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19-411: The company was formed in 1993 by Mark Damon as MDP Worldwide (the "MDP" itself is short for M ark D amon P roductions). In 1998, it was sold to Behaviour Communications, a Canadian production company from the assets of Malofilm for $ 19 million, which subsequently changed its name to Behaviour Worldwide. In 2000, citing the struggles of Behaviour themselves, Damon's investors opted to buy back

38-583: A contract with 20th Century Fox . In 1960, Damon won a Golden Globe Award as a "Star of Tomorrow" for his performance in the film House of Usher . He would later relocate to Italy to work in Spaghetti Westerns . In the mid-1970s Damon left acting to become a film producer . He entered the world of independent sales and production while in Italy after meeting independent international distributors interested in popular American movies. Upon returning to

57-422: A domestic theatrical distribution deal with TriStar Pictures and a home video distribution deal with CBS/Fox Video . Throughout 1984–85, the company made several more deals with other production and distribution companies, including Frank Yablans , Roadshow Film Distributors , UGC , and Taft Entertainment/Keith Barish Pictures . Despite releasing many successful films, PSO ran into financial problems and

76-417: A full-fledged production company, setting up operations on March 27, 1984, through subsidiary PSO Presentations. On April 10, 1984, a major shake-up happened in the sales and acquisition department and executive Eleanor Powell moved position to become deputy managing director of the company. In November 1984, PSO merged with film financing firm The Delphi Companies; the resulting company, PSO-Delphi , forged

95-571: A new foreign sales unit dubbed Producers Distribution Organization, later renamed Interaccess Film Distribution, Inc., and then to the Vestron International Group. A year after PSO ended, Damon founded a new company, with Peter Guber and Jon Peters , called Vision International . A majority of the PSO library would ultimately end up with Lionsgate , and then Icon Entertainment International (originally founded by Mel Gibson ). Among

114-439: A new line of credit with Chemical Bank of New York and The First National Bank of Boston on the condition that the company had to concentrate on what it did originally, acquire foreign sales rights to pictures and sell those films abroad. As the company had gone into bankruptcy protection, Vestron Inc . was rumored to buy PSO, but the company ultimately shut down outright. Many of its employees were soon hired by Vestron to run

133-628: A pact with Epic Productions , where they assumed international responsibilities for the studio. In 1993, after a period of legal battling with Credit Lyonnais over the company's control of Epic, Damon started MDP Worldwide (aka Mark Damon Productions), which in 1998 was sold to Behaviour Communications , a Canadian company. In 2003, MDP Worldwide was renamed Media 8 Entertainment to expand their theatrical activity and their products. Damon resigned in 2004. Damon's productions have grossed over $ 2 billion in theatrical box office worldwide and have garnered 10 Oscar nominations. He has been involved in

152-600: A young age where he attended Fairfax High School . As a senior in high school, Damon was scouted as an actor by comedian Groucho Marx , but chose to attend dental school at UCLA . He switched to the Anderson School of Management , eventually graduating with an MBA and a BA in English. Damon also began taking theater classes and decided to pursue a career in acting. In 1956, Damon started his career in Hollywood , signing

171-509: Is a recurring board member of the IFTA . In 2005, Damon founded the film production and sales company Foresight Unlimited. Foresight handled the international sales for the Rob Reiner comedy And So It Goes , served as executive producer of Universal Studios ' 2 Guns starring Mark Wahlberg and Denzel Washington , and Universal's Lone Survivor , also starring Mark Wahlberg . The company

190-592: The U.S. in 1977, he founded Producers Sales Organization (PSO), which sold American pictures to international distributors, becoming the first such company to compete with the major studios. Damon's subsequent success with PSO led to his reputation as the inventor of the foreign sales business. After PSO ran into financial problems and was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1986, Damon started Vision Productions (formerly Vision Producers and Distribution Group) with Peter Guber and Jon Peters . In 1987, Vision International grew into Vision p.d.g. Vision International formed

209-559: The company, which was reverted to the MDP Worldwide moniker. MDP Worldwide posted net income of C$ 5.5 million ($ 3.4 million) on revenues of $ 33.5 million for the year ended September 30, 2002. The company had offices in Los Angeles , California and Montreal , Quebec. On October 9, 2003, MDP Worldwide was renamed Media 8 Entertainment. On May 15, 2004, it was announced that Media 8 Entertainment wanted to focus on film production following

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228-677: The company. In October 2018, it was announced that Bloom's operations would be integrated into those of its parent Endeavor Content's, with Bloom's employees being transferred to Endeavor Content. Mark Damon Mark Damon (born Alan Harris ; April 22, 1933 – May 12, 2024) was an American film producer and actor. In 1960, he won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year for his performance in Roger Corman 's House of Usher , and later moved to Italy to work in Spaghetti Westerns . He

247-521: The international licensing of over 300 feature length pictures, including Never Say Never Again starring Sean Connery , Prizzi's Honor with Jack Nicholson and Anjelica Huston , Once Upon A Time In America with Robert De Niro and James Woods , The Cotton Club with Richard Gere , and The Final Countdown starring Kirk Douglas . Damon was a founding member of the American Film Marketing Association (now IFTA) and

266-513: The studio. In 2007, Media 8 Entertainment acquired the Spanish-based film companies Lauren Films and Araba Films, which then began to focus on the cinema theater business, until they became dormant in the 2010s. In April 2012, Media 8 filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, and it was reorganized as Bloom Media following a merger with Capella Films . In August 2017, Bloom was acquired by WME-IMG , with Bloom continuing to function as an entity within

285-518: The success of the film Monster , and chose to focus on eight movies budgeted on the $ 10-$ 50 million range. On October 14, 2004, founder Mark Damon announced that he would resign his post as chairman-CEO of the Media 8 Entertainment studio. After leaving Media 8, on January 23, 2005, Damon would eventually form a new studio Foresight Unlimited, to focus on production, with Media 8 executive Tamara Stuparich De La Barra serving as vice president of production at

304-529: Was a member of the 1960s Dolce Vita set of actors and actresses in Rome. During the early 1970's he switched to producing films, founding the production companies Producers Sales Organization , Vision International, MDP Worldwide and Foresight Unlimited. Mark Damon, the son of a grocer, was born Alan Harris in Chicago . His family was Jewish and their surname was originally "Herscovitz". Damon moved to Los Angeles at

323-432: Was an independent motion picture production and sales company founded in 1977. Initiated by Mark Damon , an actor-turned-producer, PSO mostly handled foreign sales of independent films. It was initially a partnership between Damon, producer Sandy Howard , and Richard St. Johns, who worked for Arthur Guinness Son & Co. At one point, it was a subsidiary of Guinness. In its final years of existence, PSO briefly became

342-551: Was forced into bankruptcy in 1986, effectively ending the company (the Taft-Barish pictures planned by PSO would eventually move to J&M Entertainment). In a lead-up to a bankruptcy plan, PSO decided to drop in-house production and restructure their output deals with foreign distributors into picture-by-picture agreements, including a deal with RKO Pictures . The company was forced out of film production when they cut their relationship with Delphi on April 23, 1986. PSO agreed on

361-525: Was sold to Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment in 2019. In 2019, DCR Finance Group launched a $ 100 million film fund to produce their film organization, with Damon serving as managing partner. Damon died of natural causes in Los Angeles in 2024 at the age of 91 with his wife, actress Margaret Markov , and two children by his side. Producers Sales Organization Producers Sales Organization (PSO; also known as PSO Productions, Inc. )

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