There was nothing mentioned about that in the November news release:
LOS ANGELES--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Nov. 1, 1999--Miracle Entertainment (First Miracle Group Inc.) (OTCBB:MVEE) has formed an alliance with Firestorm Pictures LLC, run by Martin Landau and Richard Abramson, which has a $125-million fund for prints and advertising, it was announced today by Tony Cataldo, Chief Executive Officer of Miracle.
The fund will provide release money for five films, each receiving up to $25 million for P&A. The films will be produced by Miracle and Firestorm. The two parties were introduced by David Dadon.
Two initial pictures have been chosen: "Alicia's Book," the highly sought after thriller being produced by Academy Award-and Golden Globe-nominee Pinchas Perry ("Gabby, A True Story"), Avi Lerner of Millennium Films, Landau, Abramson and Cataldo; and "Funny Money," Firestorm's fast-paced farce based on the Ray Cooney play that just finished a smash two-year run on the London stage.
"This new alliance will ensure major theatrical release for 'Alicia's Book,' 'Funny Money' and the other stellar films Miracle and Firestorm want to produce," Cataldo said. "I'm thrilled to be working with pros like Martin and Rich, and this deal will enable me to complete negotiations with several major studios for the release of our films."
The deal will also unite the two parties as co-producers of certain pictures, some of which are now in development.
"Rich and I are certain that joining forces with Tony Cataldo will mean a great future for Firestorm Pictures and for the exciting projects we want to create," Landau said.
One of Hollywood's most enduring talents, Landau starred in such classics as Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" and has shared the screen with such icons as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, with whom he starred in "Cleopatra." He starred on the classic television series "Space:1999" and "Mission Impossible," for which he won a Golden Globe Award in 1966. His more than 85 film credits include "Ed-TV," "The X-Files," "Rounders," and "Ed Wood," for which he won a best supporting actor Oscar in 1995, after two previous Academy Award nominations.
"Alicia's Book" is screenwriter Stanford Whitmore's gripping tale of a high profile New York journalist who travels to middle America to investigate the brutal murder of his former lover, Alicia, a distinguished literary editor. Alicia's last project, a compelling novel which was brought to her under treacherous circumstances, led her into the arms of its anonymous author, a career criminal guilty of killing a highway patrolman. As the intriguing tale unfolds, it becomes apparent that the circumstances surrounding her death are far from what they originally seemed.
"Funny Money," with a screenplay by Leslie Greif and Harry Basil, to be directed by Greif, is the zany comedy about Henry Perkins, a creature of habit whose world spins out of control after he finds five million bucks in his briefcase. Henry's ready to take the money and run to Bali, but his histrionic wife, confused friends, two cops, a troop of trigger-happy drug dealers, a roomful of party guests and other wildly surprising characters conspire to prevent him from leaving with the loot before he's arrested, killed or committed.
Richard Abramson joined Landau earlier this year to form FireStorm Pictures to develop, finance and produce motion pictures. Prior to that, he served as executive producer on "The Big Picture," starring Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Jason-Leigh and John Cleese, and enjoyed a successful alliance with Paul Reubens, beginning as his manager and moving into creative development and production of his films and television shows, including "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure," "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" and "Big-Top Pee-Wee." He has also been active in marketing and financing films throughout his career.
Tony Cataldo, chief executive officer and chairman of Miracle, came to the company as a Wall Street Veteran with a track record of turning around publicly-held emerging growth firms. He formerly served as chief executive officer and chairman of MTI Inc., a leading manufacturer and seller of trading systems software, where he was responsible for increasing the company's stock price ten-fold. In a similar post at Senetek, he boosted the firm's stock price five-fold. During Cataldo's three-year stint at Internet Systems, an Internet banking pioneer, he took the value from 0 to $70 million in revenues.
Miracle Entertainment (First Miracle Group Inc.) is an independent and diversified film company with a unique corporate structure based on strategic and exclusive alliances with high quality content producers. Miracle Entertainment (OTCBB:MVEE) is a publicly traded company.
Martin Landau also started a movie company in 1996 called Silver Street (http://www.filmscouts.com/zzvmisc/cannes96/mar-lan.mov ).
"He now has his own production company, Silver Street, backed by enough money to ensure several films a year get made."
sunmedia.ca
I wonder what happened to that company. |
