Mario Kassar

Career overview

Mario F. Kassar is a Lebanese-American film producer and industry executive who was born in Beirut on October 10, 1951. Raised in Italy and the south of France, Kassar grew up with a background in the film industry as the son of an independent movie producer, and he began distributing Italian and French movies as a young man.

Alongside Andrew G. Vajna, Kassar founded the now-defunct Carolco Pictures. In 1980, Kassar and Vajna paid Warner Bros. approximately $383,000 for the option rights to David Morrell's 1972 novel, First Blood, and cast Sylvester Stallone as John Rambo to help secure investment. Through Carolco Pictures, Kassar produced the first three films of the Rambo series. His extensive production credits also include Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Total Recall, The Doors, Angel Heart, Jacob's Ladder, Rambling Rose, Basic Instinct, Universal Soldier, Chaplin, Showgirls, and Stargate.

Later in his career, Kassar re-opened a production company in 2002 called C-2 Pictures to produce Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which was released in 2003 and stood as one of the most expensive films of that year.