Inside Randall Emmetts direct-to-video empire, where many Hollywood stars have found lucrative early retirement.
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Emmett, who is 50, has directed just one other film, which has yet to be released.
(EFOs attorney, Rebecca Kaufman, says that EFO intends to settle the matter.)
In January, such embarrassments couldnt have seemed farther away.
Its Emmetts career that is a better indication of Hollywoods current math.
The Randall Emmett Canon:A selection of his more than 110 producing credits.
Among these actors are John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, and Sylvester Stallone.
With Bruce Willis, theres almost a model for how he features in these movies, Champ theorized.
In most of Williss movies for EFO, sporadic would be a generous appraisal of his presence.
This demographic has now helped fuel the multibillion-dollar VOD market, a virtual replica of a Blockbuster Video.
The halcyon days Reignier describes were dominated by a company called the Cannon Group.
He was obsessed with shark movies, filmmaker Michael Oblowitz says of Lerner.
Like low-budget versions of Spielberg movies but with no-name actors.
Hes very, very astute.
To court them, Lerner relied, in part, on Randall Emmett, whose determination had impressed him.
If you throw him from the window, he comes down the chimney.
Lerner, meanwhile, gave Emmett a crash course in getting movies made by any means necessary.
It was a mutually beneficial relationship.
Oblowitz was, by his own reckoning, an unlikely candidate for directing commercial action movies.
While earning an M.F.A.
Then there was the time he dined with Seagal and Vladimir Putin in Warsaw.
(A spokesperson for Seagal denied that he would ever have taken Oblowitz to dinner with Putin.)
Studio heads, meanwhile, appreciated the fact that Oblowitz could tolerate Seagals eccentricities.
Another issue was Seagals insistence on extensive script rewrites, which often baffled his collaborators.
Nobody wants to see Steven Seagal: archaeologist, Oblowitz says.
But, you know, he wanted to show his sublime knowledge of Chinese antiquities.
(Seagals spokesperson called both stories absolutely false.
Emanuel declined to comment.)
(He ended up filing for bankruptcy protection.)
Oblowitz and Seagal agreed to let Emmett and Lerner produce their next project.
For Emmett, it was a proving ground.
I invented the formula, Oblowitz says.
That model is now being used with all these aging action stars, Oblowitz says.
All these guys Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson theyre all doing what Seagal did.
By 2008, these movies generated $3 billion annually.
This left a big hole in the market.
That, in turn, meant more opportunities for small upstarts.
Their interests, however, were diversified.
He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison.
(In February, Griffithe settled with the SEC without admitting any wrongdoing.
Both Emmett and Griffithe claim they have never worked together.)
Emmetts instincts for creative financing have been key to his success.
This money sometimes comes from unusual benefactors.
For Willis, the appeal seems clear: lots of money for very little work.
They were unhappy with the films they were getting from Randalls slate, says the producer.
In January, after seeingHeiston television, I called Mann to discuss his experience directing the film.
But as soon as Mann overcame one obstacle, Emmett threw another in his way.
Career-wise, Emmett was aspiring to new things.
To shake himself out of his rut, he decided to direct his first feature film.
Eventually, Emmett was able to return to Puerto Rico and finish filming.
The experience, it seems, did not deepen his sympathy for his directors.
The first week of shooting was eaten up while COVID-19 safety protocols were still being fine-tuned.
And that meant that we had to actually start cutting themes and rejiggering things.
On set, Willis looked very much at ease with the situation.
This was trial by fire, Burns says.
Others might call that an understatement.
Still, several directors have chosen to work on more than one EFO film.
The gatekeeping was a lot stronger than it is now, Oblowitz says.
The money made by these movies was a lot more.
There wasnt Jason Statham and Gerard Butler, and, you know, Liam Neeson wasnt doing action movies.
There just wasnt this panoply of action stars.
Despite these ideal conditions, the production appeared to be heading down a familiar path.
Then there is the casting of ancillary roles.
Her 29-year-old boyfriend, Swen Temmel, an EFO films mainstay, plays a cornrowed criminal.
Still, Emmett seemed eager to prove himself as a filmmaker.
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