http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/fi ... nnon-films
Having snared prominent filmmakers Quentin Tarantino for Not Quite and John Landis for Machete Maidens, Hartley was determined to get Death Wish franchise and The Wicked Lady director Winner (who was also a restaurant critic for Britain's Sunday Times) to be his guide for what is now called Electric Boogaloo (the name coming from Cannon's ill conceived sequel to hit dance movie Breakin').
"I'd read his fantastic biography Winner Takes All and he was such a large part of Cannon, so outspoken and had such great stories."
But sadly it wasn't to be. Although Winner agreed to appear, financial problems meant that by the time Hartley was ready Winner was dead.
"That was a big shame."
However, there were plenty of other Cannon "stars" willing to talk, including Molly Ringwald, Richard Chamberlain, Bo Derek, Dolph Lundgren, Sybil Danning and Alex Winter. "Winter [eventually best known for starring opposite Keanu Reeves in the Bill and Ted films] certainly didn't hold back. It is always good when people speak their mind. He obviously didn't have a particularly good time in England on the set of Death Wish 3, which he only basically got because he had an English passport."
Hartley admits he was relieved to get so many of the Cannon crew, particularly when rumours that Golan and Globus were making their own "rival" documentary became reality.
"I'd been reading about them wanting to make their own documentary since Cannon was around and then, when we started lining up interviews once we'd got the finances in place, people kept telling us that they'd been approached by this other documentary."
While the only defector was veteran actor Jon Voight, what Golan and Globus did do that stifled Hartley was blocked him from getting any real archive material out of Israel from their early days. "Of course, people assume that their documentary [The Go-Go Boys] is the official one, but actually ours is because we licenced every single second of footage from MGM and Warners, who own all the rights to the films now."
And Hartley made sure he made liberal use of the footage. "You don't need to need to watch any Cannon Films after watching this because you've basically seen every single money shot."
When asked what best summed up the "Cannon way", Hartley suggests a deal Golan made with an unusual Hollywood star. "Listen, whether you think Menahem had any talent or not, there is no question that he ate, lived, slept and dreamt movies 24/7 and just wanted to keep making them and didn't want to let any kind of sanity get in the way of that. He was willing to sign the orangutan [Manis] from Every Which Way But Loose to a three-picture deal. But the monkey bit the lead child actor on the first day of the first film so he had to replace him – which he did, with a midget in a suit!"