Humax TV Tonight: The Man Who Definitely Didn’t Steal Hollywood

The Man Who Definitely Didn’t Steal Hollywood is on BBC Two and iPlayer tonight at 9pm.

Watch, record or stream it with a Humax set-top box.

When a former waiter called Giancarlo Parretti buys Hollywood’s legendary MGM/UA studio (responsible for classics like The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind and the James Bond movies) for $1.3 billion in 1990, everyone hopes this charismatic Italian with a mysterious mountain of cash to spend can make the lion roar again.

But within weeks, the next 007 movie is put on ice. Pay cheques to Dustin Hoffman and Sylvester Stallone bounce, and hundreds of MGM staff are fired. Soon, Parretti is facing an FBI investigation for alleged financial irregularities, and Hollywood’s most famous studio spirals out of control.

Now, Parretti tells his side of the story for the first time, alongside Hollywood insiders and the federal prosecutors who brought him down, to reveal what really happened.