Thursday, November 11

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)

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