Samuel Hadida (17 December 1953 – 26 November 2018) was a Moroccan-born French film producer.

Early life

Hadida was born in

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

Career

In 1978, he co-founded the company

Metropolitan Filmexport Metropolitan Filmexport is a French film distribution company founded by brothers Samuel and Victor Hadida, along with their father David, in 1978. It distributes films in France, alongside Lionsgate Canada in Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, ...

with his brother Victor. The company later became a successful independent distributor of films in the French-speaking world. Metropolitan Filmexport is the current French distributor for films by

Lionsgate Lions Gate, Lion Gate or similar terms may refer to: Gates *Lion Gate at Mycenae in Greece *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the ancient Hittite city of Hattusa, now in Turkey *Lion Gate, one of the entrances to the gardens of Hampton Court Pala ...

and, formerly,

New Line Cinema New Line Productions, Inc., Trade name, doing business as New Line Cinema, is an American film production, film and television production company that is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, a division of the Major film studios, ...

(

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

now releases New Line films). In 1990, Hadida formed a new company, Davis Films. Since 1993, the company has produced more than thirty Hollywood films, with ''

True Romance ''True Romance'' is a 1993 American romantic crime film directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino. It features an ensemble cast led by Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette, with Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt ...

'' being the first. Though Hadida contributed to the film industry over many decades, his work in spearheading the

Resident Evil ''Resident Evil'', known as in Japan, is a Japanese horror game series and media franchise created by Capcom. It consists of survival horror, third-person shooter and first-person shooter games, with players typically surviving in environments ...

film franchise is what he is best known for. When Hadida learned the project was struggling, he reached out

Constantin Film Constantin Film AG is a German film production company based in Munich. The company, which belongs to Swiss media conglomerate Highlight Communications AG, is a large independent German maker and distributor of productions. Constantin has releas ...

and offered a 50/50 venture deal. This project, as well as his work with the

film adaptation A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...

of ''

Silent Hill is a horror media franchise centered on a series of survival horror games created by Keiichiro Toyama and published by Konami. The first four main games—'' Silent Hill'', '' Silent Hill 2'', '' Silent Hill 3'', and '' Silent Hill 4: The ...

'', has contributed to his recognition within the realm of video game adaptations.

Death

Hadida died at the UCLA Santa Monica Hospital after a short illness.

Controversy

In 2011, Davis Films signed an agreement to create a film adaptation of the book series ''

House of Night ''House of Night'' is a series of young adult fiction, young adult vampire novel, vampire-themed fantasy novels by American author P. C. Cast and her daughter Kristin Cast. It follows the adventures of Zoey Redbird, a 16-year-old girl who is "ma ...

''. Hadida and his company did not follow through on producing the film, yet retained the rights until 2020. This upset the series' fanbase, causing tension between Hadida and the series' authors,

P. C. Cast Phyllis Christine Cast (born April 30, 1960) is an American romance/fantasy author, known for the '' House of Night'' series she writes and her daughter Kristin Cast edits, as well as her own ''Goddess Summoning'' and ''Partholon'' book serie ...

and

Kristin Cast Kristin F. Cast (born November 4, 1986, in Japan) is an American author of young adult books and graphic novels, best known for the ''House of Night'' series and Sisters of Salem series, written with her mother, P. C. Cast. Early life Cast wa ...

Filmography

References

External links

* 1953 births 2018 deaths Mass media people from Casablanca French film producers French people of Moroccan descent French film production company founders {{France-film-bio-stub