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).
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.
Death
Eichinger died of a heart attack in Los Angeles on 24 January 2011 during dinner with family and friends. He was 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:
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Director
! Based on
! Language
! class = "unsortable"|Notes
|-
|1977<!--28 June 1977-->
|Grete Minde
|Heidi Genée
|A novel by Theodor Fontane
|German
|
|-
|1977<!--29 October 1977-->
|Die Konsequenz
|Wolfgang Petersen
|An autobiographical novel by Alexander Ziegler
|German
|TV film
|-
|1977<!--5 November 1977-->
|Hitler: A Film from Germany
|Hans-Jürgen Syberberg
|
|German
|
|-
|1978<!--6 April 1978-->
|The Glass Cell
|Hans W. Geißendörfer
|The Glass Cell by Patricia Highsmith
|German
|
|-
|1981
|Christiane F.
|Uli Edel
|Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr.
|English
|
|-
|1990
|Fire, Ice and Dynamite
|Willy Bogner
|
|English
|
|-
|1990
|Werner – Beinhart!
|, ,
|The Werner comic books by Rötger Feldmann
|German
|
|-
|1991
|Manta, Manta
|
|
|German
|
|-
|1992
|Salt on Our Skin
|Andrew Birkin
|A novel by Benoîte Groult
|English
|
|-
|1993
|The Cement Garden
|Andrew Birkin
|The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
|English
|
|-
|1993
|The House of the Spirits
|Bille August
|The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
|English
|
|-
|1994
|The Fantastic Four
|Oley Sassone
|Fantastic Four by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee
|English
|Unreleased
|-
|1994
|Der bewegte Mann
|Sönke Wortmann
|Two comic books by Ralf König
|German
|
|-
|1996
|The Superwife
|Sönke Wortmann
|A novel by
|German
|
|-
|1996
|A Girl Called Rosemary
|Bernd Eichinger
|Rosemary (1958)
|German
|TV film
|-
|1997
|Smilla's Sense of Snow
|Bille August
|Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Høeg
|English
|
|-
|1997
|Prince Valiant
|Anthony Hickox
|Prince Valiant by Hal Foster
|English
|
|-
|1998
|Wrongfully Accused
|Pat Proft
|
|English
|
|-
|1999
|'
|Bernd Eichinger
|A novel by Helmut Krausser
|German
|also screenwriter
|-
|2000
|Ants in the Pants
|Marc Rothemund
|
|German
|
|-
|2001
|The Mists of Avalon
|Uli Edel
|The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
|English
|TV film
|-
|2001
|Nowhere in Africa
|Caroline Link
|An autobiographical novel by Stefanie Zweig
|German
|co-produced by Eichinger; won Oscar
|-
|2002
|666 – Traue keinem, mit dem du schläfst!
|
|
|German
|
|-
|2002
|Resident Evil
|Paul W. S. Anderson