas, but
Crédit Agricole subsequently launched a successful friendly takeover bid and took full ownership of Crédit Lyonnais in July 2003. Crédit Agricole merged its own investment banking arm,
Banque Indosuez, with Crédit Lyonnais's and renamed the merged entity Calyon (for
Crédit
Agricole
Lyonnais) in 2004, but that brand was changed in 2010 to Crédit Agricole CIB (for Commercial and Investment Bank), reflecting the gradual phasing out of the Crédit Lyonnais identity. Also in 2010, the bank's staff eventually moved out of the historic headquarters on Boulevard des Italiens to relocate to the Parisian suburb of
Villejuif. Meanwhile, in 2005, the Crédit Lyonnais brand, perceived as tainted by the 1990s turmoil, had been replaced within the French retail network with the blander
LCL (introduced as "Crédit Lyonnais, just more dynamic and better performing"), and the number of LCL branches gradually decreased in subsequent years. ==Filmography==