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Leucadia films were made by some of Utah's top filmmakers and actors, many of whom later worked in even more widely seen movies. A number of nationally prominent actors and filmmakers were involved in these relatively low-budget feature films as well.

Most films made by Leucadia were not released theatrically. They typically premiered as made-for-TV movies or direct-to-video products. A number of these films were shown as "After-School Specials."

The most prolific director for Leucadia was Blair Treu, who directed 3 movies -- "Just Like Dad" (1996), "The Paper Brigade" (1996) and "Wish Upon a Star" (1996) -- for the company. Treu later directed Disney movies, TV series, and the theatrically-released feature film "Little Secrets" (2002). William Clark and Shawn Levy both directed two. David Anderson and Don Schain were each the producer for 8 Leucadia movies, co-producing some of them. Brian Sullivan was the cinematographer for 5 Leucadia productions; Matthew Williams was the cinematographer for 3.

Sterling Van Wagenen directed Leucadia's "Alan & Naomi" (1992), which is perhaps the only Leucadia film to be given a regular theatrical release, although a limited one. (It grossed just $259,311 at the box office.) "Alan & Naomi" is also the only Leucadia production that was not filmed principally in Utah. It was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina, with some location filming in Paris, France. Van Wagenen also produced Leucadia's "The Witching of Ben Wagner," which was shown as a Disney channel TV movie. Van Wagenen may be the best known director to work for Leucadia. He was the producer of "The Trip to Bountiful" (1985), for which Geraldine Page won the Best Actress Academy Award, and which was nominated for a Best Screenplay Academy Award. Van Wagenen is also the co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival and was a long-time instructor and dean at the Brigham Young University film school.

Shawn Levy, who directed "Just in Time" and "Address Unknown" for Leucadia, later directed for the children's TV series "Lassie" (1997), "Animorphs" (1998), "The Famous Jett Jackson" (1998) and "In a Heartbeat" (2000). He also directed the feature films "Big Fat Liar" (2002) and "Just Married" (2003).

William Clark, who directed Leucadia's "Windrunner" and "The Goodbye Bird" has no other known directorial credits. His film "Windrunner" is notable because it was written by Mitch Davis, who would later become widely known for writing and directing the Latter-day Saint-themed feature film "The Other Side of Heaven" (2001). The lead actress in "Windrunner" was Margot Kidder, best known as "Lois Lane", the girlfriend of Superman (Christopher Reeves) in four movies in 1978 and the 1980s.

A number of notable actors starred in Leucadia films. "Just Like Dad" starred Wallace Shawn in the title and lead role, as a nebbish father. Shawn has appeared in numerous films and TV shows. He had a recurring role as "Grand Nagus Zek" on the TV series "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." One of his best-loved roles is as the brainy villain "Vizzini" in "The Princess Bride" (1987). Wallace Shawn's co-star (his son in the movie) was Ben Diskin, who provided to voice of Eugene Horowitz in the animated TV series "Hey Arnold!" (1997-2000). Their co-star was New Yorker Nick Cassavetes, then an actor, but later the director of the feature films "John Q" (2002), "She's So Lovely" (1997) and "Unhook the Stars" (1996). "Unhook the Stars," like "Just Like Dad," was filmed in Utah. The lead actress in the movie was Emmy-nominated actress Laura Innes, best known for her roles on the acclaimed TV series "ER." Innes has also received an Emmy nomination as a director for her work on "The West Wing." "Just Like Dad" won the Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival and the Top Applause Award at the Santa Clarita International Film Festival.

"Address Unknown" starred well-known Latter-day Saint actor Corbin Allred. Many other Latter-day Saint and/or Utah actors had supporting or minor roles in Leucadia's movies. Most of the leads, however, came from outside of Utah. Interestingly enough, a high proportion of the directors, writers and producers for Leucadia films (including William Clark) were Jewish. Many of the others were Latter-day Saints, but this is not surprising given the fact that the company specialized in family films and was based in Utah. The movies, however, do not feature themes or characters overtly tied to any one denomination or religious group. In fact, the postive values and inoffensive content of the films have won widespread acclaim and recommendations from a wide range of parents groups, family advocates, and Christian media watch groups.

In May 2003, when we looked into who was currently distributing Leucadia films, we found they are distributed by SandStar Family Entertainment. The "Who We Are" page on the SandStar website has the following description of the companies origins:

HOW LONG HAS SANDSTAR BEEN IN BUSINESS?
The company [SandStar] was launched in October, 1991, under the name Leucadia Family Films offering only one title. Since then, the company has grown and expanded its library of titles and operations into several marketing centers. In March of 1997, SandStar purchased the company, including its library of movies and continues the tradition of providing families a choice of wholesome family entertainment. Corporate headquarters and marketing centers are located in Utah.

Press releases, newspaper articles and other documents indicate that another company, Cinar, acquired the rights to the Leucadia library of films in 1999. However, as of May 2003 the Leucadia films area available directly from SandStar, and are not apparently featured on the Cinar website. I do not know what the relationship between Cinar and SandStar is.

On 8 February 1999 the Quebec, Montreal-based entertainment and education company CINAR Corporation announced that it had acquired the rights to the Leucadia library of films -- 12 feature-length movie titles.

Here is a brief description of Leucadia Film Corporation from the acquisition press release (http://www.cinar.com/news-e/0208a99-e.htm):

Leucadia Film, a Utah corporation, was founded in 1989 with a commitment to make quality, feature-length films which could be enjoyed by the whole family. Many of the films are shot in Southern Utah which boasts red rimrock cliffs and rugged scenery. Leucadia films include children's adventures, teenage comedies, detective mysteries, and romantic comedies. All of them are guaranteed to please people of any age. Leucadia Film Corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Leucadia National Corporation (NYSE: LUK).

The address for the company was:
Leucadia Film Corporation
529 E. South Temple Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84102

The 2001 Annual Report for CINAR Corporation lists includes the following table showing their Leucadia films. Note that many of the years shown do not correspond to the years associated with the movies according to IMDb (Internet Movie Database) and other sources. The years in the CINAR table are probably the copyright dates for the films -- the years they were completed, and the years shown in the next table are the release dates or premiere dates.

Leucadia Catalogue
(CINAR 2001 Corporate Report)

Address Unknown	1990
Alan & Naomi	1990
Breaking Free	1994
Coyote Summer	1995
The Goodbye Bird	1992
Just in Time	1996
Just Like Dad	1994
Paper Brigade	1995
The Undercover Kid	1994
Windrunner	1993
Wish Upon a Star	1996
Witching of Ben Wagner	1989

Some basic facts about the feature-length films produced by Leucadia, all of which were filmed in Utah, are presented in the table below:

Title	Year	Director	Producers	Writers	Stars	Cinematographer
Address Unknown	1997	Shawn Levy	Patrick Ewald	Drew Daywalt Nicholas DiBella David Schneider	Kyle Howard Johna Stewart-Bowden Patrick Renna Corbin Allred Michael Flynn Scott Wilkinson	Brian Sullivan
Alan & Naomi	1992	Sterling Van Wagenen	David Anderson Mark Balsam Don Schain	Myron Levoy Jordan Horowitz	Lukas Haas Vanessa Zaoui Michael Gross Amy Aquino	Paul Ryan
Breaking Free	1995	David Mackay	David Anderson	Virginia Gilbert Barbara Clark Wanbaugh	Jeremy London Gina Philips Christine Taylor Megan Gallagher Adam Wylie	Christopher Faloona
Coyote Summer	1996	Matias Alvarez	David Anderson Don Schain	Karen Krenis	Vinessa Shaw Adam Beach Bruce Weitz Cindy Pickett	Brian Sullivan
The Goodbye Bird	1993	William Clark	David Anderson Don Schain William Tannen	Nancy Borgenicht Allen Nevins	Christopher Pettiet Cindy Pickett Concetta Tomei Wayne Rogers	Matthew Williams
Just in Time	1997	Shawn Levy	David Blangsted Lori Petersen Don Schain	Eric Tuchman	Rebecca Chambers Mark Moses Micole Mercurio Jane Sibbett	Matthew Williams
Just Like Dad	1996	Blair Treu	David Anderson Don Schain	Wayne Allan Rice	Wallace Shawn Ben Diskin Nick Cassavetes Jarrett Lennon	Brian Sullivan
The Paper Brigade	1996	Blair Treu	David Anderson Wayne Allan Rice Don Schain	Denice K. Rice	Kyle Howard Travis Wester	Brian Sullivan
The Undercover Kid	1996	Linda Shayne	?	?	Bradley Pierce Melora Hardin Nicolas Surovy	?
Windrunner	1995	William Clark	David Anderson Don Schain	Mitch Davis	Jason Wiles Russell Means Margot Kidder Amanda Peterson	Ronn Schmidt Matthew Williams
Wish Upon a Star	1996	Blair Treu	David Anderson Don Schain H.E. Scruggs	Jessica Barondes	Katherine Heigl Danielle Harris Don Jeffcoat Scott Wilkinson Mary Parker Williams	Brian Sullivan
The Witching of Ben Wagner	1987	Paul Annett	Sterling Van Wagenen	Malcolm Marmorstein	Sam Bottoms Harriet Hall Bettina Rae Justin Gocke	Gordon Lonsdale

ALSO: We have found some references to a film titled "Sight Unseen," a Leucadia production directed by David Mackay and produced by David Anderson and Don Schain. Little concrete information is available about this movie, and it is NOT listed in the CINAR catalogue of Leucadia films. We believe that "Sight Unseen" may have been a production title for David Mackay's Leucadia film "Breaking Free."


In addition to the films produced by Leucadia (listed above), IMDb lists the following films which were distributed (but not produced by) Leucadia Film Corporation:

Title	Year	Director	Producers	Writers	Stars	Cinematographer	Production Company
Captains Courageous	1996	Michael Anderson	Lisa Towers	Rudyard Kipling John McGreevey	Robert Urich Kenny Vadas	Glen MacPherson	Hallmark Entertainment The Family Channel
The Little Kidnappers	1995
Qualcuno in ascolto (a.k.a. High Frequency)	1988	Faliero Rosati	Giorgio Leopardi Gianfranco Piccioli	Vincenzo Cerami Franco Ferrini Faliero Rosati	Vincent Spano Oliver Benny Anne Canovas	Pasqualino De Santis	Cinecitta (Italy) Reteitalia (Italy) Union P.N. (Italy)
Sky Trackers	1990	John Power	Anthony Buckley	Tony Morphett	Pamela Sue Martin Maia Brewton Paul Williams	Dan Burstall	(filmed in Canberra, Australia)

CINAR ACQUIRES Leucadia FILM CORPORATION FAMILY- FILM LIBRARY

The acquisition will add an additional 12 feature-length movie titles (the equivalent of 36 half-hours) of quality family programming to CINAR's growing family-film library. Like CINAR's own live-action offerings, these titles have achieved international appeal, having been distributed in over 75 countries worldwide to broadcasters including the Disney Channel, Home Box Office and Showtime.

"We are very excited about acquiring this library whose content is consistent with our strategy of choosing high-quality, non-violent, family properties. It will provide a wonderful complement to our existing library of live-action family-films," said Ronald A.Weinberg, President and Co-CEO of CINAR. " This expansion of our family film repertoire should open up new opportunities for CINAR."

The library, produced between 1989 and 1996, includes Crystal Heart Award winning films such as Alan & Naomi, Just Like Dad and Wish Upon a Star, and portrays social issues that appeal to everyone, young and old. They embody acts of courage, the power of honesty and integrity and the essence of family and friendship.

CINAR Corporation is an integrated entertainment and education company involved in the development, production, post-production and worldwide distribution of non-violent, quality programming and educational products for children and families. CINAR's original productions include: the Emmy Award winning ARTHUR^TM (with WGBH Boston), The Busy World of Richard Scarry^TM, Are You Afraid of the Dark?^TM, Wimzie's House^TM and Lassie^TM, as well as mini-series and family films, which are seen in over 150 countries. CINAR Education Inc., CINAR's educational division, promotes children's learning by developing, producing, distributing, and marketing high-quality supplemental educational products worldwide. Through CINAR's diverse programming, its licensing and merchandising of entertainment related products and its array of supplemental educational products, the Company intends to appeal to children worldwide, throughout their entire day. CINAR's Web site: www.cinar.com

Leucadia Film, a Utah corporation, was founded in 1989 with a commitment to make quality, feature-length films which could be enjoyed by the whole family. Many of the films are shot in Southern Utah which boasts red rimrock cliffs and rugged scenery. Leucadia films include children's adventures, teenage comedies, detective mysteries, and romantic comedies. All of them are guaranteed to please people of any age. Leucadia Film Corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Leucadia National Corporation (NYSE: LUK).

Some of the statements in this release concerning the Company's future prospects are forward-looking statements that involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include the continued acceptance of the Company's distribution channel by key vendors and customers, the timely availability and acceptance of new products, and the contribution of key vendor relationships and support programs.

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Web page created 19 September 2002. Last modified 24 September 2002.