George Shamieh

World Screen Weekly, August 31, 2006

CEO

American Cinema International

What do the restaurant business and the entertainment business have in common? A lot, if you ask George Shamieh, the CEO of American Cinema International. “In restaurants, there is urgency every day,” he says. “A busboy didn’t show up, the chef got sick—there’s always a crisis. That’s what movies are all about: finding the solution to a problem.”

Shamieh made the transition from restaurants to entertainment in 1987, when he joined PM Entertainment. The company was producing its second film, an action movie called L.A. Heat. “It started as an investment,” Shamieh recalls. “I came in with a little bit of money and some expertise in the world market. That’s how I got into distribution.”

He went on to become president of PM and ran the company for 12 years. It grew rapidly and ended up with 125 employees, producing and distributing over 180 films, specializing in action adventure. It also produced the TV series L.A. Heat, based on the film, which was successfully sold in many territories, including in the U.S. to TNT.

Then, in 1999, he and the other owners sold the company. Shamieh went off on his own to start ACI in 2000. Over the past six years, ACI has produced about 60 TV movies and acquired another 40. That total, combined with the acquisition of two other libraries, has given ACI a hefty catalogue of about 670 titles, consisting both of TV movies and theatricals, plus some animation product.

Shamieh says his diverse cultural background helps him in dealing with the vast variety of individuals he interacts with in business. In addition to English he is fluent in several languages, including French, Italian, Spanish and Arabic. “English is good for doing business, but using the other languages will help you to understand the other person better,” he says. “If you know the language of a country well, you know the mentality of that country, what goes and what doesn’t.”

Did things work out the way Shamieh expected them to when he started ACI six years ago? Not exactly. “I wanted to produce and distribute on a smaller scale” after leaving PM, he says. “At first we thought we’d do about four movies a year, keeping busy and having fun. But when you start a company, either you grow or you disappear. So we grew. Now we’re back to doing close to 12 movies a year.”

And not only movies. ACI has just embarked on its first mini-series, Ugarit; an ambitious undertaking with a $12-million budget. “Ugarit is the first culture that believed in one god,” says Shamieh. “It existed in what is now Syria, and was invaded by Egypt under the Pharaohs. Our mini-series is in the same genre as Indiana Jones.”

Shamieh recently returned from Turkey to see the locations where Ugarit will be shot in 2007. The mini-series will consist of three 90-minute parts, and ACI is already promoting it at the markets.