B Movies

Donald P. Borchers discovered B MOVIES through his second mentor, Lindsley Parsons, Sr., and then began his life's journey to make them.

is an American motion picture producer, writer, and director, and now owns and operates this YouTube Channel.

One of Hollywood's busiest producers, DONALD P. BORCHERS made his directorial debut with "Grave Secrets." "I 'd felt from experience that I could do as creditable a job as other first-timers," explained the producer of "Stephen King's Children of the Corn" (1984), "Crimes of Passion" (1984) and "Two Moon Junction" (1988). "Basically, I had to convince myself of that and then go after me to direct it."

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on October 14, 1956, the son of a career Naval Officer, Borchers attended the University of Notre Dame (class of 1978) and graduated with a Bachelor's degree , majoring in Business Administration and minoring in Theatre Arts.

Following a brief stint at USC, paid for with earnings made as a Carton Travel Tour Escort in Hawaii and Canada, Borchers went to work for AVCO Embassy Pictures, quickly rising to a management position, Production Coordinator, where he oversaw expenses on 17 productions, in the early 1980s.

Borchers first worked as the Production Accountant on John Carpenter's "The Fog" (1980), then Production Associate on two of Embassy's biggest successes, Joe Dante's "The Howling" (1981) and John Carpenter's "Escape From New York," (1981).

After ankling AVCO Embassy Pictures, Borchers was a Second Assistant Director on Chuck Norris' "An Eye for an Eye" (1981).

For the next year, Borchers was principally working on a freelance basis, earning money by preparing shooting schedules and budgets for screenplays looking for financing and distribution, including the original budgets for James Cameron's "The Terminator" (1984) and Steve De Jarnatt's "Miracle Mile" (1988).

Borchers reunited with James Cameron to make a 3-minute promo reel for Golden Harvest's "Deadly Eyes (1982), where Dachshunds were dressed up as rats for the special effects.

Borchers became Executive in Charge of Production at Leisure Investment Corp. in 1982, serving as associate producer on Don Coscarelli's "The Beastmaster" (1982).

For Sandy Howard Productions he associate produced "Triumphs of a Man Called Horse" (1983) before being named Senior Vice President of Worldwide Production and Creative Affairs for New World Pictures.

In 1984, Borchers ankled New World Pictures and created his own company, Planet Productions Corp.

An independent production deal with New World Pictures resulted in Borchers packaging and producing, through his own company, Planet Productions, and as an independent producer for New World, the hit films "Angel" (1983) and Stephen King's "Children of the Corn" (1984) as well as "Tuff Turf" (1985) and Ken Russell's controversial "Crimes of Passion" (1984) starring Kathleen Turner and Anthony Perkins, and Richard Wenk's "Vamp" (1986).

After obtaining independent financing from Don Levin (Founder of Republic Tobacco, Levin began with a small smoke shop called Adams Apple, then went into wholesale distribution and grew his company into the largest roll-your-own tobacco company in the world) Borchers left New World Pictures to produce Zalman King's "Two Moon Junction" (1988).

"Grave Secrets" (1989) marked Borchers' Planet Productions Corp.'s inaugural in-house production, financed through retained earnings and vendor credit.

Borchers financed and produced and "Desire and Hell at Sunset Motel" (1991), then self distributed through his company, Two Moon Releasing.

Through a deal made with Larry Estes at RCA/Columbia, Borchers produced Joseph Minion's "MOTORAMA" (1991) , which was also released theatrically by Borchers' Two Moon Releasing.

He produced three films for Steven Spielberg's Amblin Playhouse television series, Horton Foote's"The Habitation of Dragons" (1992), David Mamet's "The Water Engine" (1992), and Keith Reddin's "The Heart of Justice" (1992).

Borchers' films have helped launch the careers of such performers as Linda Hamilton and Peter Horton, who co-starred in "Children of the Corn" (1984) and James Spader and Robert Downey Jr., who made his feature debut in "Tuff Turf" (1985).

[robatsea]

I grew up with these films. "The Fog" and "The Beastmaster" I both managed to see theatrically (as well as a number of the New World releases in the 1970s) but absolutely watched all of them when they hit home video, and was familiar with your name from reading publications like Fangoria, Cinefantastique, and The Hollywood Reporter. The era of companies like A.I.P., Avco-Embassy, and New World Pictures is sorely missed today.

[lilacseason]

Good story and very good actors. Thank you for presenting this entertaining film.

[phantomofphoenix]

Thank God for '"B " movies! Which most of the time are more entertaining then big budget A movies! Example: the Exorcist ( great A movie ), but i have always enjoyed Linda Blair more in her B picture roles, she really shines in the B flick "Savage Streets!

[charlessmyth]

Never knew about the "short ends" trick :-)

[agfagaevart]

I thought the whole "Heaven's Gate the film that broke UA" thing was a myth.
Because they made their money back from the insurance companies and pre-sales?
The Short Ends.
Great title for a movie!