Marco Weber (film producer)

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Marco Weber (* 1966 in Leer (East Friesland) ) is a German film producer based in Los Angeles who has been responsible for a number of prominent international films since the mid-1990s.

Life

Weber was born in Leer in East Frisia and studied theater and film history at the University of Bochum - after a brief interlude in a steel factory. He earned his spurs in the media industry as a unit manager at The Price is Hot before he started producing commercials. His first film production was the documentary Annie's Shooting about photographer Annie Leibovitz. His goal, however, was the cinema. So when he was 25 he went to Los Angeles to finance and produce independent films. A year later, he made his debut with Generation X with young stars like Heather Graham and David Arquette . In collaboration with director Roland Emmerich ( Independence Day ), he produced the $ 20 million science fiction thriller The Thirteenth Floor by Josef Rusnak , in which Vincent D'Onofrio and Armin Mueller-Stahl played the leading roles.

In 1998 he founded the company Atlantic Streamline, with which he realized the crime comedy You Are Dead with John Hurt and Rhys Ifans . In 2001, the flop of Her Majesty's Men (directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky , who was to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2007 for The Counterfeiters ), put the company in trouble. But a year later Weber had his biggest hit to date - the black comedy, Igby , for which the actors Kieran Culkin and Susan Sarandon received Golden Globe nominations. Director and writer Burr Steers was recognized with an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Screenplay. In the course of this success, Weber signed a Firstlook co-financing deal in 2003 with the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / United Artists studio .

His next production initially caused a sensation in Germany. In 2005, Rohtenburg was created , based on the authentic case of the convicted murderer Armin Meiwes , who killed and ate a man in 2001. At the contradiction of the offender, who saw his personal rights violated, the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt prohibited the German theatrical release planned for March 9, 2006. Three years later the ban was lifted by the Federal Court of Justice. The film caused a positive sensation abroad: Rohtenburg received awards for best director (Martin Weisz) and best leading actor ( Thomas Kretschmann , Thomas Huber ) at renowned film festivals such as Sitges in Spain or Puchon in Korea .

Meanwhile, Weber, who continued to operate from Los Angeles, had become an important player in the German film industry. At the end of 2005, together with partner Helge Sasse and a German-American investor group, he acquired a 50.1 percent share in the insolvent traditional rental company Senator Entertainment AG. Weber gave the company a new profile with a targeted acquisition and production policy. In 2007 he was able to show greater countable successes with the Oscar-winning Pans Labyrinth (287,905 viewers - source: FFA), room 1408 (537,334 - source: FFA ) and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof - deadly (572,906 viewers - source: FFA). He tried to promote innovative genre cinema with the Autobahn label , which he succeeded in doing with Ellen Page, for example, with the low-budget film Hard Candy (77,794 viewers - source: FFA). At the end of 2007 Senator had almost doubled the results of the previous year with sales of EUR 68.37 million.

At the same time, Weber remained active as a producer. As managing director of the American Senator subsidiary Senator Entertainment Inc., USA, he made two top-class independent films - the family drama Back in Summer with Julia Roberts , Willem Dafoe and Ryan Reynolds and the Bret Easton Ellis adaptation The Informers with Mickey Rourke , Kim Basinger and Winona Ryder , both of whom have been sold worldwide. He was also an executive producer on Vincent Natali's science fiction thriller Splice - The Gene Experiment with Adrien Brody .

In the domestic market, however, the films from the Senator Distribution Company had a difficult time in 2008 - critically acclaimed films such as Das Waisenhaus (viewers 100,371 - source: FFA) were also disappointing . The Autobahn series failed to establish itself in the cinema. It was not until the spring of 2009 that Weber bought Der Vorleser with Kate Winslet , who received the Oscar for best actress, and gave the company another blockbuster. With 2,134,990 viewers (source: FFA) it was the most successful film in the company's history since 2003.

Weber had already withdrawn from the Senator Entertainment AG board of directors in August 2008 in order to concentrate on his core business - production - with Senator Entertainment Inc. Since then he has directed the thriller Unthinkable with Samuel L. Jackson , and was executive producer on Antoine Fuqua's thriller drama Law of the Road - Brooklyn's Finest with Richard Gere and Ethan Hawke .

The video game filming Clock Tower is planned for 2010 and will be directed by Martin Weisz ( Rohtenburg ).

Personal

Marco Weber is married and has four children. His wife was one of the actors in the TV series Stars of the South under her maiden name Caroline Schröder . The family lives in Beverly Hills.

Filmography (selection)

(as producer - unless otherwise stated)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Die Welt , September 14, 2006, p. 29
  2. ↑ Blickpunkt Film , May 13, 2004
  3. ↑ Blickpunkt Film , October 16, 2006, Blickpunkt Film , August 8, 2007
  4. ↑ Blickpunkt Film , December 19, 2006
  5. ↑ blond Magazin 7/2006, Blickpunkt Film , June 15, 2006
  6. ↑ Blickpunkt Film , January 24, 2008
  7. ↑ Blickpunkt Film , May 22, 2007
  8. ↑ Blickpunkt Film , August 6, 2008
  9. ↑ blond magazine 7/2006

literature

  • Blickpunkt Film , October 20, 2005
  • Blickpunkt Film , May 9, 2008
  • Blickpunkt Film , May 26, 2009

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Weber, Marco
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film producer
DATE OF BIRTH 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Leer (East Frisia)