Independent filmmaker Roger Corman's tale ranks as one of the most amazing motion picture success stories. Having produced more than 550 films and directed fifty others, his influence on American film goes far beyond his own energetic, creative low-budget movies. Noted for his keen ability to spot young talents, his most lasting legacy will undoubtedly be the legion of producers, directors, writers, and actors he has fostered, among them: Jack Nicholson, Francis Ford Coppola, Peter Fonda, Bruce Dern, Diane Ladd, Robert DeNiro, Martin Scorsese, Ron Howard, Joe Dante, Jonathan Demme, Gale Ann Hurd, James Cameron and countless more.

Corman began his career in an entry level position at 20th Century Fox, and by 1949, was a story analyst at the studio. In 1953, Corman sold his first screenplay, entitled ”Highway Dragnet” to Allied Artists and served as associate producer on the film. Before long, he began producing a wide array of low-budget, yet successful, features for American International Pictures. With a string of box office hits like “Little Shop of Horrors” to his credit, Corman began to procure larger budgets. Throughout the 1960s, Corman's cycle of Vincent Price/Edgar Allan Poe horror films, including “The Pit and The Pendulum,” and “House of Usher” earned him international acclaim.

As American International Pictures' primary director, Corman's success built the company into a major force in Hollywood. In 1970, Corman founded his own production and distribution company, New World Pictures. The company rapidly grew into the largest independent motion picture distribution company in the United States. New World soon became the independent leader in presenting high-quality foreign films to the American public including Academy Award-winning films by Ingmar Bergman, Francois Truffaut, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa and Werner Herzog. In 1983, Roger Corman sold New World Pictures, and formed Concorde-New Horizons, a company which is producing and guiding films to eager audiences to this day.