Sönke Wortmann

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Sönke Wortmann (Photo: Nikolai Karo)

Sönke Wortmann (born August 25, 1959 in Marl ) is a German film director and film producer . He directed films such as Eine Wahnsinnsehe (1990), Kleine Haie (1992), The Miracle of Bern (2003) and The First Name (2018) as well as the first season of the Charité series .

Life

Sönke Wortmann, son of a miner , first wanted to become a professional footballer after graduating from high school and played in the third-highest division at Westfalia Herne and SpVgg Erkenschwick . According to his own statement, he lacked the ambition for a great career, which is why he ended his career after three years in favor of a degree.

He first studied sociology for one semester in Münster, before enrolling in 1983 at the University of Television and Film in Munich to study directing. After spending a year as an exchange student at London's Royal College of Art , he successfully completed his studies in 1989. In addition, he worked as a taxi driver and actor , including in the television series The Happy Family of Bavarian Radio . He made his cinema debut as a director in 1991 with the film Alone Among Women with Thomas Heinze , which drew a million visitors to the cinemas. Even Little Sharks (1992) with Jürgen Vogel , Kai Wiesinger and Gedeon Burkhard as a budding drama students was a success and helped some actors to break through. The film The Moving Man , which was released in 1994, was one of the most successful German post-war films with over 6.5 million admissions.

The Superweib (1997) based on a novel by Hera Lind shot Wortmann with Veronica Ferres , allegedly just to prove that “successful books can also be turned into successful films”. Over 2.3 million visitors saw the film in German cinemas. The campus (1998) had significantly fewer spectators.

In 1998, Wortmann founded his own production company, Little Shark Entertainment GmbH. Films such as Mr. Bluesman and the dramatic episode film St. Pauli Nacht with Maruschka Detmers , for which Wortmann received good reviews, were commercial flops and only lasted a short time in the cinema. Hollywood Heaven, based on the novel by Leon de Winter , which he filmed in America in 2001 with Tom Berenger , Jacqueline Kim , Rod Steiger and Burt Reynolds , didn't hit German cinemas until 2004 and didn't last very long. The miracle of Bern then became the second most successful German film of 2003, with over three million viewers.

At the Confederation Cup 2005 and during the Soccer World Cup 2006 , Wortmann accompanied the German national team with his camera. Integrated into the team, he sat in the coaching bench at every game and prepared films during the World Cup on behalf of national coach Jürgen Klinsmann , which were shown to the players before each game and prepared them for the game. The two-hour documentary about the World Cup, made from over 100 hours of film material, was shown to the German national soccer team as a preview on August 14, 2006 and was shown on October 5, 2006 under the title Germany. A summer fairy tale in the cinemas. The film was a huge success with more than four million viewers.

In 2009, Wortmann's most elaborate film to date, the bestselling film Die Päpstin, was released . In 2007, Wortmann took over the direction of Volker Schlöndorff , who had been developing the project for years. Franka Potente , originally intended for the title role of the alleged Popess Johanna , was replaced by Johanna Wokalek , and international stars such as John Goodman and David Wenham also took part. In Germany, the film, which cost more than 20 million euros, reached approx. 2.5 million moviegoers, but the international success failed to materialize. In 2015, Frau Müller muss weg appeared with Anke Engelke and Justus von Dohnányi , which reached over 1.2 million viewers and received the Bavarian Film Prize for the Best Screenplay category. In 2017 Wortmann shot the television series Charité (television series) . The feature film The First Name was released in 2018 . In 2018, Wortmann also staged the play People in the Hotel based on Vicki Baum in the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus .

He also shot commercials for Nike , Gerolsteiner , Bitburger , Sony , Air Berlin , Commerzbank , Deutsche Bank , Prinzen Rolle , Nivea , DFB , König Pilsener , Früh Kölsch , Vodafone , Honda , Dresdner Bank , SolarWorld with Larry Hagman and HanseMerkur insurance group with Mario Gómez . There were also spots for AachenMünchener with Mario Adorf and for the Rewe Group with Lukas Podolski . Wortmann  himself appears in a commercial for Deutsche Bahn AG , directed by Wim Wenders .

In 2003 he was one of the founding members of the German Film Academy .

Sönke Wortmann is married to the actress Cecilia Kunz and has three children. He lives with his family in Düsseldorf .

Others

Wortmann is an active member of the German national team of authors ( Autonama ).

From April 3, 2008 he supported the "DeinFussballClub" campaign, which wanted to try to generate 30,000 members within one year who pay 39.95 euros per year. In return, they should have a say in transfers, the conclusion of friendly matches, the jersey color, merchandising and other internal club matters. This initiative was based on the British model of Ebbsfleet United . The concept was presented to several clubs and in the end it was decided (including Sönke Wortmann) as a partner for SC Fortuna Köln . The club was saved from bankruptcy and now plays in the third division. "DeinFussballClub" had 9,202 members and thus did not reach the number of members hoped for. Therefore, the initiative ended in 2012.

In 2006, Sönke Wortmann was committed to ensuring that the proceeds from the film “Germany. A summer fairy tale. ”The SOS Children's Villages campaign “ 6 Villages for 2006 ”was supported. All proceeds of 4.1 million euros went into the construction and maintenance of the SOS Children's Village Recife in Brazil . In 2010 Sönke Wortmann received the Golden Decoration of Honor from the SOS Children's Villages. In 2014 he supported the benefit preview of the musical Das Wunder von Bern in Hamburg's Stage Theater.

Sönke Wortmann is a member of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen . In the elections of the German Federal President in 2010 and in 2012 , Wortmann belonged to the 14th and 15th Federal Assemblies on the proposal of the North Rhine-Westphalian Greens .

Audio

Filmography

As a director

As a producer

As a performer

As artistic director

  • 2016: Germany. Your self-portrait (documentary)

theatre

  • 1996: Bullets over Broadway . Wortmann's world premiere of Woody Allen's Bullets over Broadway in the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus was a great success with an audience of 70,000.
  • 1999: Inishmaan's Cripple by Martin McDonagh, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus
  • 2012: Ms. Müller has to get away from Lutz Hübner , Grips-Theater Berlin, was on the program for over 6 years.
  • 2017: Welcome from Lutz Hübner and Sarah Nemitz , Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus.

bibliography

Awards

Web links

Commons : Sönke Wortmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Sönke Wortmann  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Film hit list: Annual list (German) 1997 ( memento from July 31, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), Filmförderungsanstalt, accessed on April 6, 2012.
  2. ↑ Film hit list: Annual list (German) 2003 ( memento from September 18, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), Filmförderungsanstalt, accessed on April 6, 2012.
  3. ↑ cf. Peter Zander: First Gudrun Ensslin, now the Popess . In: Berliner Morgenpost. May 15, 2008, p. 21.
  4. ↑ cf. European attendance figures in the database for pan-European cinema attendance figures Lumiere and international box office results at Box Office Mojo
  5. ^ D'haus-Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Young Drama Bürgerbühne: People in the Hotel, by Vicki Baum - in a version by Stephan Kaluza | D'haus - Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, young theater, community stage. Retrieved January 17, 2019 .
  6. ↑ The end of football democracy. on: Zeit Online. September 29, 2011.
  7. ↑ https://www.sos-kinderdoerfer.de/informieren/aktuelles/news/wunderbern
  8. ^ List of suggestions from the NRW-Greens parliamentary group on the homepage of the parliamentary group chairmen ( Memento from May 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), June 8, 2010.
  9. ↑ The made man. In: Der Spiegel . 39/1996, p. 236 f.
  10. ↑ Leave the children alone. In: Der Tagesspiegel. January 26, 2012.
  11. ↑ Prominent is not enough. In: FAZ . February 7, 2012, p. 29.
personal data
SURNAME Wortmann, Sönke
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hansen, Peter (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German director
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Marl