PM Entertainment

In 1986, Joseph Toufik Merhi, an indie film director and producer, founded the production company City Lights Entertainment with producer Ronald L. Gilchrist for his first movies, the comedy Hollywood In Trouble and slasher film Mayhem.[1] The films were successful and caught the VHS Direct-to-video boom beginning in the mid-late 80s.

However in 1989, the relationship between Merhi and Gilchrist turned sour and their partnership was dissolved with Gilchrist and City Lights keeping the rights to the films already produced or in production.[2] The last films released by City Lights were Payback and Contra Conspiracy in 1990.[3][4] City Lights Enterainment produced eleven films from 1986 to 1990.[5]

Around 1989, after splitting from producer Ronald Gilchrist's City Lights, Merhi started PM Entertainment along with fellow director Richard Pepin (PM Entertainment from surnames Pepin-Merhi). Based on the successful formula pioneered at City Lights Entertainment, PM Entertainment entered into an exclusive distribution contract with HBO and George Shamieh joined as the third partner and head of sales.[6] The first film produced by PM Entertainment was L.A. Heat directed by Merhi and starring Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs and Jim Brown. The film was quickly followed by three sequels Angels of the City (1989), L.A. Vice (1989) and Chance (1990) with Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs reprising his role as Jon Chance in the sequels and also directing Angels of the City.

The company began bringing together a company of actors and directors to work over multiple projects, including Wings Hauser, who directed and starred in three films for the company in the early 90s,[7] and Jeff Conaway, who starred in three films and directed Bikini Summer II.[8]

Although the company focused primarily on the action market and exploitation films, they attempted to diversify into children's films (Magic Kid and Bigfoot: The Unforgettable Encounter) and dramas (Cellblock Sisters: Banished Behind Bars) with limited success. During the 90's, PM Entertainment had success within the kickboxing and martial arts genre and championed Cynthia Rothrock and Don "The Dragon" Wilson in multiple film projects.

In 1996, PM Entertainment diversified into television production with L.A. Heat (TV series). The tv series is largely unrelated their earlier film, L.A. Heat and neither Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs nor his character, Det. Jon Chance, appear in the show. Instead, it focuses on Chester "Chase" McDonald (Wolf Larson) and Detective August Brooks (Steven Williams), two Los Angeles police detectives investigating robbery/homicides. The series aired on TNT for two seasons beginning March 15, 1999.

A second tv series, Hollywood Safari, which acted as a continuation of PM Entertainment's 1997 film of the same name and starred Sam J. Jones and Ted Jan Roberts, ran for one season before its cancellation.

PM Entertainment's business model changed in the late 90's to accommodate distributors requirement that films hire bankable names for projects and they began making films such as Inferno with Jean-Claude van Damme which greatly affected their profit margin. Joseph Merhi and Richard Pepin sold the company to The Harvey Entertainment Group in early 2000 $6.5 million in cash and a further $1.45 million in stock[9] George Shamieh remained as head of the company under the new owners.[10] The company continued to produce star vehicles such as Layover with David Hasselhoff and Camouflage with Leslie Nielsen, however Shamieh departed the company in late 200 due to financial restructuring of The Harvey Entertainment Group.[11]

CineTel Films was brought in to market the library of PM Entertainment and sell rights for up coming productions Con Express and Tunnel with Daniel Baldwin.[12] These would be the last films produced under the PM Entertainment banner. Facing liquidation, The Harvey Entertainment Group sold PM Entertainment and it's library of over 150 films and 2 TV series to Platinum Disc Corporation.[13]