Thomas Schühly

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Thomas Schühly (born September 20, 1951 in Karlsruhe ) is a German film producer .

Life

Thomas Schühly was born in 1951 as the son of the natural scientist Dr. Paul Schühly and his wife Anna-Elisabeth (née Dres) were born. He spent the first year of his life with his parents and his older sister Monika in Karlsruhe. In 1952 the family moved to Bochum because his father found a job with the Ruhr-nitrogen company . His brothers Klaus and Andreas were born in 1953 and 1954. He spent his childhood years further in a small apartment in Bochum district Weitmar . His brother Klaus describes this period in his autobiography On My Mississippi . In the early 1960s, the family moved to another part of Bochum.

He attended the grammar school on the Ostring . There he graduated from high school in 1972. He then attended the Ruhr University in Bochum , where he studied law for eight semesters until 1976. He also worked as a karate teacher before Peter Zadek, the then director of the Schauspielhaus Bochum needed a choreographer for one of his pieces and convinced Schühly to work for him. During this time he realized that his ambitions had changed and that he no longer wanted to become a lawyer. At the Bochum Schauspielhaus he also got to know his long-term partner Rosel Zech .

He worked with Peter Zadek and Jiří Menzel as assistant director until he went to Bavaria Film in Munich, where he worked with Rainer Werner Fassbinder until his death : "There was a time when the relationship was almost like that between brothers. Strangely enough, I was the one should be bigger brother. I should always take care of him. I don't want to go into detail in what context. That was sometimes very touching. [...] in his deepest being he was a child, with an incredible charm . "

He was assistant director for the fourteen-part television adaptation of Berlin Alexanderplatz . In 1981 he produced the documentary Theater in Trance and was production manager at Lola . In 1982 he produced Veronika Voss' Sehnsucht . This film was awarded the Golden Bear at the 1982 Berlinale . After Fassbinder's death, he was devastated and initially no longer wanted to work in the film business.

In 1982 he produced Das As der Asse with Jean-Paul Belmondo together with Horst Wendlandt . Wendlandt had previously produced Lola and Veronika Voss' Sehnsucht with him . The ace of aces was won with u. a. seven million moviegoers in France and six million in Germany an international success.

From 1983 to 1985 Thomas Schühly was managing director of the Iduna Film production company of media entrepreneur Leo Kirch .

In 1984 he produced Abwärts (director: Carl Schenkel ) with Götz George and in 1985 he was one of the producers of the three-part television series Via Mala with Mario Adorf .

In the meantime he became co-managing director of Bernd Eichinger's Neue Constantin Film GmbH and worked as executive producer on the filming of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose . Although The Name of the Rose is a worldwide success, Schühly expressed himself critically about the film: "Has nothing to do with the Middle Ages. Eco completely rejected that. The film is the result of a Huguenot world view by the director."

Between 1987 and 1988 Thomas Schühly produced The Adventures of Baron Münchhausen (Director: Terry Gilliam ). The film turned out to be a financial fiasco, but received positive reviews and was nominated for an Oscar in four categories, among others.

In 1989 he was a co-producer on The French Revolution .

In 1995 Der Totmacher followed with Götz George. Directed by Romuald Karmakar . The film recreates the questioning of serial killer Fritz Haarmann by the psychiatrist Ernst Schultze. For his portrayal, George was awarded the Coppa Volpi (Best Actor) at the Venice Film Festival in 1995 .

With the completion of Oliver Stone's monumental film Alexander , Thomas Schühly fulfilled a long-cherished dream in 2004. As early as the late 1980s, he and Oliver Stone had developed plans for a film adaptation of the life of Alexander the Great .

In 2007 he acquired the remake rights to Fritz Lang's Metropolis .

Filmography

as a producer
as an assistant director

Awards

  • 1982 Golden Bear (Veronika Voss)
  • 1982 German Film Prize in Silver (Lola)
  • 1985 German Film Award in Gold (downwards)
  • 1996 German Film Prize in Gold ( Der Totmacher )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.taz.de/1/archiv/archiv/?dig=2002/12/28/a0223/
  2. ↑ http://www.taz.de/1/archiv/archiv/?dig=2002/12/28/a0223/
personal data
SURNAME Schühly, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film producer
DATE OF BIRTH 20th September 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlsruhe