Mario Kassar
| Mario Kassar | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Born |
October 10, 1951 Beirut, Lebanon |
| Occupation | Film producer |
| Website | www.mariokassar.com |
Mario F. Kassar (Arabic: ماريو قصار; born October 10, 1951) is a Lebanese film producer and industry executive whose projects are frequently in association with Andrew G. Vajna. He founded Carolco Pictures, which produced many blockbuster movies. Many films he has produced have gone on to gross over $250 million worldwide at the box office.
Kassar was born on October 10, 1951 in Beirut, Lebanon. Like him, his father was also an independent movie producer. Kassar is of Lebanese and Italian descent.
At the age of 15, Kassar had purchased several Italian and French films for distribution in the Far East.
Kassar met Andrew G. Vajna at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival. A year later, Kassar and Vajna founded Carolco Pictures. "Carolco" was a name they had taken from a long-defunct company based in Panama. "We just bought the name," Kassar later told Entertainment Weekly. "It means nothing."
The first film Kassar and Vajna ventured together was The Sicilian Cross, a 1976 Italian film that starred Roger Moore. They bought the rights to the film for $130,000. Kassar flew to Asia and sold it for $220,000. By the early 1980s, Vajna and Kassar had bought a small office in Melrose Avenue. Their desks faced each other in the office and Vajna’s wife and Kassar’s girlfriend were their secretaries. Kassar and Vajna served as executive producers on The Changeling (1980), The Amateur (1981), and Escape to Victory (1981). The latter film marked the first time for both Kassar and Vajna to have worked with Sylvester Stallone.
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