Saul Zaentz
Saul Zaentz ( born February 28, 1921 in Passaic, New Jersey; † January 3, 2014 in San Francisco, California ) was an American film producer. He has produced films such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ( 1975), Amadeus (1984) and The English Patient (1996 ) for which he won an Oscar each.
Life
Zaentz 's family comes from the Russo-Polish Jewry. Mid-1950s, he joined the American record label Fantasy Records, which he bought out of the original founders in 1967. 2004, the record label was sold again. During this time Zaentz delivered to a long-running legal dispute with John Fogerty, the songwriter of the very commercially successful band Creedence Clearwater Revival, which was at Fantasy under contract. The label had thanks to a gag contract the rights to Fogerty's hits. As Fogerty left his band and started a solo career, Zaentz sued him because of self- plagiarism. Fogerty retaliated later with clearly ambiguous songs like Mr. Greed and Zanz Can not Danz, which was eventually renamed after further legal arguments in Vanz Can not Danz.
In the 1970s Zaentz bought the U.S. film studio United Artists from the film adaptation of JRR Tolkien's The rights - Lord of the Rings books, they are marketed under the name of Tolkien Enterprises. He produced the animated film The Lord of the Rings (1978 ) and awarded the license for the three film adaptations by Peter Jackson. On the production of The Fellowship, The Two Towers and The Return of the King Zaentz was not directly involved, but participated because the license agreement on the global revenue of the film series and merchandising products.
Zaentz died from the effects of Alzheimer's disease. He is survived by four children.