Seven Arts Productions was a

production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and v ...

which made films for release by other studios. It was founded in 1957 by Eliot Hyman, Ray Stark, and Norman Katz.

History

Seven Arts' first film was '' The Gun Runners'', released by

United Artists United Artists Corporation (UA), currently doing business as United Artists Digital Studios, is an American digital production company. Founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, the stud ...

. Among its productions were '' The Misfits'' (1961) for

, '' Gigot'' (1962) for

Twentieth Century-Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

, '' Lolita'' (1962) for

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 through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

, '' What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?'' (1962) for

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

, and '' Is Paris Burning?'' (1966) for Paramount Pictures. Over time it expanded its role, becoming equity investors with other studios and partnering with British horror film company

Hammer Film Productions Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve class ...

on many projects. It also retained ancillary rights on new productions surrendered on earlier films, including ''

Seven Days in May ''Seven Days in May'' is a 1964 American political thriller film about a military-political cabal's planned takeover of the United States government in reaction to the president's negotiation of a disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union. The ...

'' (1964) and '' Promise Her Anything'' (1965) for release by Paramount. Seven Arts also distributed feature films and TV programs for television. Warner Bros. licensed the TV rights to its post-1949 library to Seven Arts in 1960. Seven Arts made similar deals with

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

and

Universal Pictures Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

. Seven Arts also acquired theatrical reissue rights to some Fox films as well. In 1967, Seven Arts Productions acquired the controlling interest in

Warner Bros. Pictures Warner Bros. Pictures is an American film production and distribution company of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group division of Warner Bros. Entertainment (both ultimately owned by Warner Bros. Discovery). The studio is the flagship producer of ...

from Jack L. Warner for $32 million. The companies were merged as Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. It was rebranded as Warner Bros. Inc. after

Kinney National Company Kinney National Service, Inc. (later known as Kinney Services, Inc.) was an American conglomerate company from 1966 to 1972. Its successors were National Kinney Corporation and Warner Communications, Time Warner, AOL Time Warner, and WarnerMedia ...

bought the company in 1969.

Other uses

Neither the later

Seven Arts Pictures Seven Arts Entertainment Inc. is a British independent film production company founded in 1992. Notable films that were made by Seven Arts are '' Stander'', ''Asylum'', ''Noise'' and more recently, '' Night of the Demons''. History Seven Ar ...

nor the defunct releasing company "Seven Arts", an early 1990s joint venture between

Carolco Pictures Carolco Pictures, Inc. was an American independent film studio that existed from 1976 to 1995, founded by Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna. Kassar and Vajna ran Carolco together until 1989, when Vajna left to form Cinergi Pictures. Carolco h ...

and

New Line Cinema New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after ...

(the latter which subsequently merged into Warner Bros.), is related to the original Seven Arts Productions. __NOTOC__

Select filmography

* '' The Gun Runners'' (1958); with

* ''

Thunder in the Sun ''Thunder in the Sun'' is a 1959 American Western film directed by Russell Rouse and starring Susan Hayward and Jeff Chandler. Plot The film shows a family of French Basque immigrants pioneering into the Wild West while carrying their ancestr ...

'' (1959); with Paramount Pictures * ''

Ten Seconds to Hell ''Ten Seconds To Hell'' (released in the UK as ''The Phoenix'') is a 1959 British and West German film directed by Robert Aldrich, based on Lawrence P. Bachmann's novel ''The Phoenix''. The Hammer Films/UFA joint production stars Jack Palance, ...

'' (1959); with

* '' The Misfits'' (1961); with

* '' By Love Possessed'' (1961); with

* ''

West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play '' Romeo and Juliet'', the story is set in the mid ...

'' (1961); with

* '' The Count of Monte Cristo'' (1961) * '' The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone'' (1961) * '' Gigot'' (1962); with

Twentieth Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

* '' Lolita'' (1962); with

MGM 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 through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

* '' What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?'' (1962); with

* ''

Two for the Seesaw ''Two for the Seesaw'' is a 1962 American romantic- drama film directed by Robert Wise and starring Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine. It was adapted from the 1958 Broadway play written by William Gibson with Henry Fonda and Anne Bancroft ( ...

'' (1962); with

* '' The Main Attraction'' (1962); with

* '' The Wild Affair'' (1963); with Bryanston Films & British Lion Films * ''

Sunday in New York ''Sunday in New York'' is a 1963 American romantic comedy film directed by Peter Tewksbury and starring Jane Fonda, Rod Taylor and Cliff Robertson. Filmed in Metrocolor, its screenplay was written by Norman Krasna on the basis of his own 1961 ...

'' (1963); with

* '' Rampage'' (1963); with

* '' Tamahine'' (1963); with

* ''

The Night of the Iguana ''The Night of the Iguana'' is a stage play written by American author Tennessee Williams. It is based on his 1948 short story. In 1959, Williams staged it as a one-act play, and over the next two years he developed it into a full-length play, p ...

'' (1964); with

* ''

Of Human Bondage ''Of Human Bondage'' is a 1915 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. The novel is generally agreed to be Maugham's masterpiece and to be strongly autobiographical in nature, although he stated, "This is a novel, not an autobiography; though much in i ...

'' (1964); with

* ''

Never Put It in Writing ''Never Put It in Writing'' is a 1964 British comedy film directed by Andrew L. Stone and starring Pat Boone, Milo O'Shea, Fidelma Murphy and Reginald Beckwith. Plot While in Ireland, an insurance executive learns that somebody else has been p ...

'' (1964); with Allied Artists Pictures * ''

'' (1964); with Joel Productions,

John Frankenheimer Productions John Michael Frankenheimer (February 19, 1930 – July 6, 2002) was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films. Among his credits were ''Birdman of Alcatraz'' (1962), '' The Manchurian Candidate'' ( ...

and Paramount Pictures * '' A Global Affair'' (1964); with

* '' Promise Her Anything'' (1965); with Paramount Pictures * ''

The Nanny ''The Nanny'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on CBS from November 3, 1993, to June 23, 1999, starring Fran Drescher as Fran Fine, a Jewish fashionista from Flushing, Queens, New York, who becomes the nanny of three ch ...

'' (1965); with Hammer Films * '' The Hill'' (1965); with

* '' Is Paris Burning?'' (1966); with Paramount Pictures * '' The Defector'' (1966) * '' Dracula: Prince of Darkness'' (1966); with Hammer Films * ''

One Million Years B.C. ''One Million Years B.C.'' is a 1966 British adventure fantasy film directed by Don Chaffey. The film was produced by Hammer Film Productions and Seven Arts, and is a remake of the 1940 American fantasy film ''One Million B.C.''. The film star ...

'' (1966); with Hammer Films * ''

The Frozen Dead ''The Frozen Dead'' is a 1966 British science fiction horror film written, produced and directed by Herbert J. Leder and starring Dana Andrews, Anna Palk and Philip Gilbert. In this film, Nazi scientist Dr. Norberg (Dana Andrews) attempts to ...

'' (1966) * '' The Bible: In the Beginning...'' (1966); with

* '' This Property Is Condemned'' (1966); with Paramount Pictures * ''

Assault on a Queen ''Assault on a Queen'' is a 1966 American action-adventure film directed by Jack Donohue and starring Frank Sinatra and Virna Lisi. Based on a 1959 novel by Jack Finney, it was adapted for the screen by Rod Serling and released by Paramount Pic ...

'' (1966); with Paramount Pictures * '' Rasputin the Mad Monk'' (1966); with Hammer Films * '' The Reptile'' (1966); with Hammer Films * '' The Plague of the Zombies'' (1966); with Hammer Films * '' You're a Big Boy Now'' (1966) * '' Drop Dead Darling'' (1966); with Paramount Pictures * '' Once Before I Die'' (1966) * '' Slave Girls'' (1967); with Hammer Films * '' Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad'' (1967); with Paramount Pictures * '' The Viking Queen'' (1967); with Hammer Films * ''

The Dirty Dozen ''The Dirty Dozen'' is a 1967 American war film directed by Robert Aldrich and starring Lee Marvin with an ensemble supporting cast including Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, George Kennedy ...

'' (1967); with

* ''

The Shuttered Room ''The Shuttered Room'' (a.k.a. ''Blood Island'') is a 1967 British horror film directed by David Greene and starring Gig Young and Carol Lynley as a couple who move into a house with dark secrets. It is based on a short story of the same name ...

'' (1967) * '' It!'' (1967) * '' A Challenge for Robin Hood'' (1967); with Hammer Films * '' The Anniversary'' (1968); with Hammer Films * ''

The Vengeance of She ''The Vengeance of She'' is a 1968 British fantasy film directed by Cliff Owen and starring John Richardson (actor), John Richardson, Olga Schoberová, Olinka Berova, Edward Judd, André Morell and Colin Blakely. It bears little in common with th ...

'' (1968); with Hammer Films * '' The Lost Continent'' (1968); with Hammer Films * '' The Devil Rides Out'' (1968); with Hammer Films

Theatre credits

* ''

The World of Suzie Wong ''The World of Suzie Wong'' is a 1957 novel by British writer Richard Mason. The main characters are Robert Lomax, a young British artist living in Hong Kong, and Suzie Wong, the title character, a Chinese woman who works as a prostitute. ...

'' (1958–60) * '' Everybody Loves Opal'' (1961) * '' Funny Girl'' (1964–67) * ''

Any Wednesday ''Any Wednesday'' is a 1966 American Technicolor romantic comedy film starring Jane Fonda, Jason Robards, and Dean Jones. It was directed by Robert Ellis Miller from a screenplay by producer Julius J. Epstein based on the Broadway play of the ...

'' (1964–66) * ''

The Owl and the Pussycat "The Owl and the Pussy-cat" is a nonsense poem by Edward Lear, first published in 1870 in the American magazine '' Our Young Folks: an Illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls'' and again the following year in Lear's own book ''Nonsense Songs, S ...

'' (1964–65)

References

External links

* {{Authority control American companies established in 1957 Film production companies of the United States Warner Bros. Discovery subsidiaries Defunct mass media companies of the United States Entertainment companies based in California Companies based in Los Angeles County, California Entertainment companies established in 1957 Mass media companies established in 1957 Mass media companies disestablished in 1967 Defunct companies based in Greater Los Angeles