Dino De Laurentiis

From Open Encyclopedia

Agostino De Laurentiis, usually credited as Dino De Laurentiis, (born August 8, 1919) is an Italian movie producer born at Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples. He grew up selling spaghetti produced by his father. A study at the school of cinematography in Rome was interrupted by the Second World War. Nonetheless de Laurentiis succeeded in making movies.

Since his first movie, L'ultimo Combattimento, (1940) he has produced nearly 150 movies to date. In the early years de Laurentiis produced neoclassical art films as Bitter Rice (1946) and the Fellini classics La Strada (1954) Nights of Cabiria (1956), often in collaboration with producer Carlo Ponti. In the 1960s, Dino de Laiurentiis built his own studio facilities, although these financially collapsed during the 1970s. During this time though, de Laurentiis produced such films as Barbarella (1968) and Danger: Diabolik (1968), both successful comic book adaptations, and The Valachi Papers (1972).

In the 1970s, Dino de Laurentiis relocated to the USA where he set up studios, eventually creating his own studio DEG based in Wilmington, North Carolina; the building of the studio quickly made Wilmington one of the busiest centers of American film and television production. During this period de Laurentiis made a number of successful and acclaimed films, including Serpico (1973), Mandingo (1975), Three Days of the Condor (1975), Ingmar Bergman's The Serpent's Egg (1977), Ragtime (1981), Conan the Barbarian (1982). De Laurentiis also made a great many flops during this era. It is for his more infamous productions that de Laurentiis's name has become known - the legendary King Kong (1976) remake, which though a commercial hit, has been accused of turning the much loved original into a campy joke, as well as other flops like the killer whale film Orca (1977), which many saw as a ripoff of Jaws (1975); The White Buffalo (1977); the disaster movie Hurricane (1979); the equally campy remake of Flash Gordon (1980); the much disliked adaptation of the science fiction novel 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). In the 1980s, de Laurentiis, largely on the basis of flops like King Kong, gained a reputation as a crass and vulgar producer. It should also be noted that the 1980s produced some acclaimed films such as The Year of the Dragon (1985), David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986) and Sam Raimi's Evil Dead sequels.

During this time de Laurentiis also produced the original Hannibal Lecter film Manhunter (1986). He passed on adapting Thomas Harris's sequel, The Silence of the Lambs, but produced the two followups, Hannibal (2001) and Red Dragon (2002), a remake of Manhunter.

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

He has 4 children with his previous wife, actress Silvana Mangano who died in 1989. Today, he is married to the movie producer Martha Schumacher and they have two daughters. One of the children from his first marriage, Raffaella, is also a producer. His granddaughter is Giada De Laurentiis, hostess of Everyday Italian on Food Network.

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

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