Robert Halmi's Gold Nymph Leaves Monte-Carlo Abuzz.

Considered one of the last great independent producers, Robert Halmi Sr. (pictured) revealed that the secret to his company's longevity is that it constantly evolves with the ever-changing television landscape. Halmi is chairman of Hallmark Entertainment, which has become one of the world's most powerful and prolific entertainment entities.

Halmi's business philosophy is clear: "As a producer, you have very limited clout. You have to become a broadcaster, too. To be a company of any size, you have to own all your rights. You have to go into publishing, you have to go into music, you have to go into all the things that the major studios do. There is less drama on television, for one reason or another, and I think you cannot be small and survive. Unfortunately, the small independent producer's days are numbered."

Halmi was named the recipient of the 41st annual Monte-Carlo Television Festival's Gold Nymph Award, which recognizes a creative force in television whose body of work has international appeal and will have a lasting impact on the entertainment industry. Halmi remarked that the global appeal of his productions is the only reason he's able to keep making movies and miniseries. He said that selling his product internationally is literally "the most important thing. We couldn't do it without our foreign partners." According to Halmi, his movies cost so much to produce that "the American licensing fees for television cover less than half, maybe one third" of the production cost. "So, Europe is very important. Also, oddly enough, the kind of movies I do almost have better ratings in Europe than in America."

Up until now, all of Halmi's productions have been made specifically for the American audience, then presented to the rest of the world. However, that may soon change thanks to his rapidly expanding Hallmark Network, which in the past three years has been established as a global network, using a multi-platform approach via satellite and cable. Currently, the Hallmark Network is seen in 90 countries, airing in 45 languages. Halmi said that he hopes to have 200 million subscribers by the end of 2002.

"Slowly, we'll [produce for specific European companies] because now we have our own network around the world, which is doing extremely well. Then I can do special programming for that network and especially in different countries."

The American arm of this global network is The Odyssey Channel. However, Halmi is in the process of changing the cable channel's name to The Hallmark Channel once the legalities are worked out. In addition, Halmi said that Hallmark Entertainment is preparing to announce a major interactive show in the near future.

It is this unwavering enthusiasm and passion for his company and moviemaking that has propelled Halmi's career. Born in Hungary 76 years ago, Halmi's life could be the subject of one of his TV spectaculars. During World War II, he fought the Nazis as a member of the Hungarian Resistance. Twice he was captured and sentenced to death. First, he was liberated by the invading Russian army and the second time, he escaped from prison and fled to Austria.

After arriving in the U.S. in 1950 as a penniless immigrant, Halmi found work at Life magazine, where he worked as a photographer and writer from 1952 to 1962. That led him directly to television where, in 1962, he began producing documentaries, including several episodes of ABC's long-running series American Sportsman. His trademark love of literature was evident in the choice of his first television movie, 1979's My Old Man, an adaptation of an Ernest Hemingway short story.

Since then, Halmi has become one of the most fertile producers in television history, with a film library of more than 300 hours -- and growing. A multiple Emmy Award winner and 1999 Peabody Award winner, Halmi's TV movies and miniseries include Gypsy, The Odyssey, Moby Dick, Jason and the Argonauts, Arabian Nights, Gulliver's Travels and Lonesome Dove, the latter two having won 12 Emmys between them.

"I'm filling a void more than anything else," observed Halmi. "Nobody else is doing these things. And these things should be done. Television is made for telling big stories, not for doing shallow stuff and satisfying the lowest common denominator."

In 1994, Halmi sold his company to Hallmark Cards and it is now run by Robert Halmi Jr., which leaves Robert Sr. free to do what he loves and does best -- make movies. As always, the decision of which classic piece of literature gets molded into the next Hallmark Entertainment production is left solely to him. "I'm a one-man band. I think we have 450 employees now; out of that, five or six help me do the movies, the rest are all in sales and legal and other non-creative aspects of the company. Basically, I decide what I do and I have been lucky enough to be able to sell it so far."

Now in partnership with his son, Halmi said that his company will produce 30 movies this year. Upcoming projects include Prince Charming, Snow White and Thief of Bagdad. Swiss Family Robinson is set to film in Malaysia and the spectacularly ambitious Dinotopia is currently lensing in London. A mammoth undertaking, Halmi said that Dinotopia "needs all my attention, so I can't do anything else. It's a two-year project and the biggest thing I've ever done," adding, "and maybe the last thing I'll ever do." Even in the unlikely event that Robert Sr. will retire, Hallmark Entertainment will continue to expand under the watchful eye of his son.

Noting that the company has never been stronger, Halmi stated, "That's thanks to my son, not to me. I'm the one who spends money and he's the one who makes it. You cannot do it halfway, you cannot do it cheap, you cannot do it on a back lot. You either do it or don't do it. And if I do it, I do it right." He explained, "Without him, I wouldn't have [money] to spend. So the company really grows because of his aggressiveness." Halmi affirmed, "I just love to make movies and, as long as I live, I'm going to make them."

THE ART OF ROBERT HALMI SR.

Robert Halmi Sr., chairman of the board of Hallmark Entertainment, is described in his 1999 Peabody Award citation as "perhaps the last of the great network television impresarios." TV Guide calls him, simply, "TV's master showman." These and other descriptions sit comfortably on the shoulders of one of the industry's most prolific and respected producers; a man who, in little more than two decades, has carved a signature niche in the television business: producing quality, family-friendly longform entertainment.

Halmi has produced nearly 200 television films, miniseries and motion pictures, including Lonesome Dove (winner of seven Emmy Awards), The Josephine Baker Story (five Emmys), Gypsy (starring Bette Midler), Mr. and Mrs. Bridge (Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward) and Gulliver's Travels (winner of five Emmys and starring Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen).

Recent Robert Halmi "event" productions include In Cold Blood (Anthony Edwards, Eric Roberts, Sam Neill), The Odyssey (Armand Assante, Greta Scaachi), Merlin (Sam Neill, Isabella Rossellini, Martin Short, Miranda Richardson), Moby

Dick (Patrick Stewart, Gregory Peck), Crime and Punishment (Ben Kingsley, Patrick Dempsey), Alice in Wonderland (Tina Majorino, Martin Short, Miranda Richardson), Noah's Ark (Jon Voight, Mary Steenburgen, F Murray Abraham) and Cleopatra (Leonor Varela, Billy Zane, Timothy Dalton).

Triumphs from the 1999-2000 season include Animal Farm (Pete Posrlethwaite, with the voices of Patrick Stewart, Kelsey Grammer, Ian Holm), A Christmas Carol (Patrick Stewart, Richard E. Grant, Joel Grey), The 10th Kingdom (John Larroquette, Kimberly Williams), Don Quixote (John Lithgow, Bob Hoskins, Vanessa Williams, Isabella Rossellini), Arabian Nights (Rufus Sewell, Dougray Scott, John Leguizamo, Mili Avital) and Jason and the Argonauts (Jason London, Dennis Hopper, Frank Langella).

Halmi's projects that will air in the 2000-2001 season include The Monkey King (Thomas Gibson, Bai Ling, Russell Wong, for NBC), Snow White (Miranda Richardson, directed by Caroline Thompson, for ABC), Prince Charming (Martin Short, Christina Applegate, Bernadette Peters, for TNT), Voyage of the Unicorn (Beau Bridges, for The Odyssey Channel) and The Infinite Worlds of H.G. Wells (for The Odyssey Channel).

Currently in production at London's Pinewood Studios is the most technically sophisticated project ever developed for American television, the six-hour Dinotopia, based on the James Gurney books. The special will air in May 2002 on ABC.

The Hungary-born Halmi was active in the anti-Nazi underground in World War II and later was arrested by the Communists when they took over the country. He came to the U.S. in 1950 and worked for many years as an award-winning photographer at Life magazine. In 1994, Halmi sold his company, RHI Entertainment, to Hallmark Cards. The newly-christened Hallmark Entertainment is the world's leading producer of television movies and miniseries, with an annual production slate of 30-40 projects.