Members of the French film industry have been paying warm tribute to Samuel Hadida, the co-founder of Metropolitan FilmExport, who died suddenly in Los Angeles on Monday. Hadida was not only one of France's most respected and successful distributors; he was also loved by the independent film community and boasted strong relationships with major film groups such as Lionsgate, DreamWorks, Nu Image, Constantin Film and FilmNation. "What a shock!" tweeted Stephane Celerier, a fellow French distributor who founded of Mars...
Samuel
Hadida
With his brother Victor Hadida, Samuel (known as “Sammy”) Hadida ran Metropolitan Filmexport, which has steadfastly thrived for nearly 40 years thanks to the pair’s deep-rooted ties to Hollywood’s power players, passion for movies and guts. A family business, Metropolitan Filmexport was founded in the early 1980s by the brothers and their father, David.
The Hadida brothers were the first distributors in France to import cult Hollywood movies like Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs,” David Fincher’s “Seven” and martial-arts pics with Jean-Claude Van Damme in the 1990s. Today, their company handles films by George Clooney, Martin Scorsese, Park Chan Wook and Steven Spielberg, among others. Metropolitan Filmexport has deals with New Line Cinema, Lionsgate and Dreamworks.
In addition to producing two pictures for Tony Scott, Hadida also collaborated with Roger Avary on “Killing Zoe,” “Rules of Attractions” and “Silent Hill,” and with director Christophe Gans on a number of movies including “Le Pacte des Loups” and “Silent Hill” starring Radha Mitchell.
In recent years, Davis Films and Metropolitan Filmexport have started getting involved in French movies, notably Claude Lelouch’s “Un + Une” with Jean Dujardin and Elsa Zilberstein, and Rachid Bouchareb’s upcoming “Belleville Cop,” a buddy comedy starring Omar Sy and Luis Guzman.
On the English-language front, Hadida was working on “The Crow Reborn,” a reboot of “The Crow” franchise. Hadida was also developing several current Japanese properties based on well-known Japanese comics and anime characters. Hadida passed away unexpectedly on November 26, 2018.
