Hollywood in Zionist hands
Life and career of Zionist Jew and Israeli agent Arnon Milchan
Arnon Milchan
Arnon Milchan is the Jewish CEO of New Regency Pictures
Honorary Festival Chairman of the 12th Israel Film Festival in the U.S.A (http://www.melmar.com/israel/event/news/letters/arnon.html)
Mr. Arnon was also one of the HONORED GUESTS TO ATTEND Peres' 80th birthday celebrations, Sept. 2003 (http://www.israelnewsagency.com/peres80.html)
The Jewish Agency official Homepage reports:
The Jewish Agency is encouraging hundreds of its shlichim in the US to connect to Israel Network broadcasts via satellite in order to receive 24-hour a day updates on what's happening in Israel.Director-General of the Jewish Agency, Brigadier General (Res.) Giora Romm, says that Jewish Agency representatives are Israel's ambassadors abroad, and in light of the brisk pace of events in Israel and harsh criticism of Israel in the world, it is important that that they be updated and involved in what's going on in Israel on a daily basis. The Jewish Agency has sent shlichim and teachers to encourage aliyah and provide Jewish Zionist education throughout the world.
Shlomo Wolpert, Director-General of the Israeli Network says that tens of thousands of Jews and Israelis abroad who wish to see news events in Israel in real time watch the networks broadcasts daily. "The Israeli Network brings the same pictures that their families see in Israel into their homes," he adds.
The Israeli Network is a satellite TV channel that broadcasts Israeli subject matter to the US and Canada, including news and shows on current events such as Mabat, Sheva Vachetzi, Good Morning Israel, Popolitica, and Mishal Cham. The network is under the ownership of the IGB company, owned by Yitzchak Kaol, who serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors, Carden Communications, Marlez Communications, and the Hollywood company New Regency Productions owned by Arnon Milchin. The company has offices in Kfar Saba, Manhattan, and Los Angeles.
Executive Producer ARNON MILCHAN is widely renowned as one of the most prolific and successful independent film producers of the past 20 years, with over sixty feature films to his credit. Born in Israel, Milchan was educated at the London School of Economics and the University of Geneva. His first business venture was to transform his father's modest business into one of his country's largest agro-chemical companies. This early achievement was a harbinger of Milchan's now legendary reputation in the international marketplace as a keen businessman.Soon, Milchan began to underwrite projects in an area that had always held a special interest for him - film, television and theater. Early projects include Roman Polanski's theater production of "Amadeus," "Dizengoff 99," "La Menace" and "The Medusa Touch. " By the end of the eighties, Milchan had produced such films as Martin Scorsese's "The King of Comedy," Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time In America" and Terry Gilliam's "Brazil."
After the huge success of "Pretty Woman" and "The War of the Roses," Milchan founded New Regency Productions and went on to produce a string of films, including "J. F. K. ," "Sommersby," "A Time to Kill," "Free Willy," "The Client," "Tin Cup," "Under Siege," "L. A. Confidential," "The Devil's Advocate," "The Negotiator," "City of Angels," "Entrapment," "Fight Club," "Don't Say a Word," the blockbuster comedy "Big Momma's House" and "Daredevil," which has grossed $100 million in the U. S.
Upcoming projects include the courtroom thriller "The Runaway Jury," based on the John Grisham best-seller, starring John Cusack, Rachel Weisz, Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman; "First Daughter," directed by Forest Whitaker; "The Girl Next Door," toplining Emile Hirsch and Elisha Cuthbert; "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," starring Brad Pitt and Nicole Kidman; and "Man on Fire," starring Denzel Washington and directed by Tony Scott.
Milchan brought on board some powerful investors and partners who shared his vision: Australian businessman Kerry Packer's Nine Network and Twentieth Century Fox. Fox distributes Regency movies in all media worldwide (excluding output arrangements Regency has in Germany, Italy and Korea with its other strategic partners), except U. S. pay television and international pay and free television.
Milchan also successfully diversified his company's activities within the sphere of entertainment, most specifically in the realm of television through Regency Television ("Malcolm in the Middle," "The Bernie Mac Show"), and sports through an alliance and significant equity investment in PUMA, the worldwide athletic apparel and shoe conglomerate based in Germany.
Arnon Milchan with Zionist co-mafiosi Shimon Peres and Benjamin Netanyahu.
An eclectic film producer and theatrical entrepreneur, Milchan started out producing and financing features in the Israeli film industry. As a producer and executive producer, he has been responsible for numerous features, including adventurous works by some of the world's most celebrated directors: Sergio Leone ("Once Upon a Time in America" 1984); Martin Scorsese ("The King of Comedy" 1983); Terry Gilliam ("Brazil" 1985); Ridley Scott ("Legend" 1985); and Sidney Lumet ("Q&A" 1990). Milchan has collaborated with Oliver Stone on "JFK" (1991), "Heaven and Earth" (1993), and "Natural Born Killers" (1994) and Jon Amiel on "Sommersby" (1993) and "Copycat" (1995).
Moving from Israel to Paris, Milchan produced commercials for French TV and various plays for the Paris stage including a production of "Amadeus" starring Roman Polanski. He also produced the play "Ipi Tombi" and the New York production of "It's Nice to Be Civilized" before segueing into a successful career in Hollywood film production. Milchan's hits include "The War of the Roses" (1989), "Pretty Woman" (1990), "Under Siege" (1992), "Free Willy" (1993), "The Client" (1994) and "Heat" (1995). In recent years, he has branched out into feature financing through his New Regency Productions, which has overseen such films as "Carpool", "Northstar", "Bogus" and "A Time to Kill" (all 1996). In early 1996, he made a bid to purchase Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Arnon Milchan with war criminal Ariel Sharon.
Hollywood's Arnon Milchan and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu - best of buddies.
Arnon Milchan with Moshe Dayan, war criminal and architect behind Israel's Six-Day War of Aggression.
The hug of Judas... Palestinian leader Arafat prostituting himself.
Arnon Milchan was born 12/6/1944 in Palestine. He describes himself as a "10th-generation Palestinian. My family's been there for 500 years. My grandfather was a very close friend of President Weizman." (Los Angeles Magazine, 4/2000)
Milchan's father "laid the sprinklers that irrigated Israel." Later, he grabbed many of Israel's military contracts. (Los Angeles Magazine, 4/2000)
Arnon played soccer for Israel. He studied bio-chemistry. He was an undercover operative for the Israeli government and an international arms dealer.
Arnon put his father's company on the international map. He marketed a new nutrient that quadrupled citrus production, bringing his company big sales around the world. "This is a man who made his fortune by screwing with nature," says screenwriter Shawn Slovo, who served as Arnon's secretary in 1977. "He's the Israeli who made the desert bloom. Amazing when you think about it. He could have retired at the age of 22." (Los Angeles Magazine, 4/2000)
Around age 22, Milchan met French model Brigitte Genmaire in the lobby of a Tel Aviv hotel. "She converted to Judaism when she was nine months' pregnant," says Milchan. "It was funny, because part of her vows was declaring to the rabbi that she was a virgin." They had three kids. "The problems began when she learned Hebrew and I really learned French. When we could finally communicate with each other, then there were problems." (Los Angeles Magazine, 4/2000)
Around 1970, Arnon hung out at a Tel Aviv restaurant with ambitious young Israelis such as Shimon Peres, Moshe Dayan, Teddy Kolleck, and Chaim Herzog. Arnon briefly considered a political career. He decided against it but the contacts he made were useful for selling weapons.
Ann Louise Bardach writes in the April 2000 issue of Los Angeles Magazine: "Throughout the 1970s, '80s, and even up until the Gulf War in 1991, Milchan was Israel's foremost weapons procurer, brokering deals for such prized superweapons as the Hawk missile and the famous Scud-foil of the Gulf War, the Patriot - "everything from nuclear triggers to rocket fuel to guidance systems," according to NBC News. At different times in his career, his Israeli company, Milchan Brothers, has represented arms manufacturers such as Raytheon, North American Rockwell, Beechraft, Bell Helicopter and Magnavox..."
Bardach writes that Milchan bristles at being called an arms dealer. "I'm their rep in Israel." He says he's never sold to countries other than Israel.
Milchan is worth about $800 million. He controls 30 companies in 17 countries, everything from chemicals and agribusiness to arms consulting and sports apparel. According to London's Sunday Times of 1985, Milchan is the heir to a large chemical manufacturing fortune. He prefers to describe himself as a self-made millionaire. (Losing the Light, pg. 1)
Milchan describes himself as "young, slim, good-looking, amiable and clever." He likes to wear tinted spectacles, double-ply cashmere and scuffed leathers and open-necked silk shirts exposing his hairy chest. (Losing the Light, pg. 1)
Accountant Steve Abbott, who began working with actor-director Terry Gilliam in 1979, describes Milchan as "a producer of the no-hands-on school. He knows the heads of Hollywood studios and major heads of finance in Europe and puts people together." (Losing the Light, pg. 2)
On The Adventures of Baron Munchausen movie, Abbott was furious to find Milchan charged the film for all kinds of his personal expenses. (Losing the Light, pg. 3)
"The main kick for Milchan is in the glamor aspect, getting to schmooze movie stars and power brokers, the 'starfucker' phenomenon," said Abbott. (Losing the Light, pg. 1)
Terry Gilliam had lunch one day with 20th Century Fox executive Scott Rudin, who said the studio had paid Milchan $150,000 to develop Munchausen. Fox wanted its money back.
Gilliam was shocked. This was the first he'd heard of Fox paying Milchan for the movie. Gilliam thought he was partners with Milchan on Munchausen. Why hadn't he been informed? Where did the money go? Gilliam remembered paying McKeown out of his own pocket because Milchan wouldn't.
Gillian had dinner that night with Arnon Milchan. As they were leaving the restaurant, Gilliam said to Milchan, "By the way, Scott Rudin wants the $150,000 back Fox paid you."
Andrew Yule writes in his book Losing the Light: "In an instant the smile was wiped off Milchan's face. The veins on his neck began to bulge. His face, says Gilliam, turned purple with rage. "You think you are so smart, Terry," Milchan finally blurted out. You think you know everything." Then he stormed past everyone and out into the night. Gilliam has not spoken to Milchan since."
Gilliam: "[Arnon] been demanding ridiculous things from Charles [McKeon, writer] and not paying him, and all the time he'd quietly pocketed Fox's money. Arnon can be great, but when it comes to money there's something - I don't know - bit sjust don't seem to connect." (Losing the Light, pg. 20)
Writer Charles McKeown on Milchan: "You just never know whether he was telling the truth or not. The kind of deals he was in, the level of finance and the way he operated, seemed to me like a world upside down. I felt we were dealing with a sort of dangerous, shady quality. He boasts enormous wealth and clearly wants to be seen as the most generous individual.
"When it came to getting ten thousand pounds out of him for some work he actually owed me, forget it. My agent spent months phoning him all over the world and getting no reply. He seemed to be quite pathological in his desire not to part with money." (Losing the Light, pg. 3-4)
To leave the Munchausen project, Milchan initially asked for nothing. A few months down the road, he demanded the Gilliam and company pay back Fox the $150,000 Arnon had been given, as well as pay Arnon $750,000.
"Arnon was a pirate, a buccaneer in Hollywood," says Gilliam. "He ran into Hollywood's anti-Semitism. They don't like real Jews. They don't like Israelis. Arnon has a Levantine soul. Everything is horse trading and carpet dealing." A top Hollywood executive once warned Oliver Stone to stay clear of Milchan. "He told me that Arnon was a Middle Eastern rug dealer. Beware," recalls Stone, embittered from business dealings gone sour. "I should have listened to him. He was right."
"Arnon has to screw everyone - partners, friends - literally, figuratively, in every sense of the word," says Gilliam. "It's pathological. He can't stop himself. At some point, he needs to invent an enemy.
"Arnon could be king of the world - if he only stopped doing petty, stupid things." (Los Angeles Magazine, 4/00)
Arnon Milchan was also profiled in the 3/5/2000 edition of the TV show 60 Minutes.
CBS reporter Steve Kroft in the 3/5/2000 edition of the TV show 60 Minutes: "[Arnon Milchan's] Regency Productions logo is instantly recognizable to anyone who regularly goes to the movies. He`s bankrolled all or part of 60 films, and in the process changed the way business is done in Hollywood. Milchan`s Regency Productions puts down huge sums of money and pays the studios -- first Warner Brothers and now Fox -- a fee for distribution and marketing. Regency owns the movie and keeps a big chunk of the profits."
Journalist Anita Busch: "He`s extremely powerful because he brings money to the table. He`s unique in that way. He`s got a credit line that`s astronomical, like, you know, almost a billion dollars."
Kroft: "Milchan was born and raised outside Tel Aviv in a well-connected middle-class family that can trace its roots there back 10 generations. From his father, he inherited $61,000 and a failing fertilizer company, which he quickly turned into a $100 million chemical business. By his mid-20s, he was already featured on Israeli television as a promising young businessman who was beginning to branch out into all sorts of things, eventually becoming one of Israel`s largest arms dealers, although he hates the sound of the words."
Milchan bought Hawk and Patriot missiles for Israel. He acted as a middleman between American defense contractors like Rockwell and Raytheon and the Israeli ministry of defense.
Israeli decided in the early seventies that it needed to develop its own arms industry. Milchan offered his help to Shimon Peres, then Israel's minister of defense. Potential clients for Israel were countries embargoed by the US such as South Africa.
While the United States refused to sell weapons to the apartheid government, Israel did. The two countries eventually cooperated on the development of missiles and nuclear weapons. Milchan facilitated these transactions.
military arrangement between South Africa and Israel included not just arms sales but, some believe, cooperation on developing missiles and even nuclear weapons. And Arnon Milchan, by his own admissions, helped facilitate those transactions.
Milchan told 60 Minutes: "I was playing an important role in the system of collecting money from South Africa, or transferring money, or helping South Africa in their financial transactions."
According to 60 Minutes, some of the money Milchan moved around the world came from an illegal $100 million slush fund set up by the South African government used to buy off politicians and foreign media outlets critical of its policies.
U.S. court records show that one of Milchan's companies in Israel secretly bought restricted equipment for what looked like nuclear weapons. The seller was an American company called Milco. It was headquartered in a business mall in Huntington Beach, California, until its president, Richard Smythe fled the country after being indicted for illegally shipping 800 sophisticated electronic timing devices called chrythrons to Israel, in violation of U.S. export law. Chrythrons can be used to trigger nuclear explosions.
It wasn`t just chrythrons that Milco was selling to Arnon Milchan`s various enterprises. According to company records, Heli- Trading and Milchan Brothers also ordered chemicals for solid- fuel rockets, lasers, high-voltage condensers, and delay lines used to separate missile stages. One director of the company, a nuclear scientist named Robert Meinhard told 60 Minutes he finally resigned after Milchan asked him to obtain advanced nuclear reactor designs and a supply of uranium hexachloride, which is used in the enrichment of uranium to bomb-grade quality.
5/24/2001 African News Service
In 1976 I had just written a book about the arms trade, The Arms Bazaar, which described some of the more sinister transactions between governments and arms dealers; I was especially interested in dealings with South Africa, which at the time was under an arms embargo.
I was approached by a well-known producer, Elliott Kastner, himself somewhat enigmatic, who wanted to make a movie out of it. He wanted me to write a screenplay, though the real backer of the film, he told me, would be an Israeli called Arnon Milchan, who was new to the movie business but who was "the biggest hunk of manpower I've ever met". Milchan, he said, moved at the speed of light, with no office or secretary: "His office is his mind." He enjoyed courting danger and flew around the world with a briefcase containing $75 000 in different currencies.
Soon afterwards I received several quick-fire phone calls from Milchan in Israel: he wanted to meet me urgently. He hired a private plane and appeared at my London home in tennis shoes and sports clothes, and carrying a black briefcase with a row of six combination locks. He seemed more like a movie star than a producer: glamorous, young and filmic. He told me that he came from an old Israeli family and had inherited a fertiliser company, which he had transformed into a very profitable chemical combine. But he really wanted to create. He could not be a writer or a painter, so he had decided to become a film producer. Above all, he wanted to make a film about the arms trade.
GQ, 10/1997
Peter Bart writes: "While most successful producers work the studios, Arnon Milchan, the Henry Kissinger of filmmakers, has built his power base on a globe-spanning alliance made up of the octopus-like Rupert Murdoch, Australian billionaire Kerry Packer, German media mogul Leo Kirch, and the giant Samsung Corporation of South Korea. Wielding global clout, Milchan has spawned such moves as Tin Cup and A Time to Kill by reminding Hollywood that if a studio doesn't do things his way, he can go ahead and shape his own destiny. The Israeli-born Milchan understands the nuances of Hollywood better than perhaps any other foreign producer, yet he also possesses a keen knowledge of what will play around the world. Given that the market outside the United States now accounts for well over fifty percent of all movie revenue, Milchan's command of the foreign market and his gift for complex intercontinental dealmaking have earned him a unique place in the Hollywood firmament."
Arnon Milchan - Filmography as: Producer, Actor, Miscellaneous Crew, Himself
Producer - filmographyStay (2004) (filming) (executive producer)
Man on Fire (2004) (post-production) (producer)
Runaway Jury (2003) (producer)
Down with Love (2003) (executive producer)
Daredevil (2003) (producer)
Unfaithful (2002) (executive producer)
... aka Untreu (2002) (Germany)Life or Something Like It (2002) (producer)
High Crimes (2002) (producer)
Joe Somebody (2001) (executive producer)
Black Knight (2001) (producer)
Don't Say a Word (2001) (producer)
Joy Ride (2001) (executive producer)
... aka Roadkill (2002/II) (Australia) (UK)Freddy Got Fingered (2001) (executive producer)
Tigerland (2000) (producer)
Big Momma's House (2000) (executive producer)
... aka Big Mamas Haus (2000) (Germany)Up at the Villa (2000) (executive producer)
Noriega: God's Favorite (2000) (TV) (executive producer)
Fight Club (1999) (executive producer)
... aka Fight Club (1999) (Germany)Hunt for the Unicorn Killer, The (1999) (TV) (producer)
Entrapment (1999) (executive producer)
... aka Verlockende Falle (1999) (Germany)Midsummer Night's Dream, A (1999) (executive producer)
... aka Sogno di una notte di mezza estate (1999) (Italy)
... aka William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999) (USA: complete title)Goodbye Lover (1999) (executive producer)
Simply Irresistible (1999) (executive producer)
... aka Einfach unwiderstehlich (2000) (Germany)Negotiator, The (1998) (producer)
... aka Verhandlungssache (1999) (Germany)City of Angels (1998) (executive producer)
... aka Stadt der Engel (1998) (Germany)Dangerous Beauty (1998) (producer)
... aka Honest Courtesan, The (1998) (UK) (USA: working title)
... aka Destiny of Her Own, A (1999) (Australia)Man Who Knew Too Little, The (1997) (producer)
... aka Agent Null Null Nix (1998) (Germany)Breaking Up (1997) (executive producer)
Devil's Advocate, The (1997) (producer)
... aka Im Auftrag des Teufels (1998) (Germany)"Michael Hayes" (1997) TV Series (executive producer)
Free Willy 3: The Rescue (1997) (executive producer)
L.A. Confidential (1997) (producer)
Murder at 1600 (1997) (producer)
Mirror Has Two Faces, The (1996) (producer)
Bogus (1996) (producer)
Tin Cup (1996) (executive producer)
Time to Kill, A (1996) (producer)
Carpool (1996) (producer)
Sunchaser, The (1996) (producer)
Heat (1995) (executive producer)
Copycat (1995) (producer)
Empire Records (1995) (producer)
... aka Empire (1995/II)
... aka Rock & Fun (1995)"Client, The" (1995) TV Series (executive producer)
... aka "John Grisham's The Client" (1995)Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home (1995) (executive producer)
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) (producer)
... aka Under Siege 2 (1995)Boys on the Side (1995) (producer)
... aka Avec ou sans hommes (1995) (France)Cobb (1994) (executive producer)
New Age, The (1994) (producer)
Second Best (1994) (executive producer)
Natural Born Killers (1994) (executive producer)
Client, The (1994) (producer)
Six Degrees of Separation (1993) (producer)
Nutcracker, The (1993) (executive producer)
... aka George Balanchine's The Nutcracker (1993) (USA: complete title)Striking Distance (1993) (producer)
Free Willy (1993) (executive producer)
Made in America (1993) (producer)
Falling Down (1993) (executive producer)
... aka Chute libre (1993/II) (France)Sommersby (1993) (producer)
Heaven & Earth (1993) (producer)
... aka Entre ciel et terre (1994) (France)That Night (1992) (producer)
... aka One Hot Summer (1992)Under Siege (1992) (producer)
... aka Piège en haute mer (1993) (France)Power of One, The (1992) (producer)
... aka Puissance de l'ange, La (1992) (France)Mambo Kings, The (1992) (producer)
Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992) (executive producer)
... aka Aventures d'un homme invisible, Les (1992) (France)JFK (1991) (executive producer)
... aka JFK (1991) (France)Switch (1991) (executive producer)
... aka Blake Edwards' Switch (1991) (USA: complete title)Guilty by Suspicion (1991) (producer)
... aka Liste noire, La (1991) (France)Q & A (1990) (producer)
Pretty Woman (1990) (producer)
Big Man on Campus (1989) (producer)
... aka Hunchback Hairball of L.A., The (1989) (UK)War of the Roses, The (1989) (producer)
Who's Harry Crumb? (1989) (producer)
Man on Fire (1987) (producer)
... aka Absinthe (1987)
... aka Uomo sotto tiro, Un (1987) (Italy)Stripper (1986) (executive producer)
Legend (1985) (producer)
... aka Legend: Ultimate Edition (2002) (USA: reissue title (video title))Brazil (1985) (producer)
Once Upon a Time in America (1984) (producer)
... aka C'era una volta in America (1984) (Italy)King of Comedy, The (1983) (producer)
"Masada" (1981) (mini) TV Series (supervising producer)
... aka "Antagonists, The" (1981) (mini) (UK)Dizengoff 99 (1979) (producer)
... aka 99 Dizengoff Street (1979)Medusa Touch, The (1978) (executive producer)
... aka Grande menace, La (1978) (France)Black Joy (1977) (producer)
Actor - filmography
Once Upon a Time in America (1984) .... Limousine Chauffeur
... aka C'era una volta in America (1984) (Italy)Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? (1983) .... Customer At Cafe
Miscellaneous Crew - filmography
Beyond 'JFK': The Question of Conspiracy (1992) (special thanks)
Himself - filmography
Once Upon a Time: Sergio Leone (2003) (V) .... Himself
For an update on Milchan's Hollywood production's from 2004 until today: see Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB)
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