Ode to Frivolous film making at it's best\worst

 



 

        I had the pleasure of viewing a crazy yet, unfortunate and sad documentary about The Hollywood producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus (Golan and Globus) of Canon films fame. Back in the Eighties they were responsible for some very popular films (at least to certain Cinephiles depending how and where you grew up) like "The Last American Virgin", Breakin', the "Missing in Action" franchise (How many times did Chuck Norris have to go back to Vietnam???) American Ninja which introduced many to Michael Dudikoff. And who could forget "Life Force".

 

I read someone described the Canon company as ...

"a business model of buying "bottom-barrel scripts" and putting them into production".

 

 These guys were so far removed from conceptualizing and producing "Grade A " content and either did very little research or quite frankly never listened "pitch meetings" because it almost seemed as if they said "yes" to almost anything (thus completely losing control of their company). Menahem would create these CRAZY film ideas and they would instantly get made into films. One day it could literally be an idea:

"A small town pimp is hit in the head by a red sneaker which is somehow stuck to his head and he becomes
"The Sneaker Pimp"

 

...and that concept would go into production the following week.

 

 

There are also interesting histories to the  creation of their films, especially the titles I am familiar with.  And how the Studio signed Charles Bronson and Chuck Norris to multi picture deals with the idea of having a "respectable actor" to help build their brand. And the process regarding picking scripts for "Chuck or Chuck" that I thought "hilarious".

Canon was also the team whom discovered Jean Claude Van Damme after Norris turned down the film "Cyborg"...

 

After producing some mediocre films their first "We're Here" moment of film success "Breakin' " pretty much seemed like a happy accident that they immediately ruined with the sequel. Menahem had these creative ideas that would
seem like he had tripped on an hallucinogen of some sorts over and over and over again...

Golan and Globus were a prime example of the phrase"With great Power comes great Responsibility". And with that quote stated, it's absolutely surprising that Canon obtained the rights to "Spider-Man" at one point.

They company optioned the Marvel comic with no IDEA of what "Spidey" was about. They thought it could be a cheap "Wolf-man" knock off. This was there actual concept:
 
...a corporate scientist intentionally subjects ID-badge photographer Peter Parker to radioactive bombardment, transforming him into a hairy, suicidal, eight-armed monster. The human tarantula refuses to join the scientist’s new master-race of mutants, battling a succession of mutations kept in a basement laboratory.

Huh???????

 

There is a further story which explains how James Cameron had gotten involved and how Sony\Columbia ended up with the "web crawler" franchise. (If you're interested in reading about it LOOK IT UP! It's Crazy)

However due to Cannon's horrible film financing habits, they were unable to produce the iconic Marvel comic.

The company had a number of films in production in various parts of the globe that the company was not keeping tabs on. And there were major issues with two other well known comic book projects that were released in 1987 which basically forced the company to shut it's doors....

 

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace
The company slashed a $30 million dollar budget down to $17 million, (THAT EXPLAINS IT.....) Many of the VFX were eliminated and it ended that 80s franchise for over 20 years until the re-boot

 

Masters of the Universe
I guess Canon cut 13 million from "Superman IV" budget and placed it into the $22 million "future" franchise (They predicted that this film would be the Star Wars of the 1980s. Oddly enough the U.S. box-office was just over $17 million and "Superman IV" only takes in $15 million. (Donner's "Superman: The Movie" rakes in $134 million and $300 mil worldwide)

 

If they had the vision, they really could have Hollywood in the palms of their hands (at least back then) and were in fact the original "Weinsteins" but each project concept they created would seem to get worse than the next.

Again, unfortunate and sad doc (IMO) because for a budding/struggling filmmaker who must rub coins together to get a

single project completed. To sit and watch money get wasted repeatedly on half baked, "Gunslinger" ideas that crashed and burned again and again.... Heartbreaking

 

 And yet, actually after watching this doc it makes me want to look review
many of their films just to see if they still have that "80s magic"...