Kassar met Andrew G. Vajna at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival . A year later , Kassar and Vajna founded Carolco Pictures . " Carolco " was a name they had taken from a long-defunct company based in Panama . " We just bought the name , " Kassar later told '' Entertainment Weekly '' . " It means nothing . " The first film Kassar and Vajna ventured together was '' The Sicilian Cross '' , a 1976 Italian film that starred Roger Moore . They bought the rights to the film for $ 130,000 . Kassar flew to Asia and sold it for $ 220,000 . By the early 1980s , Vajna and Kassar had bought a small office in Melrose Avenue . Their desks faced each other in the office and Vajna 's wife and Kassar 's girlfriend were their secretaries . Kassar and Vajna served as executive producers on '' The Changeling '' ( 1980 ) , '' The Amateur '' ( 1981 ) , and '' Escape to Victory '' ( 1981 ) . The latter film marked the first time for both Kassar and Vajna to have worked with Sylvester Stallone
1975 Cannes Film Festival
1975 Cannes Film Festival
Mario Kassar