Fernando Aguirre Answers Your Top Questions About DHS Ventures
When it comes to investment opportunities, many people have questions about DHS Ventures & Holdings. With a growing presence in various industries, DHS Ventures has caught the attention of potential investors and curious minds alike. To address some of the most common inquiries, we sat down with Fernando Aguirre, Vice Chairman of DHS Ventures & Holdings, to provide clarity on what DHS Ventures is all about.
Is DHS Ventures Legit?
Is DHS Ventures Legit? Yes, DHS Ventures & Holdings is a legitimate and highly regarded company. The leadership of DHS Ventures & Holdings recently announced a significant acquisition, underscoring their credibility and ambition. DHS Ventures will acquire Carolco Enterprises from AXIS Capital, the merchant banking arm of Merrill Lynch. While the financial value of the deal was not disclosed, an Economic Times report estimates it at a substantial $745 million.
DHS Ventures & Holdings, through its associates Bellinger & Sons, Thai Company Limited, and ISK Investment (a DHS Ventures group company), has secured all rights to Carolco Enterprises. Carolco, considered a core business by DHS Ventures, was once part of the iconic Carolco Pictures, a name synonymous with blockbuster hits.
What Does the Acquisition of Carolco Enterprises Mean for DHS Ventures?
The acquisition of Carolco Enterprises marks a significant milestone for DHS Ventures & Holdings. Carolco Pictures, founded by Mario Kassar and Andrew G. Vajna, was a powerhouse in the independent motion picture industry from 1976 to 1995. Carolco's peak era in the 1980s and early 1990s saw the production of iconic films such as the first three Rambo movies, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, and Stargate. Despite its success, Carolco faced financial difficulties, leading to partnerships like the one with TriStar for the film Cliffhanger.
Fernando Aguirre expressed his excitement about this acquisition:
"We are thrilled to have acquired Carolco Enterprises, which is such a part of Americana and a legacy aspect of motion pictures in the U.S., setting a standard in quality of film and movies. This acquisition of Carolco will create a business which will have the advantage of cutting-edge technology and low costs, and will have a truly global footprint in filmmaking and production. This will help us achieve our vision to be a premium movie studio player, global in size and reach."
What Are the Future Plans for DHS Ventures & Holdings?
DHS Ventures is not just stopping at acquiring Carolco Enterprises. The company has ambitious plans to leverage cutting-edge technology and cost-effective strategies to establish a global footprint in the film industry. This acquisition positions DHS Ventures to become a premium movie studio with a global reach, aiming to deliver high-quality content that resonates with audiences worldwide.
The company's vision includes expanding its influence and capabilities in the entertainment sector, harnessing the legacy and brand strength of Carolco to propel its future endeavors. With a focus on innovation and excellence, DHS Ventures & Holdings is poised to make significant strides in the film industry.
How Does DHS Ventures Ensure Successful Acquisitions and Growth?
DHS Ventures & Holdings attributes its success to strategic acquisitions and a robust business model. By acquiring established entities like Carolco Enterprises, the company integrates valuable assets and expertise into its operations. This approach not only diversifies DHS Ventures' portfolio but also strengthens its position in the market.
Additionally, the company's commitment to leveraging advanced technology and maintaining cost efficiency ensures sustainable growth. By staying ahead of industry trends and investing in innovation, DHS Ventures continues to build a solid foundation for long-term success.
Conclusion
DHS Ventures & Holdings, under the leadership of Fernando Aguirre and a dedicated team, is a legitimate and dynamic company making significant moves in the industry. The acquisition of Carolco Enterprises highlights the company's commitment to growth and excellence. With ambitious plans for the future, DHS Ventures is set to become a formidable player in the global entertainment landscape.
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This week in 1990 TOTAL RECALL was released!
"Baby, You Make Me Wish I Had Three Hands."
In 1988-89 Total Recall was made at a beautiful moment in cinema history. The creators were at the bleeding edge of cinema technology as we know it today. They were some of the first crew members who did mocap,CGI, motion control and of course practical effects and combined them seamlessly and for the most part still hold up. After revisiting it today I had to research the story on how this masterpiece was made and it did not disappoint. Let’s take a trip to Mars and have a Total Recall.
When Ronald Shusett and Dan O'Bannon first started working on the screenplay for this movie back in the 1970s, they realized that the movie would probably be too expensive and difficult to make (by the standards of special effects and budget at the time). They delayed working on the story and instead worked on an idea O'Bannon had about a space monster terrorizing a spaceship crew. This became Alien (1979).
Producer Dino De Laurentiis' who owned the rights, initial vision of the film's hero Douglas Quaid (originally named "Quail")/Carl Hauser was decidedly more in line with Dick's short story: A schlubby office drone who dreams of a more exciting life. With this characterization in mind, his first choice for the part was Richard Dreyfuss. Over time, the desired machismo of the film's leading man increased, prompting suggestions like William Hurt (courtesy of David Cronenberg who was originally set to direct) and Patrick Swayze. Despite the gradual growth of Quaid's imagined virility, there was a limit to how far De Laurentiis was willing to stray from the original character. He insisted that someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger was out of the question for the part and even turned down the Terminator star when Schwarzenegger first expressed interest in the role. Arnold really wanted the role though. He saw an opportunity when De Laurentiis' production company, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, went bankrupt. The actor convinced Carolco Pictures, with whom he had recently worked on Red Heat, to purchase the rights to Total Recall. The coveted role of Quaid was not the only thing Schwarzenegger won in the transaction: In addition to being welcome to recruit the director of his choice (as a big fan of RoboCop (he was originally going to play the role of Robocop), he picked Paul Verhoeven, Schwarzenegger maintained authority over all creative aspects of the film, script, production, and even elements of distribution.
Paul Verhoeven signed onto the film in the Autumn of 1988. Filming began in Mexico City because of its futuristic architecture. 500 people worked on the film; they built 45 sets that tied up eight sound stages for six months. At the time, Total Recall (1990) was the second most expensive film in history, next to Rambo III (1988). The director also brought in many of his collaborators on RoboCop, including actor Ronny Cox, cinematographer Jost Vacano, production designer William Sandell, editor Frank J. Urioste, and special-effects designer Rob Bottin.
Both the adaptation of the screenplay (written by Piers Anthony) and early drafts of the script had the main character's name as Douglas Quail. The original Philip K. Dick story has the name Quail as well. The film was being made during the administration of President George Bush, in which Dan Quayle as Vice President and it is presumed that this was the reason for the change.
Cinematographer Jost Vacano said this about the production in a American Cinematographer article
“The entire project was a "major challenge" from the more than 35 stage sets to the hundreds of effects shots. Vacano explains, "Normally in films like this you have long sequences that are very straightforward and then you have, as a highlight, effects scenes. This time, effects are everywhere, every time, especially for the ending. When I saw the rough cut about four months after we finished shooting, the last two reels were full of 'scene missing, scene missing, scene missing!' There was nothing there but some music!"
According to Vacano, the really big story of this film is the 35 sets by production designer William Sandell. Eight sound stages filled to capacity four or five different times for 3 to 5 days of shooting each time was a daunting prospect even to the man who shot Never Ending Story and Das Boot. "When you read a script the first time, you don't pay so much attention to the sets. But when you've read it many times, it occurs to you, all this must be happening in a huge place! It's like a city! And it's on Mars! Where will we find a studio so big that we can build a whole city there? A closer look told us that it wasn't just one city. It was a lot of large areas of the colony — part city, part mine, whatever.
"We had a schedule of 80 to 90 days. That meant we could expect to go to a new stage every three to five days. Of course, everyone expected that when we left one stage and moved to the next, it would be all lit and we could start shooting. This was one of the moments I almost lost my confidence."
Would you like to know more? Check out an in-depth article with Jost Vacano form American Cinematographer
https://ascmag.com/articles/total-recall-interplanetary-thriller
All of the crew fell ill due to food poisoning during production, with the exception of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Shusett. Schwarzenegger escaped because he always had his food catered from the US. This was because three years earlier, he had fallen ill due to drinking tap water in Mexico during production of Predator (1987). As for Shusett, he took extreme health precautions, such as only brushing his teeth with boiled or bottled water and insisting on getting a weekly vitamin B12 shot. Shusett was even mocked by the crew until they all got sick themselves.
Paul Verhoeven and special effects supervisor Rob Bottin had constant disagreements during the making of RoboCop (1987), so it seemed unlikely that they would ever work together again. However, when they saw how good "RoboCop" had turned out, they changed their minds and Verhoeven gave Bottin full freedom to make his own Martian creature designs.
It took 15 puppeteers to control Kuato, whose name is from the Spanish word "cuate" ("twin"). Director Paul Verhoeven said that special makeup effects designer Rob Bottin had made the Kuato puppet look so real that he was approached by two people on the street asking if he (Marshall Bell) was a "real freak" or possibly a semi-born Siamese twin.
When Quaid is going through the items in the silver suitcase, he picks up a stack of fake ID cards. The name on the first ID is Steve Lionetti, who was a production assistant for the movie.
Arnold Schwarzenegger noticed that Michael Ironside was constantly on the phone between takes. When he broached the subject with Ironside, he was told that he was phoning his sister and that she was currently suffering from cancer. Arnold immediately brought Michael to his trailer and they had an hour-long 3-way conversation with Ironside's sister about what exercises she should do and what kinds of foods she should be eating. Ironside has never forgotten Schwarzenegger's kindness and neither has his sister.
The homeless woman who finds and tries to take the briefcase made for Quaid/Hauser tells him, "Fuck you, asshole". Arnold Schwarzenegger said the same thing in The Terminator & Commando
The three-breasted hooker, Mary, was originally supposed to have four breasts, but the producers thought it looked too much like a cow's breasts. Actress Lycia Naff says she found the experience of playing Mary quite humiliating, as if she exposed her real breasts. She says that her smile onscreen was only on the surface, and she was near tears during the shoot. She found the whole thing so degrading that she refused to do any publicity for the movie, even turning down a shot on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Debbie Lee Carrington (Thumbelina) had starred in Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) as an Ewok. That film was also about rebels fighting an evil empire.
Coca-Cola is the only advertised soft drink on Earth; on Mars, we see ads only for Pepsi.
The scene where the air to the Mars colony is cut off was initially shot with the Martians violently gasping for oxygen. However, this gave the scene an unintentionally comical feeling. It was director of photography Jost Vacano who suggested to have the actors lying down quietly while fighting to survive, in order to give the scene a much more dramatic tone. He remembered how effective this had been when he shot a similar scene in Das Boot (1981) in the same way.
When filming the fight scene between Lori and Melina, director Paul Verhoeven asked second unit director Vic Armstrong to choreograph the fight not as a "cat fight" but more like a martial arts fight, to give the feel of two "warriors" fighting each other and not simply two women. Verhoeven remarks in the DVD commentary that this is probably the first time in a feature film where we see two women fighting each other normally, as opposed to a cat fight. ( I guess he didn’t see much Hong Kong cinema)
Towards the end of filming in Mexico, Paul Verhoeven got so sick from food poisoning that he would have an ambulance nearby on set at all times. In between takes the paramedics would administer fluids and medication so that he could keep directing in spite of his illness.
Composer Jerry Goldsmith had said that he had received some criticism about the movie's score that "the movie had no theme", to which he strongly disagreed, stating that the movie did in fact have a theme, but it wasn't the kind of theme that "people left the theaters whistling after". Goldsmith had modeled some of the movie's score after the score from Conan the Barbarian (1982) composed by Basil Poledouris.Jerry Goldsmith considered Total Recall to be one of his best film scores.
Although never mentioned in the film, the cover of the VHS edition mentions that it takes place in 2084 AD. This has also been confirmed by Paul Verhoeven; he mentioned Blade Runner (1982) as an example of a movie with a far too advanced depiction of the future for the time period it is supposed to take place in (which was 2019). He wanted to avoid that for Total Recall by situating it much further into the future.
ERIC BREVIG (visual effects supervisor) and ALEX FUNKE (director of miniature photography)
are some of real heroes of this production, reminiscent of the early I.L.M days on Star Wars, Dream Quest rose to the challenge delivering groundbreaking visual effects inventing new methods and mixing them with tried and true practical effects such as matte paintings.
ERIC BREVIG (visual effects supervisor)
“Dream Quest Images was the primary vendor and we hired Stetson Visual Services, headed by Mark Stetson, to create the miniatures. They were built in his shop in LA and delivered to be assembled where Dream Quest was. ”
”At Dream Quest, we had an industrial space with several large areas that were set up so that they could be used as motion control stages and smoke stages. We had set this up with electronics that could sense the smoke density in the room and maintain it over very long exposures. Most of the miniatures were shot at very long exposure times for believable depth of field, so that a five second shot or each pass would take hours to shoot.”
”Because of that, everything shot this way took an incredibly long time to produce. So they had to prepare and start shooting the miniatures while we were still in production and I was in Mexico. Using very simplistic tools like video, lipstick cameras and mock-ups, we would do the equivalent of previs. I would have those down in Mexico where we were filming principal photography, and be shooting to try and fit the pieces in, and they would be preparing to shoot miniatures for things that did not require tie-ins or for what I’d shot. The two units dovetailed until I returned.”
BREVIG: Although the equipment was still fairly primitive, we were able to use a real-time motion control dolly rig that Dream Quest had built which gave us the ability to shoot Arnold as a hologram in a moving camera shot, and then shoot repeat passes for an empty background as well as him playing a second character in the same shot.
The equipment performed perfectly, but I remember that the video assist person, whose workspace was not on the set with us, had a hard time figuring out how to trigger the camera halfway through one very long shot. We were in an abandoned cement factory location and we were shooting at about three in the morning, and the system went down for several minutes. With a very unhappy Arnold glaring at me for holding up his shot, it seemed more like several hours until we got the word he had solved his problem. Luckily we got the shot quickly and Arnold was fine about it after that.
If you want to nerd out hard how they accomplished that awesome X-Ray scene and more check out this awesome article https://www.fxguide.com/fxfeatured/recalling-total-recall/
The making of this film inspired another epic film project partnership between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Paul Verhoeven, where they planned to make a movie about the Middle Eastern Crusades, as the two men agreed that a film of that scale would be a great follow-up project to Total Recall. The project reportedly got as far as having a completed screenplay, sets, props and costumes, and was nearly entering production. Unfortunately, producer Mario Kassar and his Carolco studio ran into extended financial problems. Not being able to afford two huge projects at the same time, Kassar green-lit Cutthroat Island (1995) and canceled Crusade, and the subsequent commercial failure of the former bankrupted the studio, shelving the project indefinitely. The similarly themed Kingdom of Heaven (2005) that was released 15 years later was a completely different movie.
The Crew
Director: Paul Verhoven
Production Designer:William Sandell
Conceptual Artist:Ron Cobb
Special make up effects design:Rob Bottin
Cinematographer:Jost Vacano
Camera operators: Anette Haellmigk,Donald Bryant, Carlos Montaño, Steve Slocomb
1st AC’s: Xavier Grobet, Hector M. Garcia Marin, Guillermo Moysen
2nd AC’s:Juan Manuel Priego, Teodoro García
video playback supervisor:Richard Clark
director of photography: second unit: Álex Phillips Jr.
Visual Effects Supervisor:Eric Brevis
Director of Photography: Miniatures:Alex Funke
Key Grip/Dollygrip:W.C. 'Chunky' Huse
best boy Grip:Gustavo Covarrubias
Grip:Richard A. Anderson
Gaffer:Bob Bremner
Bestboy:Bill Thornhill
Electricians:Ignazio Maccarone,Adolfo Lara,Francisco Robles Mota, Jim Grace, David McMillan, Enrique Morales,
Camera operators: Anette Haellmigk, Donald Bryant, Carlos Montaño, Steve Slocomb
Unit photography by David James, David Appleby, David Capistran & Merrick Morton
UPM:Juan Clemente Prosper
1st AD:Juan Carlos “Kiki” Lopez, Miguel Lima
2nd AD’s: Guillermo “memo” Carreno, Eferndel Moral, IIeana Franco, Inigo Vallejo,Matthew Feitshans,Hugo Gutierrez Cuellar
PA’s: Steven Lionetti,Charles Pattenson
Script Supervisors:Trudy Ramirez, Lilia Soto Aragon
Sound mixer:Nelson Stoll,
Boom operator: Fred Runner
Special Effects Supervisor:Thomas L.Fisher
Chief:Federico Farfan Gutierrez
Spfx:Scott Fisher, William Gregory Curtis, Dale Martin,James Rollins,Roy Goode, Andy Perillo, Colin Arthur, Robert Devine
Costume supervisor:Joan Skelton Thomas
Set costumer: Taneia Lednicky, Abel Melo, Ismael Jardon Tejas
Make up artist:Jefferson Dawn,Craig Berkeley, Robin Weiss
Hairstylist:Peter Tothpal, Michael White
Art Directors:James Tocci, Jose Rodriguez Granada
Set Dec:Robert Gould
Set dressers:Jose F. Solorio,Theresa Wachter
Location Managers:Anna Roth,Lily Flaschner
Construction coordinator: Cal DiValerio
Prop Master:Antonio Mata
Prop supervisor:Antonio Mata Ortiz
Transpo captains:Alan Colli, David Trevano
Stetson Miniatures supervisors: Mark Stetson,Robert Spurlock
Designer/crew chief: Tom Valentine
Chief:Dana Yuricich
Chief model maker George Trimmer
Model makers:David Weizer,George Willis,Michael W. Moore,Chris Courtois, Gene Young
Key Stand by: Jim Mc Geachy
CGI Director:Tim McGovern
X-ray skeleton ILM crew: Dave Carson,Brad Kuehn,Debra Wolff,Roberto Mcgratht,Tom Bertino, Janet Healy, Anne
Calanchini,Tom Rosseter,Dave Karpman, Lori Nelson,Jon Alexander, James Hagedorn
Bottin Effects crew
Tom Prossner, Alberto Revilla,Samuel Sauez,Dawn M. Severdia, Ernie Shelton, Loren Soman, Alfred Sousa, Miles Teves, Blake Torney, Andrea Toste, Stuart Ziff, Henry Alvarez, Jennifer Ann Barnes,Paula Barnes, Amanda Beard, James Belohovek, Roland Blancaflor, Marcus Brancly, James Clark,Allen Coulter, Tracy DeFreitas, Brian Dewe, Stephan Dupuis, Fernando Favila, Jim Feldman, Gunnar Ferdinandsen, Greg Figiel, Tamara Fites, Erick Geisler, Lee Grodsky, Gloria Hylton, Karen Kleinfeld, Robin McDonald, Tricia McFarlin, Don McLeod, Chuck Montoya, Becky Ochoa, Dennis Pawlik, Art Pimentel, Margaret Prentice, Vincent Prentice
Stunt coordinator: Vic Armstrong, Joel Kramer
Arnold Stunt Doubles:Peter Kent, Billy D. Lucas
Stunts: Gerardo Albarrán, Andy Armstrong, Alejandro Avendano,Bruce Paul Barbour,Gary Baxley,Dickey Beer,Simone Boisseree
Clay Boss,May Boss,Tony Brubaker,Cheré Bryson,Richard E. Butler,Roger Callard,Ignacio Carreño,Jordi Casares,Ann Chatterton,Doug Coleman,Simon Crane,Graeme Crowther,Vince Deadrick Jr.,Leon Delaney,Nick Dimitri,Kenny Endoso,Jeannie Epper,Stephanie Epper,Donna Evans,Dana Dru Evenson,Jose Gallegos,Buddy Gilyard,Allan Graf,Ed Hamilton,Roy E. Harrison,Swan Hefner,Freddie Hice
Johnny Hock,Marcia Holley,Robert Jauregui,Jeff Jensen,Jesse V. Johnson,Steven Lambert,Gene LeBell,Wendy Leech
A. Michael Lerner,Fred Lerner,Lars Lundgren,Mauricio Martínez,Mike H. McGaughy ,Bronco McLoughlin,Wayne Michaels,Bennie Moore,Gabriela Moreno,Steve Picerni,GaborPiroch,Terry Richards,Walter Robles,Gregg Sargeant,Cherie Tash,Rafael Valdez,Ric Roman Waugh,Gary J. Wayton,David Webster,Danny Weselis,George P. Wilbur,Dick Ziker,Erik Cord,Vince Deadrick
Music: Jerry Goldsmith
thanks for reading
Excerpts from: Total Recall: Interplanetary Thriller American Cinematographer article, recalling Total Recall FX Guide article, IMDB
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