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MI6 profiles Marc Forster, the Swiss-German director
for the upcoming 22nd James Bond due out November
7th 2008...
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Meet The Filmmakers - Marc Forster Biography
17th July 2007
Marc Forster was born in 1969 in Ulm,
Germany. Son of a Swiss doctor and a German architect,
Forster
spent much of his childhood in Davos, Switzerland, where
he studied at the famous Institut Montana Zugerberg.
There he fell in love with movies at an
early age after seeing “Apocalypse
Now” (1979) with Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando (directed
by Francis Ford Coppola) at the tender age of 12. From
that moment
on he knew he wanted to direct.
After completing school in Switzerland,
Forster moved to New York in 1990 at age 20, where he
was accepted into
the New York University Film School. His work at the University
consisted of a number of low budget documentaries before
he tried his
hand at directing a work of fiction.
Forster’s first feature film was
a low budget, experimental production. “Loungers”,
only costing $10,000 to produce, was released in 1995
and took home a Slamdance
Audience Award for Best Feature Film.
From his very first production, Forster
can be said to be an award winning filmmaker. “Everything
Put Together”, his 2000 neo-noir drama, won two
Independent Spirit Awards and was nominated for the Grand
Jury Prize award at the Sundance Film Festival.
Despite these small-budget successes,
Forster had to prove himself suitable for Hollywood and
moved to Los Angeles. He once declined a $500,000
offer to direct a film despite having no income at the time and
living from money he borrowed from friends. He didn't believe
the script was good and was afraid his reputation as a director
would suffer.
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Forster got his chance with 2001’s “Monster's
Ball” - in which Halle Berry delivered her Oscar
Winning performance. The tragic story of a man on Death Row and
the love affair between his wife and his prison guard clocked
up 10 film awards to Forster’s name including a Screen
Guild Award, a Satellite Award and a Black Reel award. The film received much critical acclaim and
Forster became a regular Hollywood name.
After turning down the chance to helm "Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", he instead opted
to
to direct
Hollywood hot-shot Johnny Depp as Sir John Matthew
Barrie
(the
acclaimed author of Peter Pan), trying to discover a creative
outlet in "Finding Neverland".
"I have always been drawn to different
kinds of stories and I have also always been a Bond fan,
so it is very exciting to take on this challenge. The new
direction that the Bond character has taken offers a director
a host of fresh possibilities and I look forward to working
with Daniel Craig, Barbara Broccoli, and Michael Wilson,
as well as the team at Sony and MGM on this new film."
His 2005 film, “Stay”, demonstrates
creative visual effects and a novel direction style but received
mixed reviews from critics, despite its high profile cast. More
recently, Forster took on the quirky romantic
comedy, “Stranger than Fiction”, starring Will Ferrell
and Dustin Hoffman - the second time Forster has
worked with Hoffman thus far.
Forster’s most recent project is “The
Kite Runner” with a relatively unknown cast and is based
on the novel by Khaled Hosseini. Forster’s 2007 movie
adaptation sees an Afghani living in the US return to his homeland
to help
an
old
friend. The first unit wrapped shooting in late 2006 and “The
Kite Runner” is set for a November 2007 release.
Marc Forster has already clocked up an award-worthy
career in a short space of time and is widely regarded as an
accomplished
and daring
director
of modern motion pictures.
Selected Interview Quotes
"I've been looking for the right project,
I just haven't found it until now I just always enjoyed them
[blockbuster Hollywood movies] very, very much, loved the whole Indiana Jones
series, the old Bonds, all those movies."
"I'm just literally mixing The Kite Runner
in July and then sometime in August or September, I start [Bond].
To be honest, I haven't put in any thought because really, my
mind is in The Kite Runner and scoring and finishing that up.
I haven't really spent any tim with that stuff. I wish I could
tell you. Maybe in a later period."
"I think finding Bond girls will always
be an interesting task, but, not something I have dealt with at
this point."
"When you grow up like that, and suddenly
you decide you intend to make movies, everybody says, 'It's impossible.'
And I'm here and I'm living my dream."
"What I'm passionate about is telling stories
which mean something to me."
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