Josef Rusnak

Last updated
Josef Rusnak
Born (1958-11-25) 25 November 1958 (age 65)
Occupation(s) Film director, screenwriter
Years active1984–present

Josef Rusnak (born 25 November 1958) is a German screenwriter and director.

Contents

Early life

Rusnak was born on 25 November 1958 in Wachtroj, Soviet Union, into a German family. His family belonged to the Russia Germans. They later moved to Germany, where Rusnak grew up in Pforzheim. He initially studied German in Munich but after one year switched to the University of Television and Film Munich, in the Department of Documentary Film. [1]

Career

Rusnak's debut as writer and director was his 1984 film Cold Fever, which was awarded the Deutscher Filmpreis for best director that same year. [4] Following this, he worked for French television and directed episodes of television series.

In 1997, he directed No Strings Attached, Quiet Days in Hollywood (starring Hilary Swank), and Schimanski: Die Schwadron, a TV film episode of the German crime series Schimanski .

In 1998, he worked as second unit director on Roland Emmerich's Godzilla . Emmerich then acted as producer on Rusnak's next film The Thirteenth Floor , [5] an English language remake of the earlier German TV miniseries World on a Wire . Rusnak also wrote the screenplay. [6]

Rusnak did not direct his next film until 2007's The Contractor starring Wesley Snipes. He worked with Snipes again on 2008's The Art of War II: Betrayal . In 2009 he also released the horror remake It's Alive , a remake of Larry Cohen's 1974 film. [7]

In 2010 he directed the drama Valerie starring Franka Potente. [8] In 2012, he directed the film Beyond . [9]

Rusnak was married to actress Claudia Michelsen until 2001. [10] They have one daughter together, born 1996.

Filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roland Emmerich</span> German filmmaker (born 1955)

Roland Emmerich is a German film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is widely known for his science fiction and disaster films and has been called a "master of disaster" within the industry. His films, most of which are English-language Hollywood productions, have made more than $3 billion worldwide, including just over $1 billion in the United States, making him the 17th-highest-grossing Hollywood director of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jan de Bont</span> Dutch film director

Jan de Bont is a Dutch former cinematographer, film director, and film producer. He is best known for directing the action films Speed (1994) and Twister (1996). As a director of photography, de Bont also worked on numerous blockbusters and genre films, including Roar (1981), Cujo (1983), Flesh and Blood (1985), Die Hard (1988), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Lethal Weapon 3 (1992), and Basic Instinct (1992).

<i>Godzilla</i> (1998 film) Film by Roland Emmerich

Godzilla is a 1998 American monster film directed and co-written by Roland Emmerich. Produced by TriStar Pictures, Centropolis Entertainment, Fried Films, and Independent Pictures, and distributed by Tristar, it is a reboot of Toho Co., Ltd.'s Godzilla franchise. It is also the 23rd film in the franchise and the first Godzilla film to be completely produced by a Hollywood studio. The film stars Matthew Broderick, Jean Reno, Maria Pitillo, Hank Azaria, Kevin Dunn, Michael Lerner, and Harry Shearer. The film is dedicated to Tomoyuki Tanaka, the co-creator and producer of various Godzilla films, who died in April 1997. In the film, authorities investigate and battle a giant monster who migrates to New York City to nest its young.

<i>Simulacron-3</i> 1964 English-language novel by Daniel Galouye

Simulacron-3 (1964), by Daniel F. Galouye, is an American science fiction novel featuring an early literary description of a simulated reality.

<i>The Thirteenth Floor</i> 1999 science fiction neo-noir film by Josef Rusnak

The Thirteenth Floor is a 1999 science fiction film written and directed by Josef Rusnak and produced by Roland Emmerich’s Centropolis Entertainment. Loosely based on Daniel F. Galouye’s 1964 novel, Simulacron-3, it is a remake of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1973 miniseries World on a Wire. The film stars Craig Bierko, Gretchen Mol, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Dennis Haysbert. In 2000, The Thirteenth Floor was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film but lost to The Matrix.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eli Roth</span> American filmmaker and actor

Eli Raphael Roth is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. As a director and producer, he is most closely associated with the horror genre, namely splatter films, having directed the films Cabin Fever (2002) and Hostel (2005).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Götz George</span> German actor (1938–2016)

Götz George was a German actor, the son of actor couple Berta Drews and Heinrich George. His arguably best-known role is that of Duisburg detective Horst Schimanski in the TV crime series Tatort.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Noah Emmerich</span> American actor (born 1965)

Noah Nicholas Emmerich is an American actor and director best known for his roles in films such as Beautiful Girls (1996), The Truman Show (1998), Frequency (2000), Miracle (2004), Little Children (2006), and Super 8 (2011). From 2013 to 2018 he starred as FBI agent Stan Beeman on the FX series The Americans, for which he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulrich Tukur</span> German actor and musician (born 1957)

Ulrich Tukur is a German actor and musician. He is known for his roles in Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon, Steven Soderbergh's Solaris, the docudrama North Face based on the 1936 Eiger climbing disaster in Switzerland, and as Wilhelm Uhde in Martin Provost's biopic Séraphine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Helmuth Lohner</span>

Helmuth Lohner was an Austrian actor, theatre director, and from 1997 to 2006 director of the Theater in der Josefstadt.

<i>The Art of War II: Betrayal</i> 2008 action film

The Art of War II: Betrayal is a 2008 action film directed by Josef Rusnak and starring Wesley Snipes, Lochlyn Munro and Athena Karkanis. It is the sequel to the 2000 film The Art of War. The film was released on direct-to-DVD in the United States on August 12, 2008.

<i>Quiet Days in Hollywood</i> 1997 German film

Quiet Days in Hollywood is a 1997 German drama film written by Robert G. Brown and Josef Rusnak and directed by Rusnak. The film stars Hilary Swank, Chad Lowe, and Natasha Gregson Wagner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centropolis Entertainment</span> German film production company

Centropolis Entertainment is a German-American film production company founded in 1985 as Centropolis Film Productions by American film producer Dean Devlin and German film director Roland Emmerich. As of 2001, the company is a subsidiary of Das Werk AG.

Sergej Moya is a German actor, screenwriter and director. He won the Undine Award for Best Young Leading Actor in the 2005 film Keller – Teenage Wasteland.

<i>Its Alive</i> (2009 film) Film by Josef Rusnak

It's Alive is a 2009 American science fiction horror film directed by Josef Rusnak. It is a remake of the 1974 film written and directed by Larry Cohen. Bijou Phillips stars as a mother who has a mutant baby which kills anyone when scared. The film was released on April 2, 2009, as a direct-to-video and received mostly negative reviews upon release.

Ernst Marischka was an Austrian screenwriter and film director. He wrote for more than 90 films between 1913 and 1962. He also directed 29 films between 1915 and 1962. He wrote and directed the Sissi trilogy - Sissi (1955), Sissi – The Young Empress (1956) and Sissi – Fateful Years of an Empress (1957). The films were based on the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria. He was the brother of Hubert Marischka. He was named for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1946, for A Song to Remember (1945).

Marco Weber is a Los Angeles-based German producer and Entrepreneur responsible for a series of high-profile international productions since the mid-1990s. He is also a co-founder of Vrenetic, which he co-founded with Roland Emmerich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Werner Meyer</span> German actor

Hans Werner Meyer is a German film and television actor.

<i>Beyond</i> (2012 film) 2012 American film

Beyond is a 2012 psychological thriller film starring Jon Voight, Teri Polo, and Dermot Mulroney. The film, directed by Josef Rusnak, was shot entirely on location in Anchorage, Alaska.

<i>Cabin Fever</i> (2016 film) Film by Travis Zariwny

Cabin Fever is a 2016 American horror film directed by Travis Zariwny and written by Eli Roth and Randy Pearlstein as a remake of Roth's 2002 film of the same name and the fourth installment in the Cabin Fever franchise. The film stars Samuel Davis, Gage Golightly, Matthew Daddario, Nadine Crocker, and Dustin Ingram. The film was released on February 12, 2016, by IFC Midnight. The film was universally panned by critics and underperformed at the box office.

References

  1. 1 2 "Josef Rusnak". filmportal.de (in German). Deutsches Filminstitut. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
  2. "Rusnak, Josef". SWB Online Catalog (in German). Bibliotheksservice-Zentrum Baden-Württemberg. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
  3. "Rusnak, Josef". Deutsche Biographie (in German). Retrieved 19 September 2024.
  4. "DAS SOLLTEN SIE SEHEN". Die Tageszeitung (in German). 2004-03-23. Retrieved 2016-01-26.
  5. Addiego, Walter (1999-05-28). "Virtual characters stuck on "Thirteenth Floor'". San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 2016-01-26.
  6. Kutner, C. Jerry (2010-08-23). "As Above, So Below – World on a Wire and The Thirteenth Floor". Bright Lights Film Journal . Retrieved 2016-01-26.
  7. "Josef Rusnak - Future Movies".
  8. Zimmermann, Johanna (2011-09-20). "Filmkritik: "Valerie": Impotente Poesie". Focus (in German). Retrieved 2016-01-26.
  9. Holt, Chris. "DVD Review: Beyond". Starburst . Archived from the original on 2016-02-02. Retrieved 2016-01-26.
  10. Kujacinski, Dona (2014-09-07). ""Als ich jünger war, habe ich meine Männer betrogen"". Bild (in German). Retrieved 2016-01-26.