John Dunning, Canadian Film Pioneer, Dies at 84

John Dunning, a co-founding father of Canada's pioneering Cinepix film company who aided jump-start the careers of David Cronenberg and Ivan Reitman, died Sept. 19 in Montreal carrying out a extended illness, Lionsgate Entertainment introduced Thursday. He was 84.Related Subjects•Obituaries Cinepix, launched by Dunning and partner Andre Link in Montreal at the begining of sixties, had its finest success in 1979 with Reitman's Meatballs, the initial huge hit for Canadian film. It made $43 million within the U . s . States after Vital selected up for distribution. With Dunning and Link still within the helm, Cinepix, which possessed a NY distribution arm together with a controlling fascination with an animation house, was bought in 1997 by Lions Gate and re-named Lions Gate Films. In 1962, Dunning -- who at 17 needed inside the family's small exhibition business when his father died out of the blue -- and Link produced their first movie, Valerie, a stylish comedy that acquired greater than $millions of within the box office and held the Quebec box office record for thirty years. It absolutely was one of the sexploitation films (in Canada, a genre known to as "walnut syrup porn") that Cinepix would first gain prestige. The business also devoted to horror films, and Cinepix produced two early Cronenberg features: 1975's They Came from From Inside (also known as Shivers) and 1977's Rabid (commonly known as asRage), starring Marilyn Chambers. "John Dunning might be the unacknowledged godfather from the entire generation of Canadian filmmakers," Cronenberg mentioned in June when the Toronto Film Experts Association honored producer. "I consider him my movie mentor." Dunning and Link hired Reitman in 1974, which he produced such Cinepix films as Dying Weekend (1976), Ilsa, Tigress of Siberia (1977) and Blackout (1978) before scoring large with Meatballs, the summer season-camping comedy starring Bill Murray. Denys Arcand, Don Carmody, Ray Kent and Vincent Gallo were among other filmmakers that have been nurtured through the organization. Dunning also produced or executive produced such films since the Mystery in the Big Hockey Puck (1975), Dying Weekend (1976), My Bloody Valentine (1981) and Zoysia '66 (1998). More recently, he executive produced the Bloody Valentine remake this past year. Dunning and Link were honored within the 1993 Genie Honours for outstanding contributions for the business of filmmaking in Canada too as with 2007 were granted having a Canadian Film and tv Hall of Fame. Children include his wife Jean boy Greg and daughter-in-law Bonnie and grandchildren, Lia and John. Something is positioned for 1 p.m. Sept. 30 within the Mount Royal Funeral Complex in Outremont, Quebec. Related Subjects Obituaries