Produzioni Europee Associati (PEA) is an Italian film production company founded in 1962 by

Alberto Grimaldi Alberto Grimaldi (28 March 1925 – 23 January 2021) was an Italian film producer. Biography Grimaldi was born in Naples and studied law. In 1962 he founded his own production company, P.E.A., and released his first feature film, '' The Shadow ...

to produce

international co-production A co-production is a joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint vent ...

s. It released its first feature film '' The Shadow of Zorro'' (''L'ombra di Zorro'') in December that year. Its next production was its first

Spaghetti Western The spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's filmmaking style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

: '' Texas Ranger'' (''I due violenti)'' released in 1964. After the immense success of ''

A Fistful of Dollars ''A Fistful of Dollars'' (, (''For a Fistful of Dollars'')) is a 1964 spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood in his first leading role, alongside Gian Maria Volonté, Marianne Koch, Wolfgang Lukschy, Si ...

'' (1964) in popularizing the genre,

United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...

financed the rest of

Sergio Leone Sergio Leone ( ; ; 3 January 1929 – 30 April 1989) was an Italian filmmaker, credited as the pioneer of the spaghetti Western genre. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema. Leone's film-making style ...

Dollars Trilogy The ''Dollars Trilogy'' (), also known as the ''Man with No Name Trilogy'' (), is an Italian film series consisting of three spaghetti western films directed by Sergio Leone. The films are titled '' A Fistful of Dollars'' (1964), '' For a Few ...

films—''

For a Few Dollars More ''For a Few Dollars More'' () is a 1965 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone. It stars Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef as bounty hunters and Gian Maria Volonté as the primary villain. Klaus Kinski plays a supporting role as a se ...

'' (1965) and ''

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' (, literally "''The good, the ugly, the bad''") is a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood as "the Good", Lee Van Cleef as "the Bad", and Eli Wallach a ...

'' (1966)—and signed a contract to distribute PEA films. In 1976, due to the growing popularity of the

cinema of the United States The cinema of the United States, primarily associated with major film studios collectively referred to as Hollywood, has significantly influenced the global film industry since the early 20th century. Classical Hollywood cinema, a filmma ...

, PEA lost vitality (as well as viewers) and eventually limited its work solely to productions in Europe.

References

Film production companies of Italy United Artists {{IT-film-company-stub