Bernd Eichinger (; 11 April 194924 January 2011) was a German film producer, director, and screenwriter.

Life and career

Eichinger was born in

Neuburg an der Donau Neuburg an der Donau (Central Bavarian: ''Neiburg an da Donau'') is a town which is the capital of the Neuburg-Schrobenhausen district in the state of Bavaria in Germany. Divisions The municipality has 16 divisions: * Altmannstetten * Bergen, ...

. He attended the

University of Television and Film Munich The University of Television and Film Munich (German: Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München, short: HFF Munich) is a publicly funded film school in Munich, Germany. The school was established in 1966 by decree of the Bavarian government. T ...

in the 1970s and bought a stake in the fledgling studio company ''Neue Constantin Film'' in 1979, becoming its executive director. Under his leadership,

Constantin Film The Constantin Film AG is a German mini-major film production and distribution company based in Munich. The company, which belongs to Swiss media conglomerate Highlight Communications AG, is a large independent German maker and distributor of p ...

evolved into one of the most successful German film businesses. As of 2005, he was chairman of the supervisory board and still owned a substantial stake in the company. Eichinger also produced some movies independently (for example, '' Downfall''). One of Eichinger's last films was about the

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

terrorist group Red Army Faction (RAF) and based on the book '' Der Baader Meinhof Komplex'' ("''The Baader- Meinhof Complex''") by Stefan Aust. The range of genres of films, for television and the big screen, was unusually varied. He produced a 3D zombie movie, '' Resident Evil: Afterlife''; to '' Atomised'', a film adaptation of novel by French star writer and social critic Michel Houellebecq. He was an incredibly prolific film maker, with almost 100 films to his credit. Eichinger was known as tenacious. It took him 20 years to convince Patrick Süskind, the German author of '' Perfume:The Story of a Murderer'', to trust him with the rights to make the international bestseller into a film. In 2006, the film was released, grossing $135 million worldwide. In the 1980s, Eichinger obtained the film rights to the '' Fantastic Four'' and '' Silver Surfer'', decades before making movies based on Marvel comics was trending. In 1991, he was a co-founder of Summit, the Los Angeles-based production and film sales company. Due to the success of ''

Twilight Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this i ...

,'' Summit eventually became Summit Entertainment.

Family

Bernd Eichinger and Katja Hofmann (Berlin Film Festival 2008)

Eichinger was married to Katja Hofmann, a journalist. He had a daughter from a previous relationship,

Nina Eichinger Nina Eichinger (born 16 September 1981) is a German television presenter and actress. Eichinger was born in Munich, the daughter of film producer and director Bernd Eichinger. She was an MTV VJ and has been a jury member for ''Deutschland such ...

, an actress and TV presenter.

Death

Eichinger died of a heart attack in Los Angeles on 24 January 2011 at the age of 61.

Awards

*1984 Bavarian Film Awards, Best Producing *1986 Bavarian Film Awards, Best Producing *1993 Bavarian Film Awards, Best Producing

Selected filmography

Bernd Eichinger's best known films include:

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eichinger, Bernd 1949 births 2011 deaths People from Neuburg an der Donau Mass media people from Bavaria University of Television and Film Munich alumni Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany