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WELCOME TO THE FILMS AROUND THE WORLD WEBSITE!
Films Around The World, Inc. is one of
the oldest film and television licensing agents and distributors in America. The Company and its various affiliates own, co-own,
represent as agent, or distribute approximately 500 feature films, more than 1,000 prime time dramatic anthology programs
from America's "Golden Age of Television," more than 2,500 hours of classic radio programming, and several television
series and shorts. It is the corporate successor to a business founded by the late Irvin Shapiro in 1930; in 1985, it was
purchased by Alexander W. Kogan, Jr. and Barry Tucker, who continue to manage and add to its huge library. An important aspect
of this has been the digital mastering and upgrading of many of the titles so that they meet modern exhibition standards.
Mssrs. Tucker and Kogan regularly seek associations and partnerships which can help them maximize the value of the library,
believed to be one of the largest remaining primarily copyright-protected independent American entertainment libraries.
FATW was a founding member of the American Film Marketing Association ("AFM" or "AFMA"), but no
longer attends international film markets. It remains extremely active in both the domestic and international markets, operating
primarily over the Internet, with recent video, television, and Internet streaming licenses in the United States and Canada,
France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Italy. In the United States it has numerous licenses with Starz/Encore, Turner
Movie Classics, American Movie Classics, Anchor Bay, Image Entertainment, Blue Underground, and two video joint ventures and
several Internet distribution ventures. The library is so large that a full catalog would exceed 3,000 pages! We
are working on a new website, www.FAT-W.com, that will lead to a number of sub-domains, each with its own catalog and streaming
clips, but for now, we can only give you an overview and some details of the more important titles. In general terms,
the key categories are: 1. FEATURE FILMS Our library of approximately 500 feature films, mostly good copyright,
comes from a number of different sources and libraries. These include a 178-title library of classic features purchased
from what was National Telefilm Associates, now part of Paramount;p a library of 27 British features purchaswed from Mickey
Hyams, of the U.K.'s Eros Films; the Hilltop Films library of 31 features, assembled by the late Dr. Eleanor Hilositz, distributed
by us in perpetuity; the Kepi Enterprises library assembled or produced by the late Phil Pine; three erotic features directed
by Edward Wood, Jr.; nearly a dozen produced or co-produced features, and many others. 2. CLASSIC TELEVISION PROGRAMMING. This library of 810
important dramatic anthology, prime-time, long format programs, is owned either ougtright or jointly with NBC; virtually all
of the programs have major stars, directors, writers, and other talent, so that each one of them would be a "locomotive"
in a lesser library. The programs were part or all of such noted series as PRODUCERS' SHOWCASE, ALCOA/GOODYEAR, PONTIAC
PLAYWRIGHTS '56, HALLMARK HALL OF FAME, LUX VIDEO THEATRE, KRAFT TELEVISION PLAYHOUSE, ROBERT MONTGOMERY PRESENTS, PHILCO
TELEVISION PLAYHOUSE, ARMSTRONG CIRCLE THEATER, and DUPONT SHOW OF THE WEEK, among others. 3. RADIO PROGRAMMING Hartwest Productions,
Inc., the most important domestic radio syndication producer and distributor of the 1960s, produced more than 2,500 43.5 minute
"hours" of radio programming, including THE JOE PYNE RADIO SHOW, an American version of TOP OF THE POPS RADIO SHOW
(produced and owned jointly with the BBC), THE JEAN SHEPHERD RADIO SHOW, LIVE WITH CONFIDENCE (with Norman Vincent Peale),
THE BARRY GRAY RADIO SHOW, and many others. An extensive "Overview" is available on request. 4. SOUNDIES FATW owns a library
of approximately 500 digitally mastered and restored "Soundies" -- filmed predecessors to music videos produced
in the 1940s for use in "Panoram" and similar coin-operated "video jukeboxes" that projected 3-minute
short 16mm featurettes onto a screen. While most were musical in nature, they also included vaudeville acts, comis,
and striptease artistes. 5. MISCELLANEOUS With such a huge library, the "Miscllaneous" category would
be more than enough for an ordinary library. Included are two television series (THE JOE PYNE TELEVISION SHOW, with
more than 300 color half-hours of provocative interviews by Joe Pyne, and WATERWORLD, with 52 color episodes starring Lloyd
Bridges and James Franciscus); a host of remake rights -- in 2009, FATW teamed with George Romero to license George's THE
CRAZIES to Overture Films for remake; the new version, directed by Breck Eisner and starring Timothy Olyphant and Rhada Mitchell,
was released theatrically in the U.S. and the U.K. in early 2010, bringing in over $42MM at the box office; other remakes
licensed by FATW include OUR TOWN and THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY; thousands of 35mm and 16mm release prints; print and negative
materials for more than 50 public domain titles; vintage television commercials; hundreds of 33 1/3 radio program vinyl records;
original contracts signed by Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Henry Fonda, Lauren Bacall, Basil Rathbone, Peter Lawford, Michael
Redgrave, Imogene Coca, and hundreds of other stars; hundreds of theatrical posters, lobby cards, flyers, press kits, 35mm
slides, and publicity stills; dozens of theatrical trailers; foreign language tracks and M&Es; a reference library; hundreds
of digital and tape masters in a variety of formats-- the list goes on and on. The physical materials inventory, stored
in New York, Hollywood, and England, runs to more than 500 pages. IT REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, is a huge entertainment library! If you require additional information from us,
Click here to email us.
FILMS AROUND THE WORLD, INC.
The Long Island City Art Center 44-02 23rd Street - Studio 407
Long Island City, New York 11101,
U.S.A.
Tel: (212) 599-9500
Fax: (212) 599-6040
Emails: alexjr@pipeline.com
WWW: www.filmsaroundtheworld.com
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