When I see a film I like, or I'm bored and remember something, I will check out the background to the movie, how much it cost, how much it made, who didn't get cast, what went wrong in production etc etc, personally I find this interesting.
/Rant
Long story short:
Cost to make the movie Texas Chainsaw: $140,000
Box office takings: $30.9 million. Instant classic.
Tobe Hooper (director) makes a deal with Louis Peraino of Bryanston to handle the films distribution for a mere 35% of the profits out of the 40.5% Tobe Hooper owns that is supposed to cover not just Hooper but also the cast/crew, who haven't been paid yet.
After all expenses and accounting, from a 30 million dollar movie that cost 140 grand to make, Hooper is paid only $8,100 (about $48,100 inflation-adjusted) which is also to be divided among the 20 cast and crew members.
The distributor, Bryanston Distributing Company is sued by Hooper for the money they are due.
A court judgment instructed Bryanston to pay the filmmakers $500,000 (about $3,000,000 inflation-adjusted), but by then the company had declared bankruptcy.
Turns out Bryanston Distributing Company is controlled by the Columbo family, most of them (except for some Jew represented by Alan Dershowitz) are sent to prison for the movie "deep throat" and porn crossing over state lines or some shit.
Tobe Hooper learns to avoid Italians and stick with the Jews. So he makes Poltergeist with Spielberg.
In 1976, there was a series of federal cases in Memphis, Tennessee, where over 60 individuals and companies, including the Perainos and actor Harry Reems, were indicted for conspiracy to distribute obscenity across state lines for Deep Throat. Director Gerard Damiano and actress Linda Lovelace were granted immunity in exchange for testimony. Federal District Court judge Harry W. Wellford heard the case with the trial ending with a conviction. This was the first time that an actor had been prosecuted by the federal government on obscenity charges (Lenny Bruce had been prosecuted in the 1960s by local authorities). On appeal, Reems was represented by Alan Dershowitz, and his conviction was overturned: the Miller test (the three-pronged standard from the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Miller v. California that determines what constitutes obscenity) had been applied in his case. The Federal Bureau of Investigation case known as "Miporn" convicted and sentenced, on April 30, 1977, Michael Cherubino to five months' imprisonment and fined $4,000, Anthony Novello to six months' imprisonment, Joseph Peraino Sr. to one year's imprisonment and fined $10,000 (including a $10,000 fine to his company, Plymouth Distributors Inc.), Louis Peraino to one year's imprisonment and fined $10,000 (including a $10,000 fine to each of his two companies, Bryanston Distributors Inc. and Gerard Damiano Productions Inc.), Anthony Battista to four months' imprisonment and fined $4,000, Carl Carter to six months' imprisonment and fined $6,500, Mel Friedman to nine months' imprisonment and fined $7,500, and Mario Desalvo to three months' imprisonment and fined $3,500.
In January 1982, Joseph Peraino Sr., who was convicted in Miami on December 6, 1981, of six counts of interstate shipments of pornography, was the target of a shooting that left him injured, and his son Joseph Peraino Jr., dead.
/Rant
Long story short:
Cost to make the movie Texas Chainsaw: $140,000
Box office takings: $30.9 million. Instant classic.
Tobe Hooper (director) makes a deal with Louis Peraino of Bryanston to handle the films distribution for a mere 35% of the profits out of the 40.5% Tobe Hooper owns that is supposed to cover not just Hooper but also the cast/crew, who haven't been paid yet.
After all expenses and accounting, from a 30 million dollar movie that cost 140 grand to make, Hooper is paid only $8,100 (about $48,100 inflation-adjusted) which is also to be divided among the 20 cast and crew members.
The distributor, Bryanston Distributing Company is sued by Hooper for the money they are due.
A court judgment instructed Bryanston to pay the filmmakers $500,000 (about $3,000,000 inflation-adjusted), but by then the company had declared bankruptcy.
Turns out Bryanston Distributing Company is controlled by the Columbo family, most of them (except for some Jew represented by Alan Dershowitz) are sent to prison for the movie "deep throat" and porn crossing over state lines or some shit.
Tobe Hooper learns to avoid Italians and stick with the Jews. So he makes Poltergeist with Spielberg.
In 1976, there was a series of federal cases in Memphis, Tennessee, where over 60 individuals and companies, including the Perainos and actor Harry Reems, were indicted for conspiracy to distribute obscenity across state lines for Deep Throat. Director Gerard Damiano and actress Linda Lovelace were granted immunity in exchange for testimony. Federal District Court judge Harry W. Wellford heard the case with the trial ending with a conviction. This was the first time that an actor had been prosecuted by the federal government on obscenity charges (Lenny Bruce had been prosecuted in the 1960s by local authorities). On appeal, Reems was represented by Alan Dershowitz, and his conviction was overturned: the Miller test (the three-pronged standard from the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Miller v. California that determines what constitutes obscenity) had been applied in his case. The Federal Bureau of Investigation case known as "Miporn" convicted and sentenced, on April 30, 1977, Michael Cherubino to five months' imprisonment and fined $4,000, Anthony Novello to six months' imprisonment, Joseph Peraino Sr. to one year's imprisonment and fined $10,000 (including a $10,000 fine to his company, Plymouth Distributors Inc.), Louis Peraino to one year's imprisonment and fined $10,000 (including a $10,000 fine to each of his two companies, Bryanston Distributors Inc. and Gerard Damiano Productions Inc.), Anthony Battista to four months' imprisonment and fined $4,000, Carl Carter to six months' imprisonment and fined $6,500, Mel Friedman to nine months' imprisonment and fined $7,500, and Mario Desalvo to three months' imprisonment and fined $3,500.
In January 1982, Joseph Peraino Sr., who was convicted in Miami on December 6, 1981, of six counts of interstate shipments of pornography, was the target of a shooting that left him injured, and his son Joseph Peraino Jr., dead.
