Word: vestron
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...Laurentiis now faces enough doubters to populate a biblical epic. Most of the independent film companies that a bullish Wall Street took public in the mid-1980s -- Cannon, Vestron, New World, Kings Road -- have either passed into bankruptcy or deep financial trouble. But none have burned through as much money in so short a time -- without even a near hit -- as De Laurentiis. Worse still, few if any ventures contained such a web of insider-enriching transactions. Stockholders of DEG, who saw their shares plummet from a peak of $19 to less than 40 cents, have responded with fiery class...
...commercial on Dirty Dancing and a Lee Iacocca "tribute" to Chrysler's Jeep vehicles on Platoon. Home- video executives say they are proceeding cautiously with ads, but proceeding. "We'll do more, but only if the movie lends itself to a product," says Alvin Reuben, a vice president of Vestron, which released Dirty Dancing...
Last November, Vestron Pictures, a new Connecticut-based film company, agreed to put up roughly half the money, thanks largely to its executives' interest in Irish literature; the rest of the backing came from Europe. "It's a risk for us, of course," says Vestron Vice President Bill Quigley. "But we consider it one for the soul." For Huston it is one from the heart. Although the story has been expanded to fit the new medium, the director insists it remains faithful to the source. "I don't think that Joyce's spirit would raise its head in holy horror...
Home-video producers reply that there is nothing wrong with children wanting their own cassettes of Strawberry Shortcake or Rainbow Brite. "Kids' having their favorite licensed characters is like adults' having their favorite stars on the screen," says C.J. Kettler, vice president of children's programming for Vestron Video. "Rainbow Brite is a pretty positive role model." Indeed, with home video, parents at least have a measure of control over what their children are watching. The question is, once youngsters have all their favorites on cassette, will they ever be lured away from the TV set again...
...budget extravaganzas like The Cotton Club and Dune. But smaller films can go a long way toward recouping their costs with cassette sales. "The producer can anticipate a profit even without a theatrical success and, in some cases, without a theatrical release," says Jon Peisinger, president of Vestron Video. "More movies today are created simply on the basis of potential revenues from home video." Vestron was the distributor of The Warrior and the Sorceress, for example, a low-budget action epic starring David Carradine, which had only a brief theatrical run in a few cities, but has sold more than...