Italian Film Maker Will Head Operation : Cannon Name Gets Hollywood Sequel

The Cannon name will rise again in Hollywood movie production after a brief departure. It is being reborn as Cannon Productions, which will be headed by Ovidio Assonitis, an Italian maker of English and foreign-language horror films.

This Cannon is being fashioned from a corporate subsidiary owned by Los Angeles-based Pathe Communications, which until early April was named Cannon Group.

Another Italian, Giancarlo Parretti, rescued Cannon from a financial crisis in 1987 and took control of the company last year from Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. Golan departed in March to produce films on his own, while Globus remained with Parretti.

The two Israeli cousins had bought Cannon Group in 1979 and operated it as a “mini-major” studio, making such films as “Runaway Train” and “Missing in Action.” During their tenure it became a Wall Street darling and then withered into a near-bankrupt firm, accused by federal securities regulators of fraudulently misstating its financial statements.

Cannon, along with Globus and two other individual defendants, settled the Securities and Exchange Commission’s civil complaint in November, 1987, without admitting or denying the allegations.

The announcement Tuesday said Assonitis has paid $500,000 for a 20.6% interest of 21st Century Distribution Corp., which has the right to use the Cannon Productions name and logo for 30 years. Parretti, Golan and Globus had bought 80% of publicly traded 21st Century when it was in bankruptcy proceedings and sold it at cost to Cannon Group in February.

With financing from unspecified “European sources,” the new Cannon Productions will make up to 10 pictures a year for six years at an average budget of $3 million each, according to the announcement. A Pathe division, Pathe Services, will have distribution rights to the pictures during the six-year period.

Daily Variety on Tuesday quoted Assonitis as saying at the Cannes Film Festival that he will be chairman of Cannon Productions and that Pathe executive Christopher Pearce will be president and chief operating officer. The company will be headquartered in Los Angeles.

Assonitis, 44, is said to have produced more than 36 films in his career and has made some of them with American actors. Among his films that have been shown in the United States are “Beyond the Door” and “The Curse.”

Meanwhile, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group declined to comment Tuesday on another Variety report from Cannes that Parretti had made a new bid to buy DEG out of bankruptcy proceedings. Parretti had dropped out of the bidding earlier, and the company agreed to a reorganization plan under which it is to be acquired by Carolco Pictures. A U.S. bankruptcy judge in Los Angeles must approve the company’s disposition.

Parretti moved to Beverly Hills from Europe several months ago and hired Alan Ladd Jr. to make movies under the name Pathe Entertainment. Parretti has been seeking to buy properties in an attempt to build a U.S. film empire.

However, he recently lost out in bidding for New World Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based television producer, and dropped out of the running for two smaller movie firms, Kings Road Entertainment and Peregrine Entertainment.