Biography
Elie Samaha is a Lebanese-American film producer. He co-founded Franchise Pictures and served as its chairman and CEO. Between 1997 and 2004 the company produced a number of films, many of them star vehicles made at reduced cost.
Samaha’s production credits include The Boondock Saints (1999), Battlefield Earth (2000), The Whole Nine Yards (2000), Driven (2001), The Pledge (2001), The Whole Ten Yards (2004) and Tristan & Isolde (2006). He previously owned the Celebrity Cleaners chain and the Roxbury nightclub on Sunset Strip, through which he formed industry connections that led to a Warner Bros. distribution deal in 1998.
In 2021 he co-founded Luminosity Entertainment, serving as its chairman. Under that banner he produced Back on the Strip (2023).
