Producer’s Biography:

Dino De Laurentiis (Torre Annunziata, Campania, Italy, August 8, 1919 - Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA, November 10, 2010)



Dino De Laurentiis is one of the most famous Italian producers. Born as Agostino De Laurentiis, during his career spanning over seven decades, he produced more than a hundred and fifty films and worked with the most famous international directors and actors. A true film lover, as a seventeen year old boy he left his home to enroll in film school. However, WW II interrupted his studies at the Roman Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and he began working on film sets. Thanks to hard work and perseverance, at the age of twenty two he produced his first film L'amore canta (1941). After serving in the military in WW II he returned to film as executive producer for Lux, at the time one of the biggest Italian film companies. His first commercial success was the neorealist film Riso amaro (1949) directed by Giuseppe De Santis. That same year he married the film’s star Silvana Mangano. In 1950, he went into partnership with producer Carlo Ponti and they founded the production house Ponti-De Laurentiis Cinematografica. In the 1950s, they made many successful Italian films, for example with Federico Fellini’s Road (La Strada, 1954) they won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. He showed signs of his future inclination to spectacles in the Italian-American production of Ulisse (1954) starring Kirk Douglas. He produced a great commercial success with his second international co-production War and Peace (1956) by King Vidor. In the second half of the 1950s, he parted ways with Ponti and worked on his dream to open his own film studio in order to film spectacles. His dream came true in the 1960s when he opened the filming complex Dinocitta' Studios in Rome where John Houston made his historical spectacle The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966), which seriously breached its budget limitations. Laurentiis continued producing films based on comic books such as Barbarella (1968), directed by Roger Vadim, which did not impress critics but was well liked by audiences, and Diabolik (1968) directed by Mario Bava. In the 1970s, Dinocitta' Studios went bankrupt and Laurentiis sold the film studio and moved to the US. In North Carolina, he opened his own film studio called DEG (DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group), but it did not last very long. In the 1970s his most famous productions included: Serpico (1973) directed by Sidney Lumet, Death Wish (1974) by Michael Winner, Three Days of the Condor (1975) by Sydney Pollack and The Serpent's Egg (1977) by Ingmar Bergman, while his remake of King Kong (1976) received very bad critics’ reviews. In the 1980s, he produced the successful and popular Conan the Barbarian (1982) by John Milius, which launched Arnold Schwarzenegger as a new action star, while Hurricane (1979) by Jan Troell, Ragtime (1981) by Miloš Forman and Dune (1984) by David Lynch were commercially unsuccessful. Nevertheless, he collaborated again with David Lynch when he produced his famous Blue Velvet (1986). He also produced several film adaptations of Stephen King’s novels: The Dead Zone, (1983), Cat's Eye (1985), Silver Bullet (1985) and Maximum Overdrive (1986) as well as four films about Hannibal Lecter, writer Thomas Harris’ character: Manhunter (1986) by Michael Mann, Hannibal (2001) by Ridley Scott, Red Dragon (2002) by Brett Ratner and Hannibal Rising (2007) by Peter Webber. Even though he became an American citizen in 1986, he continued to film in Italy (U-571, 2000 by Jonathan Mostow). In 2001, the American Film Academy awarded him with the Irving G. Thalberg lifetime achievement award. He received another lifetime achievement award at the Venice Film Festival three years later.




Filmography:

Virgin Territory (co producer) (2007)

The Last Legion (co producer) (2007)

Hannibal Rising (co producer) (2007)

Red Dragon (co producer) (2002)

Hannibal (co producer) (2001)

U-571 (co producer) (2000)

Breakdown (co producer) (1997)

Unforgettable (co producer) (1996)

Slave of Dreams (TV film) (1995)

Assassins (executive producer) (1995)

Solomon & Sheba (TV film) (1995)

Body of Evidence (1993)

Army of Darkness (executive producer) (1992)

Once Upon a Crime... (1992)

Sometimes They Come Back (TV film) (executive producer) (1991)

Desperate Hours (co producer) (1990)

King Kong Lives (executive producer) (1986)

Tai-Pan (executive producer) (1986)

Manhunter (co producer) (1986)

Maximum Overdrive (executive producer) (1986)

Silver Bullet (co producer) (1985)

Year of the Dragon (1985)

Cat's Eye (1985)

Dune (executive producer) (1984)

Conan the Destroyer (executive producer) (1984)

The Bounty (executive producer) (1984)

The Dead Zone (executive producer - unaccredited) (1983)

Amityville II: The Possession (co producer) (1982)

Conan the Barbarian (executive producer - unaccredited) (1982)

Ragtime (1981)

Flash Gordon (1980)

Hurricane (1979)

King of the Gypsies (executive producer) (1978)

The Brink's Job (executive producer) (1978)

The Serpent's Egg (1977)

Orca (executive producer) (1977)

The White Buffalo (executive producer) (1977)

King Kong (1976)

Drum (co producer) (1976)

Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (executive producer) (1976)

Lipstick (executive producer) (1976)

Three Days of the Condor (executive producer - unaccredited) (1975)

Mandingo (1975)

Porgi l'altra guancia (1974)

Death Wish (co producer, unaccredited) (1974)

Tough Guys (1974)

Crazy Joe (1974)

Neveroyatnye priklyucheniya italyantsev v Rossii (1974)

Serpico (executive producer) (1973)

Valdez, il mezzosangue (co producer, unaccredited) (1973)

La più bella serata della mia vita (1972)

Lo Scopone scientifico (1972)

Boccaccio (1972)

Causa di divorzio (1972)

La violenza: Quinto potere (1972)

The Valachi Papers (1972)

Io non vedo, tu non parli, lui non sente (1971)

Osvobozhdenie: Napravleniye glavnogo udara (1971)

The Deserter (co producer) (1971)

A Man Called Sledge (1970)

Waterloo (1970)

Io non scappo... fuggo (1970)

Una breve stagione (1969)

Il primo premio si chiama Irene (documentary) (1969)

Barbagia (1969)

Nerosubianco (1969)

L'amante di Gramigna (1969)

Fräulein Doktor (1969)

Roma come Chicago (1968)

Barbarella (1968)

Lo sbarco di Anzio (1968)

Capriccio all'italiana (1968)

Banditi a Milano (1968)

L'odissea (mini TV serija) (1968)

Diabolik (co producer) (1968)

Vietnam, guerra e pace (documentary) (1968)

Lo straniero (1967)

Matchless (co producer) (1967)

Le streghe (1967)

Vietnam guerra senza fronte (documentary) (1967)

The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966)

Se tutte le donne del mondo (executive producer) (1966)

Battle of the Bulge (executive producer - unaccredited) (1965)

Le tigre se parfume à la dynamite (co producer) (1965)

I tre volti (1965)

Menage all'italiana (1965)

Thrilling (1965)

Il disco volante (1964)

La mia signora (1964)

Cadavere per signora (co producer) (1964)

Il giovedì (1964)

Il boom (1963)

Il diavolo (1963)

Le ore dell'amore (co producer) (1963)

Il processo di Verona (1963)

Il maestro di Vigevano (1963)

Mafioso (executive producer) (1962)

Io amo, tu ami (documentary) (executive producer) (1962)

Il commissario (executive producer) (1962)

Le pillole di Ercole (1962)

Barabba (1961)

Una vita difficile (1961)

Il giudizio universale (1961)

The Best of Enemies (executive producer) (1961)

Il re di Poggioreale (co producer) (1961)

Maciste contro il vampiro (executive producer) (1961)

Il federale (executive producer) (1961)

Il gobbo (1961)

Crimen (co producer) (1961)

Tutti a casa (1960)

Sotto dieci bandiere (1960)

5 Branded Women (1960)

La grande guerra (1959)

La tempesta (1958)

Fortunella (1958)

This Angry Age (1958)

Guardia, ladro e cameriera (1958)

Le notti di Cabiria (1957)

Guendalina (executive producer) (1957)

Malafemmena (co producer) (1957)

Le diciottenni (co producer) (1956)

War and Peace (co producer) (1956)

Un giorno in pretura (unaccredited) (1956)

La bella mugnaia (co producer) (1955)

Ragazze d'oggi (co producer) (1955)

La donna del fiume (co producer) (1954)

Siluri umani (co producer) (1954)

Attila (co producer) (1954)

Un americano a Roma (co producer) (1954)

L'oro di Napoli (co producer) (1954)

La romana (co producer) (1954)

Ulisse (co producer) (1954)

Mambo (co producer) (1954)

La strada (co producer) (1954)

Jolanda la figlia del corsaro nero (co producer) (1954)

Miseria e nobiltà (co producer) (1954)

Dov'è la libertà...? (co producer) (1954)

Anni facili (co producer) (1953)

La lupa (co producer) (1953)

Totò a colori (co producer) (1953)

Le infedeli (co producer) (1953)

I sette dell'orsa maggiore (co producer) (1953)

Fratelli d'Italia (co producer) (1952)

I tre corsari (co producer) (1952)

La tratta delle bianche (co producer) (1952)

Europa '51 (co producer) (1952)

Gli undici moschettieri (documentary) (co producer) (1952)

Anna (co producer) (1951)

Guardie e ladri (co producer) (1951)

Il padrone del vapore (co producer) (1951)

L'ultimo incontro (co producer) (1951)

Totò terzo uomo (co producer) (1951)

Accidenti alle tasse!! (co producer) (1951)

Il brigante Musolino (co producer) (1950)

Napoli milionaria (co producer) (1950)

Romanticismo (co producer) (1950)

Il lupo della Sila (1949)

Adamo ed Eva (1949)

Riso amaro (1949)

I pompieri di Viggiù (1949)

Il cavaliere misterioso (1948)

Molti sogni per le strade (1948)

La figlia del capitano (1947)

Il bandito (1946)

Aquila Nera (1946)

L'amore canta (co producer) (1941)