William J. Immerman

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 ...Show More

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". Hide