ABOUT LAMAR CARD (PRESIDENT, DIRECTOR-PRODUCER)
Lamar is founder and captain of the ship. He divides his time between the Barcelona office, where the company’s international co-productions are managed, and the Beverly Hills and Miami offices where he is currently packaging the company’s new miniseries, on the Cherokee removal. Lamar has produced, directed, executive produced, or held other executive roles on two dozen motion pictures in association with every major studio and network. Card’s picture Terror Train, starring Jamie Curtis, held the record for many years as the largest “day and date” opening (1000 theaters simultaneously in the U.S.) that Fox Studios had ever undertaken at the time.
Lamar enjoys an exceptionally high percentage of pictures developed to green light. On the financing and marketing side, he was involved in the organization of the original American Film Marketing Association in 1981. He served on the board of directors of the AFMA producing group, the Independent Film Producers Association. IFPA was a predecessor to the IFTA, of which the AFMA and AFM are now a part.
Expanding the company’s international co-production slate is the raison d’être for the company’s new European base in Barcelona. The European film market in Barcelona is not the epicenter of European film development, the producer notes, but it is a growing European film center with deep creative resources, including above and below the line film talent.
The Madrid office of Baker and MacKenzie, Card International’s European law firm provides an important connection with the studios in Spain’s capital, on the company expansion to international strategy for coproductions. Spare time is spent sailing Barcelona’s Costa Brava and the French Riviera.