Franchise Pictures

Franchise Pictures LLC was an independent motion picture production and distribution company founded by Elie Samaha and Andrew Stevens. They were known for their production in the action film genre.

Actor/producer Andrew Stevens is the son of actress Stella Stevens.

Films

Films produced by Franchise included:

*"The Boondock Saints" (1999), a film created by a one-time director Troy Duffy
*"Storm Catcher" (1999) starring Dolph Lundgren
*"The Whole Nine Yards" (2000) starring Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry
*"Battlefield Earth" (2000), John Travolta's adaptation of a science fiction novel by L. Ron Hubbard.
*"The Art of War" (2000) starring Wesley Snipes and Donald Sutherland
*Sean Penn's "The Pledge" (2001) starring Jack Nicholson
*"Driven" (2001) starring Sylvester Stallone, Kip Pardue and Estella Warren
*"Angel Eyes" (2001) starring Jennifer Lopez and Jim Caviezel
*"" (2002) starring Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu

Bankruptcy

Following the failure of "Battlefield Earth" and other films independently produced by Franchise Pictures, "The Wall Street Journal" reported that the FBI was probing "the question of whether some independent motion picture companies have vastly inflated the budget of films in an effort to scam investors". [cite news | last =Staff | title =FBI Probes Big Indie Budgets | work =Internet Movie Database | pages =StudioBriefing | date = 2002-06-06 | url =http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2002-06-06#film5 | accessdate =2008-01-20 ] In December 2000 the German-based Intertainment AG filed a lawsuit alleging that Franchise Pictures had fraudulently inflated budgets in films including "Battlefield Earth", which Intertainment had helped to finance.cite news | last =Randall | first =Laura | title =Franchise, Intertainment duel; Countersuits ask $75 million-plus each in film licensing dispute | work =Hollywood Reporter | date = 2000-12-22 ] Intertainment had agreed to pay 47% of the production costs of several films in exchange for European distribution rights, but ended up paying for between 60–90% of the costs instead. The company alleged that Franchise had defrauded it to the tune of over $75 million by systematically submitting "grossly fraudulent and inflated budgets". [cite news | last =Staff | title =$75M Battlefield Over Film Flops | work =New York Post | date =2001-01-19 ]

The case was heard before a jury in a Los Angeles federal courtroom in May–June 2004. The court heard testimony from Intertainment that according to Franchise's bank records the real cost of "Battlefield Earth" was only $44 million, not the $75 million declared by Franchise. The remaining $31 million had been fraudulent "padding". Intertainment's head Barry Baeres told the court that he had only funded "Battlefield Earth" because it was packaged as a slate that included two more commercially attractive films, the Wesley Snipes vehicle "The Art of War" and the Bruce Willis comedy "The Whole Nine Yards". Baeres testified that "Mr. Samaha said, 'If you want the other two pictures, you have to take "Battlefield Earth" — it's called packaging'". Baeres commented: "We would have been quite happy if he had killed "Battlefield Earth". [cite news | last =Hiestand | first =Jesse | title =Baeres: No secret budget deal | work =Hollywood Reporter | date = 2004-05-10 ]

Intertainment won the case and was awarded $121.7 million in damages, bankrupting Franchise Pictures. Samaha himself was declared by the court to be personally liable for $77 million in damages.cite news | last =Shprintz | first =Janet | title =Attempt to Collect | work =Variety | date = 2004-06-21 ] However, the jury rejected Intertainment's claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute, which would have trebled the damages if Franchise had been convicted on that charge. [cite news | last =Shprintz | first =Janet | title =Samaha Slammed | work =Variety |date = 2004-06-17 ]

Franchise Pictures LLC and its subsidiaries filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions on August 19, 2004. [cite web
url=http://login.vnuemedia.com/hr/google/login_subscribe.jsp?id=JwgPPVfVmcksd4TtPuM3gvMrl1huoS1nJ4qTreE05OAdpDivsAnla71rya3Gr4u6Ap0VmLWJ4CKM%0Ax65%2FUfZp3Am11BQBC6B6WcwWyYY2m%2FJndriGhs4VPmR2Rc5V00nS77qvWJVhfZb7KRd8eWgBI62V%0AQWifMHPBqqcU7e6dNrjh9Wvs53GVqZPZ1Lumg2WyOXN7d2Nl2RHjXcT%2BAdWctghEUhnyhdQfBHMn%0AoKuLuPE%3D
title=The Hollywood Reporter
publisher=login.vnuemedia.com
accessdate=2008-01-04
last=
first=]

References

External links

*imdb company|id=0043393