Who is Giancarlo Parretti and what happened to him? The insider scandal that rocked Hollywood as the tycoon ‘who almost killed Bond’ lifts the lid on MGM’s chaotic buyout in a new BBC documentary

An Italian business tycoon who ‘almost killed Bond’ will lift the lid on his chaotic purchase of the legendary MGM film studio in a new BBC documentary tonight.

Bartender-turned-movie mogul Giancarlo Parretti bought the classic franchise for $1.3 billion in 1990 with big plans to revamp it.

But within weeks of his inauguration, checks to Hollywood stars bounced, the 17th Bond film was shelved and hundreds of workers lost their jobs.

The FBI was called in and Parretti’s understanding of MGM, which began prefacing its films with a roaring lion, began to crumble.

He fled to Mexico and then to Italy, but who is he really and where is he now?

Here MailOnline takes a look at the life of Giancarlo Parretti and the story behind his takeover of MGM.

It comes as he is interviewed in a ground-breaking documentary The Man Who Definitely Didn’t Steal Hollywood which airs tonight at 9pm (4pm EST) on BBC2.

Who is Giancarlo Parretti?

Giancarlo Parretti was born in Orvieto, Italy in 1941 and claims to have been raised an orphan.

He then moved to London where he worked as a waiter at London’s Savoy Hotel and even served Prime Minister Winston Churchill during wartime.

Parretti produced a religious film in the 1980s (Bernadette) that allegedly brought the Pope to tears, before leaving for New York, where he ran a restaurant frequented by former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

He is understood to have made his fortune “buying, restructuring and selling troubled companies in Europe”.

He began his “Hollywood journey” by buying Cannon Films for $200 million in 1988, a Los Angeles mini-studio that was on the brink of bankruptcy.

Parretti proceeded to make his bid for MGM on 1 November 1990 with the backing of the French bank Credit Lyonnais.

“At first it looked like he wasn’t going to be able to finish the billion-dollar deal,” said Alex Yemenidjian, former owner Kirk Kerkorian’s right-hand man.

“After paying $200 million, I didn’t have the rest of the money,” he said according to The Telegraph.

“It came to us in overtime. We knew it was fighting from all places.

It was eventually agreed that Parretti would pay Kerkorian $50 million per month until the deal closed.

For a brief time, Parretti lived like a Beverly Hills mogul with the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Dustin Hoffman ready to work with him.

At the height of his wealth, Parretti is said to have owned a $20 million Gulfstream IV jet, a $200,000 Rolls Royce and a 14-bedroom mansion in Beverly Hills.

He even had a private nightclub in Los Angeles called Tramp of London.

What happened at MGM?

Parretti bought MGM, the film studio behind The Wizard of Oz and Bond films, in 1990 with big plans to revamp it.

It quickly issued a statement saying its goal was to become “the most powerful Euro-American media group of the 1990s.”

However, it soon became clear that the Italian entrepreneur was ill-equipped to run a Hollywood film studio.

Parretti appointed his 21-year-old daughter Valentina to run MGM’s treasury and soon bounced a six-figure check from Hollywood legend Dustin Hoffman for Rain Man.

There was also a similar problem with a $1 million payment to Sylvester Stallone for Rocky V.

Parretti also fired dozens of studio employees with staff often asked to hand out envelopes containing final paychecks.

Even the Bond films, which kept MGM afloat at the time, became a source of friction.

American film producer Albert Romolo Broccoli, nicknamed “Cubby”, sued MGM over licensing issues, putting the next film, GoldenEye, on hold.

This meant there was no 007 film between 1989’s License To Kill and GoldenEye six years later.

James Bond producers were reportedly so skeptical of Parretti’s leadership that Timothy Dalton left the franchise, unwilling to wait until the problems at MGM were resolved.

At one point, the studio couldn’t even afford to print Thelma & Louise posters, and Parretti was removed from the board in 1991 amid a series of impending lawsuits.

Concerns were raised about where Parretti had gotten his money to buy the franchise, and even when the deal was done, half of the $1.3 billion went unaccounted for.

Parretti claimed that half of the money for the takeover came from his businesses and even from future Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

He said the other half was money from French bank Credit Lyonnais.

But the FBI concluded that almost all of it was from the bank (meaning the French taxpayer) and that Parretti had bribed his bosses with false paintings.

At one point, Crédit Lyonnais is believed to be lending Parretti up to $1 million a day.

Parretti was summoned to court, but the night before he was due to appear, he fled to Mexico and then to Italy.

The businessman was eventually found guilty of fraud in 1999 and was sentenced in absentia to four years in prison. He was also fined one million francs by a Paris court.

An Interpol Red Notice was issued against him, so if he leaves Italy he will be extradited to face trial in the US.

where is it now

Parretti is now 82 years old and has returned to his Orvieto in central Italy.

He is said to be living a life of luxury in his own palace again.

What to expect from the documentary?

Parretti is interviewed at length in the documentary The Man Who Definitely Didn’t Steal Hollywood which airs tonight at 9pm on BBC2.

From his palace in Orvieto, the entrepreneur opens for the first time his chaotic tenure at MGM.

Hollywood insiders and federal prosecutors who investigated his purchase of MGM are also questioned, but give a very different take on the story.

The Man Who Definitely Didn’t Steal Hollywood is directed by BAFTA winner John Dower who questions Parretti.

During the interview, Parretti claims that he was a friend of Winston Churchill and even former US President Ronald Reagan gave him an award.

However, he is still good at deflecting blame and wriggles away from almost every accusation.

The Italian business magnate has always denied any wrongdoing, but has never explained why he fled the US.

The Man Who Definitely Didn’t Steal Hollywood airs tonight at 9pm (4pm EST) on BBC2