William J. Immerman(1937-2023)
- Producer
- Additional Crew
- Legal
William J. Immerman is President of Production of RSVP Entertainment
LLC, an independent motion picture production company which he formed
with Howard and Karen Baldwin, his former producing partners from
Crusader Entertainment LLC. RSVP is partially owned by Salem
Productions, Inc., Immerman's solely owned independent motion picture
production and consulting company that provides production and business
affairs consultation to production and distribution companies. Immerman
was formerly Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating
Officer of Yari Film Group and its affiliated independent motion
picture and television production, financing and international
distribution companies. Prior to joining Yari, Immerman was Senior
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Crusader, an
Anschutz Film Group company, from its founding until its merger with
Walden Media, LLC. He received his B.S. from the University of
Wisconsin and his J.D. from Stanford Law School. He also served as an
officer in the United States Army Reserve, attaining the rank of
Captain. He began his career as a Deputy District Attorney for the
County of Los Angeles and soon after entered the motion picture
industry with American International Pictures ("AIP") as Associate
Counsel. At AIP, Immerman acted a Director of Business Affairs,
Executive Assistant to the Chairman of the Board, Vice President in
Charge of Business Affairs and as the AIP production executive on such
successful films as "Wild In The Streets" and "Three In The Attic"
among others. He was also a member of the Production Committee for AIP
that had final approval on all projects made by the film company and
all budget matters. He also acted as production executive for AIP on
the television special entitled "AN EVENING OF EDGAR ALLEN POE"
starring Vincent Price. While at AIP, Immerman represented the company
on the board of directors of International Film Importers and
Distributors of America, Inc. He next joined Twentieth Century Fox
("Fox") as Vice President in charge of Business Affairs and acted as
chief talent, production and distribution negotiator for the studio and
represented Fox on the board of directors of both the Motion Picture
Association of America and the Association of Motion Picture and
Television Producers. Immerman had supervisory responsibility for both
motion picture and television business affairs at Fox. In addition, he
was also responsible for bringing in several of his former creative
associates from AIP and their projects to Fox, which resulted in the
financing by the studio of a number of very successful motion pictures,
including "DIRTY MARY, CRAZY LARRY," "LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE" and "RACE
WITH THE DEVIL." Promoted to Senior Executive Vice President of Fox's
feature film division, Immerman joined a three-man board of senior
EVP's who reported directly to the Chairman of the Board. Among the
projects approved for production during this period were "STAR WARS,"
"YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN", "THE OMEN" and "SILVER STREAK." Immerman was also
a Senior Executive Vice President of the parent company. While at Fox
Immerman was the executive in charge of the original Broadway
production of "THE WIZ". Immerman resigned from Fox to establish Scoric
Productions, Inc., an independent production company. Scoric had an
exclusive production agreement with Warner Bros. for two years. While
at Scoric he acted as Executive Producer of the motion picture
"HIGHPOINT" starring Richard Harris and Christopher Plummer, which was
one of the original pictures produced at the inception of the Canadian
tax incentive program, and was released by New World Pictures and he
arranged financing and distribution for the syndicated television
special "THAT'S PANTHERTAINMENT" which was distributed by United
Artists Television. He next formed Cinema Group, Inc. and was Chairman
of the Board and President of the company. Cinema Group was the first
motion picture company to raise start up money from Wall Street through
both an initial private placement and a subsequent public offering.
Immerman acted as Executive Producer on the company's productions:
"TAKE THIS JOB AND SHOVE IT" (Avco Embassy) starring Robert Hays and
Barbara Hershey; "SOUTHERN COMFORT" (Fox) starring Keith Carradine and
Powers Boothe; and "HYSTERICAL" (New World) starring the Hudson
Brothers. During Mr. Immerman's tenure at Cinema Group the company also
secured financing for the cable television series "LIKELY STORIES",
which was distributed by Atlantic Television and had its initial
exhibition on Cinemax, and arranged the co-financing with Paramount for
the films, "STAYING ALIVE," "STAR TREK II" and "FLASHDANCE." Immerman
has also executive produced or produced the following motion pictures:
"MIND GAMES" starring Edward Albert and Maxwell Caulfield ; "PRIMAL
RAGE" starring Patrick Lowe and Bo Svenson; "WELCOME TO SPRING BREAK"
starring Nicholas DeToth, Michael Parks and John Saxon; "WHERE THE RED
FERN GROWS PART II" starring Wilfred Brimley, Doug McKeon, Chad McQueen
and Lisa Whelchel; "THE ST. TAMMANY MIRACLE" starring Mark Paul
Gosselar, Jamie Lunar, Soliel Moon Fry and Steve Allen; "THE LOST
TREASURE OF SAWTOOTH ISLAND" starring Ernest Borgnine; "BRING HIM HOME"
starring Edward Asner and Sharon Gless; "CHILDREN ON THEIR BIRTHDAYS"
starring Christopher McDonald, Sheryl Lee and Tom Arnold; "SWIMMING
UPSTREAM" starring Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis; "DANNY DECKCHAIR"
starring Rhys Ifans and Miranda Otto; "WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS"
starring Dave Matthews and Dabney Coleman; "SOUND OF THUNDER" starring
Ed Burns and Ben Kingsley; "RAY" starring Jamie Foxx ( which was
nominated for several Academy Awards and received "Best Actor" and
"Best Editing" awards); "GAME OF THEIR LIVES" (aka "THE MIRACLE MATCH")
starring Gerard Butler and Wes Bentley ; "SAHARA" starring Matthew
McConaughey, Steve Zahn, Penelope Cruz and William H. Macy; "NOTHING
BUT THE TRUTH" starring Kate Beckinsale, Matt Dillon, Alan Alda, Vera
Farmiga and Angela Bassett; "WHAT DOESN'T KILL YOU" starring Mark
Ruffalo, Ethan Hawke and Amanda Peete; "THE MAIDEN HEIST" starring
Morgan Freeman, Christopher Walken, William H. Macy and Marcia Gay
Harden; "REFUGE" starring Linda Hamilton and Christopher McDonald;
"GUNS, GIRLS AND GAMBLING" starring Christian Slater, Gary Oldman, Dane
Cook, and Powers Boothe; "CAN'T STAND LOSING YOU", a documentary about
the legendary musical group "the Police" : "PAPA" starring Giovanni
Ribisi and Joely Richardson and for RSVP:.. "MR. HOCKEY, THE GORDIE
HOWE STORY," a television movie produced for the CBC and Hallmark
Channel; and "BEFORE WE GO" starring Chris Evans and Alice Eve. Until
its merger with The Samuel Goldwyn Company, Immerman served as a member
of the Board of Directors of Heritage Entertainment, Inc., a public
company which then owned and operated the Landmark Theaters chain of
theaters. Immerman has also served as Special Consultant to the Office
of the President of Pathe Communications Corporation and as Vice
Chairman of Pathe's subsidiary company, Cannon Pictures, Inc. He has
also been President of Distribution Expense Company, a company that
provided loans to independent producers and distributors used to pay
for motion picture theatrical distribution expenses. During the 1980's
Immerman served on the National Advisory Board of the Sundance Film
Festival and from the early 1990's until 2007 served on the National
Advisory Board of the DeSantis Center for Motion Picture Industry
Studies at the College of Business, Florida Atlantic University. He
also is a member of the Los Angeles Advisory Committee of the
University of Wisconsin Foundation and a Trustee of the University of
Wisconsin Memorial Union Building Fund. Immerman has also been a member
of the Board of Directors of the Thalians Mental Health Center at
Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. Immerman has produced The
Valentino Awards Show (televised on RAI-TV in Italy) on several
occasions for the Thalians and other live event shows for other
charities. He is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and serves as a
director of The Screen Actors Guild Foundation. Immerman produced the
Los Angeles legitimate stage production and international tour of "THE
KNIFE THROWERS ASSISTANT, A LIFE ON THE CUTTING EDGE" and the Los
Angeles legitimate stage production of "BERLIN TO BROADWAY, the music
of Kurt Weil''. Immerman has been "Of Counsel" to the law firm of
Barash & Hill where he served as the supervising attorney of the
entertainment law department and "Of Counsel" to the Los Angeles law
firm of Kenoff & Machtinger and senior member of The Law Offices of
William J. Immerman. During that time he specialized in representing
sales agents, independent producers, financiers and distributors and
negotiating complex financing deals and acting as production and
distribution counsel for his clients. He is a member of the State Bar
of California and the Los Angele County Bar Association and Beverly
Hills Bar Association which has elected him to "The Order of
Distinguished Attorneys". He has received the "Highest Rating In Legal
Ability & Ethical Standards" from the "LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbard
Peer Review Ratings". Immerman is a member of the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences and has served as an arbitrator for the
Independent Film and Television Alliance (formerly AFMA), the non
profit membership organization of all the leading international motion
picture distributors and is recognized as an expert on the motion
picture industry by many of the courts in the U.S. and frequently
testifies in arbitrations and court cases, federal, state and
international, as an expert on the motion picture and television
business.. In 2010 he received "The Louis B. Mayer Award" from the UCLA
Anderson School of Management as "the Outstanding Motion Picture
Business Executive of the Year".