Virgin Films was a
film production
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...
company of the early 1980s best known for making ''
Nineteen Eighty Four
''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final ...
'' (1984). It was part of the
Virgin Group
Virgin Group Ltd. is a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded by Richard Branson and Nik Powell in February 1970.
Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by the Companies House, who class it as a holding c ...
and was headed by Al Clark.
[Alexander Walker, ''Icons in the Fire: The Rise and Fall of Practically Everyone in the British Film Industry 1984–2000'', Orion Books, 2005 p11] Nik Powell
Nik Powell (4 November 1950 – 7 November 2019) was a British businessman and one of the co-founders of Virgin Records with Richard Branson. After operating a mail-order company, a small record shop, and a recording studio, the partners estab ...
worked for the company before going over to
Palace Films
Palace Cinemas is the fifth largest major cinema chain in Australia, with various locations in CBD and inner suburban areas of most capital cities. Palace Cinemas currently comprises 24 cinemas with 180 screens and more than 550 staff. Its head o ...
.
History
Virgin Films first came to attention distributing ''
The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle'' (1980), in which they invested £150,000. They expanded into film production in the early 1980s, investing in the short, ''
A Shocking Accident
''A Shocking Accident'' is a 1982 British short comedy film directed by James Scott and produced by Christine Oestreicher, based on Graham Greene's short story by the same name. In 1983, Oestreicher won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short ...
'' (1982) with
Jenny Seagrove
Jennifer Ann Seagrove (born 4 July 1957) is an English actress. She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and first came to attention playing the lead in a television dramatisation of Barbara Taylor Bradford's '' A Woman of Substance'' ...
and
Rupert Everett
Rupert James Hector Everett (; born 29 May 1959) is an English actor, director and producer. Everett first came to public attention in 1981 when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film '' Another Country'' (1984) as a gay pupil ...
. This film wound up winning an Oscar and encouraged Richard Branson to expand into filmmaking, appointing Al Clark head of production. In 1983 Virgin announced they would invest £14 million in a series of movies.
Among their productions were ''
Electric Dreams'' and ''
Secret Places
''Secret Places'' is a 1984 British drama film directed by Zelda Barron and starring Marie Theres Relin, Tara MacGowran, Claudine Auger and Jenny Agutter. It was based on a novel by Janice Elliott. It was one of the most popular films shown at t ...
''. Their best known movie was an adaptation of ''
Nineteen Eighty-Four
''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (also stylised as ''1984'') is a dystopian social science fiction novel and cautionary tale written by the English writer George Orwell. It was published on 8 June 1949 by Secker & Warburg as Orwell's ninth and final ...
'' (1984). There was controversy between Virgin and the makers of that film over Virgin's request to introduce a music score by
Eurythmics
Eurythmics were a British pop duo consisting of Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart. They were both previously in The Tourists, a band which broke up in 1980. The duo released their first studio album, '' In the Garden'', in 1981 to little succ ...
.
An investment in the notorious flop ''
Absolute Beginners'' (1986) discouraged them from further involvement in the film world at the time.
At one stage they were connected with ''
Hellraiser
''Hellraiser'' is a 1987 British supernatural horror film written and directed by Clive Barker, and produced by Christopher Figg, based on Barker's 1986 novella ''The Hellbound Heart''. The film marked Barker's directorial debut. Its plot invol ...
'' (1987).
In July 1989,
Jonathan D. Krane
Jonathan D. Krane (May 1, 1952 – August 1, 2016) was an American screenwriter, film producer, talent manager, and studio head. He's most known in Hollywood for his decade and a half partnership with John Travolta, who he managed from 1987 until ...
's
Management Company Entertainment Group bought the division, which in the meantime had been renamed Virgin Vision, for $83 million, using loans from
General Electric Capital Corporation,
Standard Chartered
Standard Chartered plc is a multinational bank with operations in consumer, corporate and institutional banking, and treasury services. Despite being headquartered in the United Kingdom, it does not conduct retail banking in the UK, and around 9 ...
and the
Virgin Group
Virgin Group Ltd. is a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded by Richard Branson and Nik Powell in February 1970.
Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by the Companies House, who class it as a holding c ...
itself. Virgin Vision was at the time a full-fledged theatrical and video distributor, with operations in the United Kingdom and some other European territories, the Middle East and Australia. However, MCEG fell into debt worth $125 million and eventually filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, after which 85% of Virgin Vision went to GE Capital, with the remaining 15% owned by the Virgin Group. Virgin later sold its stake, making GE Capital the full owner of Virgin Vision. Virgin Vision scaled down operations to video distribution in only the United Kingdom; as a result, GE later renamed the subsidiary Vision Video.
In early 1991, GE Capital announced Vision Video (at the time Virgin Vision) was up for sale. In January 1993, it was announced Vision Video had been sold to
PolyGram
PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...
for less than $5.6 million, with the company's operations being merged into those of
PolyGram Video
PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be ...
.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
currently owns the majority of Vision Video's library as a result of buying PolyGram Filmed Entertainment's pre-31 March 1996 library for $235–250 million.
In 2010 Virgin expanded into film making again with
Virgin Produced.
Select filmography
*''
The Space Movie'' (1979)
*''
The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle'' (1980) – distributor
*''
A Shocking Accident
''A Shocking Accident'' is a 1982 British short comedy film directed by James Scott and produced by Christine Oestreicher, based on Graham Greene's short story by the same name. In 1983, Oestreicher won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short ...
'' (1982) (short)
*''
The Executioner's Song
''The Executioner's Song'' (1979) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning true crime novel by Norman Mailer that depicts the events related to the execution of Gary Gilmore for murder by the state of Utah. The title of the book may be a play on "The Lord Hi ...
'' (1983) – UK distributor
*''
Secret Places
''Secret Places'' is a 1984 British drama film directed by Zelda Barron and starring Marie Theres Relin, Tara MacGowran, Claudine Auger and Jenny Agutter. It was based on a novel by Janice Elliott. It was one of the most popular films shown at t ...
'' (1984)
*''
1984
Events
January
* January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888.
* January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...
'' (1984)
*''
Electric Dreams'' (1984)
*''
Loose Connections
''Loose Connections'' is a 1984 British film starring Stephen Rea.
Plot
A feminist travels through Europe with a male chauvinist.
Cast
*Stephen Rea as Harry
*Lindsay Duncan as Sally
*Jan Niklas
Jan Niklas (born 15 October 1947) is a German f ...
'' (1984)
*''
Absolute Beginners'' (1986)
*''
Whoops Apocalypse
''Whoops Apocalypse'' is a six-part 1982 television sitcom by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, made by London Weekend Television for ITV. Marshall and Renwick later reworked the concept as a 1986 film of the same name from ITC Entertainment ...
'' (1986)
*''
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
'' (1986)
*''
Captive
Captive or Captives may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Captive'' (1980 film), a sci-fi film, starring Cameron Mitchell and David Ladd
* ''Captive'' (1986 film), a British-French film starring Oliver Reed
* ''Captive'' (1991 ...
'' (1986)
References
Walker, Alexander, ''National Heroes: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties'', Harrap 1986
External links
Virgin Filmsat
BFI
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...
{{Authority control
Film production companies of the United Kingdom
F