Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. (, born 26 July 1965 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch filmmaker, writer and producer best known for directing ''The Thing'' (2011).

Career

Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. began directing at an early age with promotional trailers for Toyota, Peugeot, Renault, Stella Artois, Pepsi, and

Bud Light Anheuser-Busch, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, is the largest brewing company in the United States, with a market share of 45 percent in 2016. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and nearly 20 in othe ...

. In 1996, van Heijningen made his film directing debut with the Dutch short-film thriller ''Red Rain''. In 2011, he directed '' The Thing'', a

prequel A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work. The term " ...

to ''

John Carpenter's The Thing ''The Thing'' is a 1982 American science fiction horror film directed by John Carpenter from a screenplay by Bill Lancaster. Based on the 1938 John W. Campbell Jr. novella ''Who Goes There?'', it tells the story of a group of American resear ...

''. Van Heijningen was due to direct '' Army of the Dead'', but the project ended up being directed by Zack Snyder after lingering in

development hell Development hell, development purgatory, and development limbo are media and software industry jargon for a project, concept, or idea that remains in development for an especially long time, often moving between different crews, scripts, game engi ...

for a number of years. In 2020, van Heijningen directed his second feature ''

The Forgotten Battle ''The Forgotten Battle'' ( nl, De Slag om de Schelde) is a 2020 Dutch World War II film directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. that depicts the Battle of the Scheldt in 1944. The film follows a Dutch Axis soldier played by Gijs Blom, a Brit ...

'', a Netflix original war film depicting the Battle of the Scheldt. Netflix's first ever original Dutch film.

Filmography

Director Producer * ''Dada'' (1994) * ''Witness'' (1994) * ''En Route'' (1994) Other credits

Personal life

He is the son of Dutch film producer

Matthijs van Heijningen Sr. Matthijs (also Mattijs, Mathijs and Matijs) is a Dutch form of the masculine given name "Matthew". It can also be a surname. Notable people with the name include: Given name ;Matthijs/Matthys * Matthijs Accama (1702–1783), Dutch painter * Matthi ...

Van Heyningen Jr gaat het vervolg op The Thing regisseren
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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heijningen, Matthijs Van Jr. 1965 births Living people Dutch film producers Dutch film directors Dutch screenwriters Dutch male screenwriters Writers from Amsterdam