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

Life and career

Eichinger was born in Neuburg an der Donau. He attended the University of Television and Film Munich 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 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 Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

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 Michel Houellebecq (; born Michel Thomas on 26 February 1956) is a French author of novels, poems, and essays, as well as an occasional actor, filmmaker, and singer. His first book was a biographical essay on the horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. H ...

. 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 The Fantastic Four, often abbreviated as FF, is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team debuted in '' The Fantastic Four'' #1 ( cover-dated November 1961), helping usher in a new level of realism i ...

'' and ''

Silver Surfer The Silver Surfer is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character also appears in a number of movies, television, and video game adaptations. The character was created by Jack Kirby and first a ...

'', 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 daylight illumination produced by diffuse sky radiation when the Sun is below the horizon as sunlight from the upper atmosphere is scattered in a way that illuminates both the Earth's lower atmosphere and also the Earth's surf ...

,'' Summit eventually became

Summit Entertainment Summit Entertainment, LLC (formerly the Summit Group, Summit Export Group, Summit Entertainment Group Inc., Summit Entertainment Limited, Summit Films Limited, and Summit Entertainment N.V.) is an American film production label of Lionsgate Film ...

Family

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