PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
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PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (PFE) was a UK-based film studio, founded in 1991 as a European competitor to Hollywood, but eventually sold and merged with Universal Pictures in 1999. It most famous film was perhaps Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994).
The Dutch music company PolyGram (owned by Philips) created PFE in 1991 to consolidate its existing film companies. It invested US$200 million with the intention of developing a European film studio that could produce and distribute films internationally on a scale to match the major Hollywood studios. Following the style of its music business, the company produced films through a number of creatively semi-autonomous 'labels', such as Working Title Films in the UK and Propaganda Films and Interscope Communications in the US. It also built up it own network of distribution companies. Film production within Polygram differed from traditional Hollywood studios, in that power to make ('green light') a film was not centralised in the hands of a small number of executives, but instead was decided by negotiations between producers, management and marketing. PFE President, Michael Kuhn, claimed that "movies sort of green lit themselves."
The company was based in the UK and invested heavily in UK film making — some credit it with reviving the 1990s UK film industry. Despite a successful production history, Philips decided to sell PFE to the drinks conglomerate Seagram in 1999. PFE's assets were submerged into Seagram's existing film studio, Universal Pictures.
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Production companies
- Working Title Films (UK), acquired by PFE in 1991.
- Propaganda Films (US), acquired in 1991.
- Interscope Entertainment (US)
- Gramercy Picures, mainly film distribution company.
- A&M Films
- Island Pictures
- Cinéa (France)
Selected films
Among the films directly produced by PFE were:
- Land and Freedom (1995)
- When We Were Kings (1996)
- The Relic (1997)
- Spice World (1997)
- Hard Rain (1998)
- Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Working Title
- London Kills Me (1991)
- Map of the Human Heart (1992)
- Posse (1993)
- The Young Americans (1993)
- Romeo Is Bleeding (1994)
- The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
- Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
- Dead Man Walking (1995)
- Fargo (1996)
- Bean (1997)
- The Big Lebowski (1998)
- Elizabeth (1998)
- Notting Hill (1999)
Propaganda
- Candyman (1992)
- Bob Roberts (1992)
- Kalifornia (1993)
- Barb Wire (1996)
- Sleepers (1996)
- The Game (1997)
- Being John Malkovich (1999)
Interscope
- Terminal Velocity (1994)
- Jumanji (1995)
- Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)
- What Dreams May Come (1998)
- Very Bad Things (1998)
Gramercy
- Dazed and Confused (1993)
- The Usual Suspects (1995)
References
- Michael Kuhn, One Hundred Films and a Funeral: The Life and Death of Polygram Films, Thorogood, 2002. ISBN 1854182161.