Frank Agrama, founder and chairman of Harmony Gold, died on Tuesday. He was 93.
Agrama’s career as an entertainment pioneer saw him founding several production companies including the Film Association of Rome and then Harmony Gold, which launched television series such as “Shaka Zulu” and “Robotech.”
He was born on Jan. 1, 1930, and became a child actor in Egypt with his own TV series. While his father was the Surgeon General of Egypt, Agrama initially followed in his father’s footsteps by acquiring a degree in medicine and surgery from the University of Cairo. By the time he was 23 years old, Agrama was a medical doctor.
Agrama left his medical career to pursue his passion for entertainment production, obtaining a Bachelor of Theater Arts from UCLA. He then moved back to the Middle East in 1964 where he would go on to help establish Lebanon’s movie industry.
Agrama then moved to...
Agrama’s career as an entertainment pioneer saw him founding several production companies including the Film Association of Rome and then Harmony Gold, which launched television series such as “Shaka Zulu” and “Robotech.”
He was born on Jan. 1, 1930, and became a child actor in Egypt with his own TV series. While his father was the Surgeon General of Egypt, Agrama initially followed in his father’s footsteps by acquiring a degree in medicine and surgery from the University of Cairo. By the time he was 23 years old, Agrama was a medical doctor.
Agrama left his medical career to pursue his passion for entertainment production, obtaining a Bachelor of Theater Arts from UCLA. He then moved back to the Middle East in 1964 where he would go on to help establish Lebanon’s movie industry.
Agrama then moved to...
- 4/26/2023
- by McKinley Franklin
- Variety Film + TV
The day anime fans thought would never come is here.
Premiering in 1982, Super Dimension Fortress Macross was the start of a massive anime franchise that’s continued to this day with numerous sequels and films. While the first Macross series came to the west as the first part of the Robotech series (and was released uncut later on), most of those sequels and films haven’t been released outside of Japan due to varying legal disagreements between rights holders Big West Co. Ltd., Studio Nue, Inc. (who were both involved in the original creation of Macross) and Harmony Gold U.S.A. (who created Robotech.)
That all changes today.
An “expansive agreement” between Big West, Studio Nue, and Harmony Gold will allow immediate international distribution of “most Macross television sequels and films.” It also affirms Harmony Gold’s rights to the Robotech franchise. Going forward, Big West and Harmony Gold...
Premiering in 1982, Super Dimension Fortress Macross was the start of a massive anime franchise that’s continued to this day with numerous sequels and films. While the first Macross series came to the west as the first part of the Robotech series (and was released uncut later on), most of those sequels and films haven’t been released outside of Japan due to varying legal disagreements between rights holders Big West Co. Ltd., Studio Nue, Inc. (who were both involved in the original creation of Macross) and Harmony Gold U.S.A. (who created Robotech.)
That all changes today.
An “expansive agreement” between Big West, Studio Nue, and Harmony Gold will allow immediate international distribution of “most Macross television sequels and films.” It also affirms Harmony Gold’s rights to the Robotech franchise. Going forward, Big West and Harmony Gold...
- 4/9/2021
- by Shamus Kelley
- Den of Geek
After tackling Stephen King’s It Andy Muschietti has been picked to helm the popular anime series Robotech.
Hollywood teases me at times. Robotech is a series that helped anime get it’s foothold in the U.S. Based off the series Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Calvary Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada to make a new series with a connective history between the shows that did not have anything to do with each other. And I’ll be damned it worked. I was a huge fan of the show because it was honestly one of the best stories on TV at the time and the animation just made it worth watching.
Back in 2007 it was the beginning of talks to bring the series to the big screen in live action or some other form because planes that transform into robots and a form between the two, that’s...
Hollywood teases me at times. Robotech is a series that helped anime get it’s foothold in the U.S. Based off the series Super Dimension Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Calvary Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada to make a new series with a connective history between the shows that did not have anything to do with each other. And I’ll be damned it worked. I was a huge fan of the show because it was honestly one of the best stories on TV at the time and the animation just made it worth watching.
Back in 2007 it was the beginning of talks to bring the series to the big screen in live action or some other form because planes that transform into robots and a form between the two, that’s...
- 7/18/2017
- by feeds@cinelinx.com (Jason The X)
- Cinelinx
In a double whammy of announcements on Tuesday, Sony Pictures has snapped up rights to the sci-fi anime and set a 2017 release date for its third Smurfs film.
300 creators Gianni Nunnari and Mark Canton will produce for the studio, which snapped up rights once they became available.
The Robotech property had initially been set up at Warner Bros for Tobey Maguire and Akiva Goldsman to produce.
Doug Belgrad, Michael De Luca and Matthew Milam will oversee the potential franchise for Sony.
Robotech reached peak popularity as a 1980s TV show. Frank Agrama of Harmony Gold, the original intellectual property rights holder, will serve as executive producer with Michael Gordon and Jehan Agrama.
Meanwhile Untitled Animated Smurfs will open on March 31 2017. Kelly Asbury will direct and Jordan Kerner produces. The final title and new voice cast are expected to be announced in the coming months.
300 creators Gianni Nunnari and Mark Canton will produce for the studio, which snapped up rights once they became available.
The Robotech property had initially been set up at Warner Bros for Tobey Maguire and Akiva Goldsman to produce.
Doug Belgrad, Michael De Luca and Matthew Milam will oversee the potential franchise for Sony.
Robotech reached peak popularity as a 1980s TV show. Frank Agrama of Harmony Gold, the original intellectual property rights holder, will serve as executive producer with Michael Gordon and Jehan Agrama.
Meanwhile Untitled Animated Smurfs will open on March 31 2017. Kelly Asbury will direct and Jordan Kerner produces. The final title and new voice cast are expected to be announced in the coming months.
- 3/26/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Prepare to be corrupted and depraved once more as Nucleus Films releases the sequel to the definitive guide to the Video Nasties phenomenon – the most extraordinary and scandalous era in the history of British film. Video Nasties: The Definitive Guide Part 2, a three-disc collector’s edition box set, is being released on DVD on July 14th 2014, to tie in with the 30th Anniversary of the Video Recordings Act 1984.
For the first time ever on DVD, all 82 films that fell foul of the Director of Public Prosecutions “Section 3” list are trailer-featured with specially filmed intros for each title, alongside a brand new documentary – Video Nasties: Draconian Days (review), directed by Jake West.
And to celebrate the release, Film4 FrightFest is hosting a special event – the world exclusive London Premiere of the finalised unseen extended 97 minute cut of Video Nasties: Draconian Days at The Prince Charles Cinema on Thurs 3 July, 8.30pm. The...
For the first time ever on DVD, all 82 films that fell foul of the Director of Public Prosecutions “Section 3” list are trailer-featured with specially filmed intros for each title, alongside a brand new documentary – Video Nasties: Draconian Days (review), directed by Jake West.
And to celebrate the release, Film4 FrightFest is hosting a special event – the world exclusive London Premiere of the finalised unseen extended 97 minute cut of Video Nasties: Draconian Days at The Prince Charles Cinema on Thurs 3 July, 8.30pm. The...
- 5/21/2014
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
It's the still in a process of refinement, but Indiewire has expanded their gateway to film criticism with Criticwire 2.0, which works as a catalog of critics and criticism that offers a much needed alternative to Rotten Tomatoes. It's less about looking for consensus than it is about offering a simple way of following the critics that interest you and discovering new ones along the way.
The Vienna Film Festival is underway, and while all of us who are not attending lament not being able to check out Mike Ott's DJ set, we have only the coverage of others to turn to for consolation. Turns out there isn't much of that available either, unless you can read German, so for now check out our coverage here in the Notebook, and hopefully there will be more to share next week. Ti West is prepping his next horror film, The Sacrament,...
The Vienna Film Festival is underway, and while all of us who are not attending lament not being able to check out Mike Ott's DJ set, we have only the coverage of others to turn to for consolation. Turns out there isn't much of that available either, unless you can read German, so for now check out our coverage here in the Notebook, and hopefully there will be more to share next week. Ti West is prepping his next horror film, The Sacrament,...
- 10/31/2012
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
"People have willingly lobotomized themselves with the aid of TV, we are living in a landscape of enormous fictions of which television is the supplier. Reality is now a kind of huge advertising campaign selling television's image of what life is about. A politician's lies are the new truth; TV wars are the new peace. Alienation is the new togetherness." -- Jg Ballard It's not by chance that one of the most influential movies ever made, Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane," recounts the exploits of a media tycoon and his megalomaniac empire-building. And it's perhaps not by chance either that the first case -- of the countless Silvio Berlusconi is implicated in -- that saw the former Italian Prime Minister being sentenced to jail along with Hollywood producer Frank Agrama on October 26 is related to broadcasting rights. Though popular belief in Italy and especially abroad...
- 10/30/2012
- by Celluloid Liberation Front
- Indiewire
Trashy, sometimes artistic and frequently deceptive, 80s horror movie video covers often provided more entertainment than the features themselves. Here are a few of our favourites…
Throughout the 80s and into the early-90s, the VHS tape ruled the Earth. Bulky and unreliable, home videos nevertheless had their own quaint appeal, and visiting a video hire store was, for more than a decade, an adventure in itself.
Attempting to pick out the obscure gems from among the shelves of Z-grade trash was rendered all the more difficult by the loud, brash covers so many films were encased in.
When it came to choosing from the frequently vast selection of horror films available, the selection process became still more difficult. In the 80s, horror video covers were usually hand painted, lurid and sometimes spectacularly imaginative, often masking the utter dross housed on the tape itself.
Zero-budget rip-offs of better films (frequent...
Throughout the 80s and into the early-90s, the VHS tape ruled the Earth. Bulky and unreliable, home videos nevertheless had their own quaint appeal, and visiting a video hire store was, for more than a decade, an adventure in itself.
Attempting to pick out the obscure gems from among the shelves of Z-grade trash was rendered all the more difficult by the loud, brash covers so many films were encased in.
When it came to choosing from the frequently vast selection of horror films available, the selection process became still more difficult. In the 80s, horror video covers were usually hand painted, lurid and sometimes spectacularly imaginative, often masking the utter dross housed on the tape itself.
Zero-budget rip-offs of better films (frequent...
- 8/16/2010
- Den of Geek
According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, writers from the WB’s Superman hit “Smallville”, have been signed to write a film adaptation of “Robotech” for Warner Bros. Akiva Goldsman, Chuck Roven, Tobey Maguire and Drew Crevello are attached to produce, and the film will be executive produced by Frank Agrama and Jason Netter. Robotech is an animated sci-fi robot franchise that was launched by an 85-episode adaptation of three different anime television series, “Super Dimension Fortress Macross”, “Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross”, and “Genesis Climber Mospeada”. Brought to the Us in 1985, it was one of American audiences’ first exposures to Japanese anime, albeit through the re-cut and edited combination of the three [...]...
- 11/18/2008
- by Costa Koutsoutis
- ShockYa
Alfred Gough and Miles Millar have been drafted to pen "Robotech," Warner Bros.' adaptation of the anime classic.
Akiva Goldsman and Chuck Roven are producing with Tobey Maguire and Drew Crevello.
"Robotech" was a 1980s cartoon series from Harmony Gold USA and Tatsunoko Prods. It was re-edited and re-dialogued to combine three Japanese anime series to give the producers enough episodes to air as a daily syndicated series.
A sprawling sci-fi epic, "Robotech" takes place at a time when Earth has developed giant robots from the technology on an alien spacecraft that crashed on a South Pacific isle. Mankind is forced to use the technology to fend off an alien invasion, with the fate of the human race ending up in the hands of two young pilots.
Lawrence Kasdan wrote a previous draft. Warners is intent on keeping the project moving forward, and Gough and Millar bring action and geek cred to the table.
Akiva Goldsman and Chuck Roven are producing with Tobey Maguire and Drew Crevello.
"Robotech" was a 1980s cartoon series from Harmony Gold USA and Tatsunoko Prods. It was re-edited and re-dialogued to combine three Japanese anime series to give the producers enough episodes to air as a daily syndicated series.
A sprawling sci-fi epic, "Robotech" takes place at a time when Earth has developed giant robots from the technology on an alien spacecraft that crashed on a South Pacific isle. Mankind is forced to use the technology to fend off an alien invasion, with the fate of the human race ending up in the hands of two young pilots.
Lawrence Kasdan wrote a previous draft. Warners is intent on keeping the project moving forward, and Gough and Millar bring action and geek cred to the table.
- 11/17/2008
- by By Borys Kit
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
ROME -- The fraud and corruption trial of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi took a turn Friday as a U.S. District Court informed Italian authorities that evidence gathered in an FBI raid on the home and office of producer Frank Agrama was gathered illegally.
The FBI raided Agrama's Bel-Air home and office in November after an official request from Italian magistrates. But District Court Judge Dean Pregerson said that the information taken from the founder and CEO of the Harmony Gold Companies could not be used in court and must be returned intact.
Italian magistrates said Friday that they are mulling a possible appeal of the ruling, which charged that Italian investigators illegally examined private documents that would have been used in Agrama's defense.
Italian prosecutor Fabio de Pasquale told Italian daily Corriere della Sera that the proper rules had been followed and that the information gathered should be allowed to be used in court.
The FBI raided Agrama's Bel-Air home and office in November after an official request from Italian magistrates. But District Court Judge Dean Pregerson said that the information taken from the founder and CEO of the Harmony Gold Companies could not be used in court and must be returned intact.
Italian magistrates said Friday that they are mulling a possible appeal of the ruling, which charged that Italian investigators illegally examined private documents that would have been used in Agrama's defense.
Italian prosecutor Fabio de Pasquale told Italian daily Corriere della Sera that the proper rules had been followed and that the information gathered should be allowed to be used in court.
ROME -- The long-awaited corruption trial of beleaguered media tycoon and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi finally got underway Friday, and though Berlusconi was not present in the courtroom, it seems all but certain he will be forced to appear in the coming weeks.
The trial has been delayed twice: once to rule on a motion that the judge be removed and once after Berlusconi collapsed at a political rally and spent three days in the hospital.
The actual start was anti-climatic -- consisting of attorneys for each side filing documents -- but the trial itself promises to be dramatic. While the billionaire media tycoon has been dogged by legal problems for most of the last 15 years, he has never actually appeared in court to answer charges.
The trial also seems sure to be wide-ranging as Berlusconi's 13 co-defendants hail from four different countries. On Thursday, police in Los Angeles raided the home and office of producer Frank Agrama at the request of Italian law enforcement, which believes Agrama may have been party to a plan to inflate the price of television rights to help pay for millions in kickbacks.
The trial has been delayed twice: once to rule on a motion that the judge be removed and once after Berlusconi collapsed at a political rally and spent three days in the hospital.
The actual start was anti-climatic -- consisting of attorneys for each side filing documents -- but the trial itself promises to be dramatic. While the billionaire media tycoon has been dogged by legal problems for most of the last 15 years, he has never actually appeared in court to answer charges.
The trial also seems sure to be wide-ranging as Berlusconi's 13 co-defendants hail from four different countries. On Thursday, police in Los Angeles raided the home and office of producer Frank Agrama at the request of Italian law enforcement, which believes Agrama may have been party to a plan to inflate the price of television rights to help pay for millions in kickbacks.
- 12/1/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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