Jan Harlan (born 5 May 1937) is a German-American

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

who worked with the director

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...

, his brother-in-law, on Kubrick's five films.

Life

Jan Harlan was born in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

in 1937, the son of two opera singers, Fritz Moritz Harlan (1901–1970) and his wife Ingeborg (''née'' de Freitas). Jan Harlan is the nephew of the film director

Veit Harlan Veit Harlan (22 September 1899 – 13 April 1964) was a German film director and actor. Harlan reached the high point of his career as a director in the Nazi era; most notably his antisemitic film '' Jud Süß'' (1940) makes him controversial. W ...

and the younger brother of Christiane Kubrick, who was married with director

from 1958 until his death in 1999. Harlan started out working for Kubrick as a researcher, most prominently on ''Napoleon'', Kubrick's never-filmed epic about the French military leader. In 1968, Kubrick asked Harlan, as a German speaker, to accompany him to Romania to organise army scenes for the film. Harlan acted as Kubrick's executive producer for ''

Barry Lyndon ''Barry Lyndon'' is a 1975 epic historical drama film written, directed, and produced by Stanley Kubrick, based on the 1844 novel '' The Luck of Barry Lyndon'' by William Makepeace Thackeray. Narrated by Michael Hordern, and starring Ryan O'N ...

'' (1975), '' The Shining'' (1980), ''

Full Metal Jacket ''Full Metal Jacket'' is a 1987 war film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick from a screenplay he co-wrote with Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford. The film is based on Hasford's 1979 autobiographical novel '' The Short-Timers''. It stars ...

'' (1987), and ''

Eyes Wide Shut ''Eyes Wide Shut'' is a 1999 erotic mystery psychological drama film directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick. It is based on the 1926 novella '' Dream Story'' () by Arthur Schnitzler, transferring the story's setting from earl ...

'' (1999), and was an assistant to the producer for '' A Clockwork Orange'' (1971). Harlan was also executive producer for

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

's '' A.I. Artificial Intelligence'' (2001), a collaboration between Spielberg and Kubrick. Harlan also directed a feature-length documentary about Kubrick, '' Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures'' (2001). In 2009 he assisted Alison Castle, a

Taschen Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt Taschen and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen. History The company began as Tasch ...

editor, in creating the book ''Stanley Kubrick's Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made'' and gave a talk about the Kubrick Napoleon archives at Cambridge Film Festival in September 2010 with her. He is the nephew of the German filmmaker

, best known for his work during the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

including '' Jud Süß'' (1940), an antisemitic

propaganda film A propaganda film is a film that involves some form of propaganda. Propaganda films spread and promote certain ideas that are usually religious, political, or cultural in nature. A propaganda film is made with the intent that the viewer will ad ...

. Jan Harlan has three sons, Manuel, Dominic and Ben. He is married to Maria. He has for several years been a regular guest lecturer at the European Film College, and also at the

University of Hertfordshire The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a Universities in the United Kingdom, university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield ...

's Film and Television degrees, for which he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in 2011. In 2016, Harlan joined the film jury for ShortCutz Amsterdam, an annual

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theater, cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent ...

promoting short films in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

Filmography

Producer

References

External links

* 1937 births American film producers Living people German film producers Mass media people from Karlsruhe Stanley Kubrick Film people from Baden-Württemberg {{US-film-producer-stub