In the 1940s George Pal made his reputation in Hollywood by producing animated shorts. As costs rose he found it unprofitable so moved into commercials for a few years while planning on going into feature production. In 1949 he convinced the independent Eagle-Lion Films to co-finance his own two-picture deal, with him putting up half of the money. Part of the finance came from Peter Rathvorn and Floyd Odlum, who used to run RKO. The movies would be "The Great Rupert" and "Destination Moon".