Word: degli
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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When he pitched DEG to investors, De Laurentiis promised he would make careful, modestly budgeted pictures. Yet once ensconced at DEG, he refused to share decision-making authority and showed a knack for picking up screenplays that other studios had wisely spurned. For an Old World producer accustomed to making budget-busting epics, the studio's ambitious production slate of twelve to 20 films a year was a script for disaster. One project, the 1986 film Tai- Pan, cost $25 million to make but brought in barely $2 million...
...aging filmmaker ran DEG like a private fiefdom, showering his family members and girlfriend with six-figure salaries or distribution deals. "So much money passed through that building, and I don't know where it all went," says Gary DeVore, DEG's former head of production. "I was one of the highest- placed executives and I didn't even know about the deals with Dino's family...
Even fewer people were aware of the myriad deals Dino had concocted for himself. Case in point: De Laurentiis sold the rights to the sequel King Kong Lives to DEG for $21 million shortly before it opened in 1986. When the picture died on impact (estimated receipts: $2 million), De Laurentiis tried to compensate by giving DEG the rights to even more dubious films, some of which hadn't been made...
...Laurentiis, who left DEG under pressure in 1988, is now struggling to quash the firm's case against him. Carolco Pictures, which has agreed to buy DEG's assets for $39 million, aims to pursue the charges. De Laurentiis has struck back with a dubious list of $79 million in claims against the company. The producer has blamed everyone but himself for DEG's woes, a version that doesn't play well with Hollywood insiders. "Dino was clearly, unequivocably, unquestionably responsible for what happened to this company," says Stephen Greenwald, DEG's former chairman. "His attempts to evade that responsibility...
...Laurentiis now lives the life of a much younger mogul. This week he plans to marry his girlfriend, now 35 and pregnant with their second child. Despite DEG's bankruptcy, the couple dwells in a Beverly Hills mansion complete with household staff and, at last count, two Rolls-Royces. And De Laurentiis is pursuing his new films with youthful ebullience. "The world hasn't seen the end of Dino," says MCA president Sidney Sheinberg. "Showmen sometimes miss the pulse of the public, but they generally don't die and disappear...