Virgin Films

Virgin Films was a film production company of the early 1980s best known for making ''Nineteen Eighty Four'' (1984). It was part of the Virgin Group 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 worked for the company before going over to Palace Films.

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'' (1982) with Jenny Seagrove and Rupert Everett. 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''. Their best known movie was an adaptation of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' (1984). There was controversy between Virgin and the makers of that film over Virgin's request to introduce a music score by Eurythmics.

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'' (1987).

In July 1989, Jonathan D. Krane'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 and the Virgin Group 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 for less than $5.6 million, with the company's operations being merged into those of PolyGram Video. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 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'' (1982) (short)
*''The Executioner's Song'' (1983) – UK distributor
*''Secret Places'' (1984)
*''1984'' (1984)
*'' Electric Dreams'' (1984)
*''Loose Connections'' (1984)
*'' Absolute Beginners'' (1986)
*''Whoops Apocalypse'' (1986)
*''Gothic'' (1986)
*''Captive'' (1986)

References

Walker, Alexander, ''National Heroes: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties'', Harrap 1986

External links

Virgin Films
at BFI

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Film production companies of the United Kingdom
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