Dino De Laurentiis

As a producer and presenter of motion pictures, the career of Dino De Laurentiis spans over 65 years. Dino’s remarkable contribution to cinema, both in Europe and in the United States, is unprecedented. He helped transform the very image of Italy and its people immediately following WWII through pioneering filmmaking collaborations with such directors as Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Michelangelo Antonioni, and others.

Following the war, the people and art of Italy, Germany and Japan were largely isolated from the rest of the world for obvious reasons. Their film industries, which prior to the war had thrived, were at a standstill, with morale low and funding tight at best. Dino, realizing that films genuinely serve as “ambassadors to the world,” virtually invented the concept of foreign pre-sales and the practice of the selling of rights territory-by-territory to finance his pictures. (Pre-sales are now an established method for independent filmmakers to finance their films and make their dreams realities). Subsequently the studios started sharing risks by partnering with each other and splitting the rights to their movies.

Dino was able to reach across European borders, creating the concept of cultural coproductions and forming production partnerships with countries that only a year or so before had been at war with his own.

These films energized Italy’s movie industry, heightened national pride, and opened the door to new relations with the rest of the world. Fellini’s LA STRADA and NIGHTS OF CABIRIA, both produced by Dino, won Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. LA STRADA, in fact, won the very first Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1956. The next year, Dino’s film THE GREAT WAR, directed by Mario Monicelli, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film and went on to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Shortly thereafter, the Italian government awarded Dino the prestigious Cavalieri Del Lavoro for his contribution to launching Italian cinema worldwide. To this day, he is the only producer to hold this highest of civilian honors.

Dino’s films continued to expand in importance and scope. In the sixties, he attracted to his Rome-based studio, Dino Citta, major stars such as Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Ava Gardner, Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda, Bette Davis, Robert Mitchum, Richard Harris, George C. Scott, Peter O’Toole, Orson Welles, Anthony Quinn, Van Heflin, Kirk Douglas and many others, and such major US directors as John Huston (THE BIBLE), King Vidor (the epic WAR AND PEACE), Roger Vadim (BARBARELLA), Edward Dmytryk (ANZIO) and Martin Ritt (FIVE BRANDED WOMEN). As an Independent filmmaker, Dino gambled on moving his enterprises to the US where he wasted no time in expanding even further his considerable contributions to the world of global cinema.

Important, powerful films followed such as THE VALACHI PAPERS, SERPICO, THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR, THE SHOOTIST, THE SERPENT’S EGG, BUFFALO BILL, KING KONG, RAGTIME, CONAN, DEAD ZONE, DUNE, THE BOUNTY, YEAR OF THE DRAGON, MANHUNTER, BLUE VELVET, CRIMES OF THE HEART, BEDROOM WINDOW, BOUND, BREAKDOWN, U-571 and HANNIBAL. His last project was the SILENCE OF THE LAMBS prequel RED DRAGON, directed by Brett Ratner and starring Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Dino has launched the careers of many young talented directors. As a risk-taker, an innovator and a tremendously energetic and creative independent producer, he has always insisted on providing opportunities to directors, emphasizing their creative freedom while offering the great production values of a major studio. The directors he has worked with include Sydney Pollack, Sidney Lumet, Milos Forman, Bruce Beresford, Michael Cimino, David Lynch, Luchino Visconti, Ingmar Bergman, Robert Altman, Terrence Young, John Milius, David Cronenberg, William Friedkin, Michael Crichton, Frank Pierson, Don Siegel, Roger Donaldson, Curtis Hanson, Michael Mann, Peter Bogdanovich, Ridley Scott, and young directors John Dahl, Larry and Andy Wachowski, Jonathan Mostow and Brett Ratner.

In total, Dino has produced, presented, financed or distributed more than 600 films. As a pioneer in building studios around the world, he has built four major facilities: Dino Citta’ in Rome, North Carolina Film Studios which is now Screen Gems Studio, Village Roadshow Studios in Australia and the De Laurentiis studio in Ouarzazate, Morocco. He has been responsible for films that have been commercial as well as critical successes. All told, his productions have earned 4 Academy Awards, 30 Academy Award nominations, and have been recognized with close to 100 different awards worldwide, including the Palme d’Or for Best Film and 3 Golden Lions for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival. At the Oscars ceremony 2001, Dino was awarded the prestigious Irving G. Thalberg Award.

Dino’s philosophy is and always has been that the best movies are made by supporting and championing the director to the fullest possible extent. He believes that discovering and nurturing new talent, from directors to writers to actors, is one of a producer’s most important contributions. His passion about the projects he becomes involved with, as well as the entire creative filmmaking process, has made him one of the most prolific producers of all time. Above all, he is a passionate filmmaker, never giving up on his vision for making movies the world wants to see. He is, without a doubt, one of the film industry’s most influential independent producers – a legend!

The Weinstein Company