Intrigue

Giancarlo Parretti's $1.3B purchase of MGM in 1990 leads to an FBI probe over irregularities. His ownership crumbles amid lawsuits and charges. He flees before sentencing but is arrested as the investigation uncovers global corruption.

When a former waiter turned movie mogul, Giancarlo Parretti, buys the legendary MGM/UA (the studio behind The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind and the James Bond franchise) for $1.3 billion in 1990, everyone hopes this charismatic Italian, with a mysterious mountain of cash to spend, will make the lion roar again. But within weeks, the 17th James Bond movie is put on ice, pay cheques to Dustin Hoffman bounces, and hundreds of MGM/UA staff are fired. Parretti soon faces an FBI investigation for alleged financial irregularities and his ownership of Hollywood's most famous studio spirals out of control. With unprecedented access to MGM insiders involved in the deal, Hollywood directors, actors and writers and Giancarlo Parretti himself, 'The Man Who Definitely Didn't Steal Hollywood', unpacks one of Hollywood's biggest scandals blow by blow. As lawsuits and criminal charges rain down, Parretti leaves the USA just days before he is due to be sentenced for perjury and falsifying documents. International arrest warrants are issued but Parretti is already back in his home country of Italy. Now, Giancarlo Parretti, gives his own account of his tumultuous days as the head of MGM. He also reveals his meteoric yet often mysterious rise from waiting on tables to becoming one of most powerful studio bosses in Hollywood. The film also features interviews with federal prosecutors, actors, directors, and MGM insiders speaking out for the first time, who give the inside take on one of Hollywood's craziest, untold stories. As Federal Prosecutors and the FBI began to investigate, they uncover an international web of corruption and bribes which stretches beyond the MGM deal and eventually contributes to the collapse of Europe's biggest bank. A charismatic and larger than life character, Giancarlo Parretti has always denied wrongdoing against him and now reveals what it was like to be the man at the centre of Hollywood's biggest scandal and being pursued by law enforcement agencies from across the globe.