Dino De Laurentiis

Agostino De Laurentiis, usually credited as Dino De Laurentiis (8 August 1919 – 11 November 2010), was an Italian Academy Award-winning movie producer.

Biography

He was born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples, and grew up selling spaghetti produced by his father. A study at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome was interrupted by the Second World War.

Since his first movie, L'ultimo Combattimento, (1940) he has produced nearly 150. In 1946 his company, the Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica, moved into production. In the early years, De Laurentiis produced neorealist films such as Bitter Rice (1946) and the Fellini classics La Strada (1954) and Nights of Cabiria (1956), often in collaboration with producer Carlo Ponti. In the 1960s, Dino De Laurentiis built his own studio facilities, although these financially collapsed during the 1970s. During this period, though, De Laurentiis produced such films as Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die, an imitation James Bond film, Navajo Joe (1966), a spaghetti western, Anzio (1968), a World War II film, Barbarella (1968) and Danger: Diabolik (1968), both successful comic book adaptations, and The Valachi Papers made to coincide with the popularity of The Godfather.

In the 1970s, De Laurentiis relocated to the USA where he set up studios, eventually creating his own studio De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG) based in Wilmington, North Carolina; the building of the studio quickly made Wilmington a busy center of film and television production. During this period De Laurentiis made a number of successful and acclaimed films, including The Scientific Cardplayer (1972), Serpico (1973), Death Wish (1974), Mandingo (1975), Three Days of the Condor (1975), The Shootist (1976), Ingmar Bergman's The Serpent's Egg (1977), Ragtime (1981), Conan the Barbarian (1982) and Blue Velvet (1986). It is for his more infamous productions that De Laurentiis's name has become known – the legendary King Kong (1976) remake, which was a commercial hit, Lipstick, the killer whale film Orca (1977); The White Buffalo (1977); the disaster movie Hurricane (1979); the remake of Flash Gordon (1980); Halloween II (the 1981 sequel to John Carpenter's 1978 classic horror film); David Lynch's Dune (1984); and King Kong Lives (1986). De Laurentiis also made several adaptations of Stephen King's works during this time, including The Dead Zone (1983), Cat's Eye (1985), Silver Bullet (1985) and Maximum Overdrive (1986); Army of Darkness (1992) was produced jointly by De Laurentiis, Robert Tapert and the movie's star Bruce Campbell. They distributed the animated Transformers movie.

De Laurentiis also produced the first Hannibal Lecter film Manhunter (1986). He passed on adapting Thomas Harris's sequel, The Silence of the Lambs, but produced the two follow-ups, Hannibal (2001) and Red Dragon (2002), a remake of Manhunter. He also produced Hannibal Rising (2007), which tells the story of how Hannibal becomes a serial killer.

In his later choice of stories he displayed a strong preference for adaptations of successful books, especially sweeping classics like The Bible: In the Beginning (1966), Barabbas (1961), or Dune (1984).

In 2001 he received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

[edit] Family

He had four children with his first wife, actress Silvana Mangano, who died in 1989. He later married movie producer Martha Schumacher and they had two daughters. One of the children from his first marriage, Raffaella De Laurentiis, is also a producer; another, Federico De Laurentiis (28 February 1955 – 15 July 1981), died at 26 in an airplane crash. His granddaughter is Giada De Laurentiis, host of Everyday Italian, Behind the Bash, Giada at Home and Giada's Weekend Getaways on Food Network. His nephew is Aurelio De Laurentiis, a film producer in his own right and the chairman of SSC Napoli football club.

Filmography

Selected filmography from 1968 to the present.

Year Title Director

1965 Battle of the Bulge Ken Annakin

1968 Danger: Diabolik Mario Bava

Barbarella Roger Vadim

1973 Serpico Sidney Lumet

1974 Death Wish Michael Winner

1976 King Kong John Guillermin

1980 Flash Gordon Mike Hodges

1981 Halloween II Rick Rosenthal

Ragtime Milos Forman

1982 Fighting Back Lewis Teague

Conan the Barbarian John Milius

Amityville II: The Possession Damiano Damiani

1983 Amityville 3-D Richard Fleischer

Halloween III: Season of the Witch Tommy Lee Wallace

Dead Zone David Cronenberg

1984 Yado Richard Fleischer

Conan the Destroyer Richard Fleischer

Firestarter Mark L. Lester

Dune David Lynch

The Bounty Roger Donaldson

1985 Maximum Overdrive Stephen King

Raw Deal John Irvin

Marie Roger Donaldson

Silver Bullet Daniel Attias

Cat's Eye Lewis Teague

Year of the Dragon Michael Cimino

Red Sonja Richard Fleischer

1986 Crimes of the Heart Bruce Beresford

Blue Velvet David Lynch

Tai-Pan Daryl Duke

Manhunter Michael Mann

King Kong Lives John Guillermin

1987 Hiding Out Bob Giraldi

Evil Dead 2 Sam Raimi

The Bedroom Window Curtis Hanson

1989 Collision Course Lewis Teague

From the Hip Bob Clark

1990 Sometimes They Come Back Tom McLoughlin

Desperate Hours Michael Cimino

1992 Once Upon a Crime Eugene Levy

Kuffs Bruce A. Evans

1993 Body of Evidence Uli Edel

Army of Darkness Sam Raimi

1994 Temptation Strathford Hamilton

1995 Solomon & Sheba Robert Young

Slave of Dreams Robert Young

Rumpelstiltskin Mark Jones (I)

Assassins Richard Donner

1996 Unforgettable John Dahl

Bound Larry and Andy Wachowski

1997 Breakdown Jonathan Mostow

2000 U-571 Jonathan Mostow

2001 Hannibal Ridley Scott

2002 Red Dragon Brett Ratner

2006 Hannibal Rising Peter Webber

The Last Legion Doug Lefler

2007 Virgin Territory David Leland

(source:wikipedia)