Menahem Golan

Menahem Golan (1929 - ) (Hebrew: מנחם גולן‎) is an Israeli director and producer. He was co-owner of Golan-Globus with his cousin Yoram Globus.

Biography

Menahem Golan (Globus) was born on May 31, 1929, in Tiberias, then Mandate Palestine. He studied directing at the Old Vic School and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and filmmaking at New York University. During the Israeli War of Independence he served as a pilot in the Israeli Air Force. Golan is married and has three children. ^[1]

Directing and film career

Golan started out as an apprentice at Habima Theater in Tel Aviv. After completing his studies in theater direction, he staged plays in Israel. He gained experience as a filmmaker by working as an assistant to Roger Corman. ^[2]

Movie production

Golan has produced movies for such stars as Sean Connery, Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Charles Bronson, and was known for a period as a producer of comic book-style movies like Masters of the Universe, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Captain America, and his aborted attempt to bring Spider-Man to the silver screen. Using the pen name of Joseph Goldman, Golan has also written and "polished" film scripts.^[3]

As a director, Golan is probably most known for his 1977 film Operation Thunderbolt (Mivtsa Yonatan), about the Israeli raid on Entebbe airport in Uganda. He is also well-known for producing the 1978 film Eskimo Limon (Lemon Popsicle) which remains the most popular Israeli film of all time (nearly one-third of the country went to see it on its release).^{[citation needed]} Lemon Popsicle went on to be a big international hit, spawning many sequels and an American remake named The Last American Virgin.

Golan was responsible for the 1980 musical The Apple, an unusual moral fable with a rock-disco soundtrack which appears on a number of lists of all-time-worst movies.^[4]

Golan's production company The Cannon Group produced a long line of movies during the 1980s and early 1990s, such as Delta Force, Runaway Train, and some of the Death Wish sequels. In 1986, Cannon was taken over by Pathe Communications. Golan produced several comic book-style movies in the latter half of the 1980s, perhaps most notably Masters of the Universe, based on the toys of the same name and inspired by the comics work of Jack Kirby.^[5] In 1987, Cannon gained infamy after their U.K.-based production of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace failed in theaters and provoked a negative backlash from fans. In 1989 Golan resigned from Cannon, and by 1993 it had folded. Immediately following Cannon's collapse, Golan became head of 21st Century Film Corporation and produced several medium-budget films.

Golan was hoping to film Spider-Man in 1986 at Cannon studios in United Kingdom, and shoot the exteriors in Tel-Aviv, Israel. Dolph Lundgren was envisioned as the Green Goblin and Spider-Man creator Stan Lee was approached to cameo as J. Jonah Jameson.^[6] Golan struggled for years to produce the Marvel Comics character, but failed after 21st Century Film Corporation went bankrupt and folded in 1996 (along with Carolco Pictures, another production company that had agreed to help Golan finance the film). Sony Pictures eventually got the Spider-Man rights and produced the first film in 2002.

Awards and commemoration

• In 1999, Golan was awarded the Israel Prize for his contribution to cinema.^[7]
• The movie theater in the Azrieli building in Tel-Aviv, Israel bears the name of the Golan-Globus company.

References

External links

• Menahem Golan at the Internet Movie Database

See also

• List of Israel Prize recipients