Robert Zemeckis

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Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis "The Walk" at Opening Ceremony of the 28th Tokyo International Film Festival (21835891403) (cropped).jpg
Zemeckis in 2015
Born
Robert Lee Zemeckis

(1952-05-14) May 14, 1952 (age 72)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Other namesBob Zemeckis [1] [2]
Alma mater University of Southern California (BFA)
Occupations
  • Film director
  • producer
  • screenwriter
Years active1972–present
Political party Democratic
Spouses
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1980;div. 2000)​
  • ​
    (m. 2001)​
Children4
Awards Accolades

Robert Lee Zemeckis (born May 14, 1952) [3] is an American filmmaker known for directing and producing a range of successful and influential movies, often blending cutting-edge visual effects with storytelling. He has received several accolades including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for five British Academy Film Awards and a Daytime Emmy Award.

Contents

Zemeckis started his career directing the comedy films I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), Used Cars (1980), and Romancing the Stone (1984). He gained prominence directing the science-fiction comedy Back to the Future trilogy (1985–1990), the fantasy comedy Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), and the comedy-drama Forrest Gump (1994), the latter of which won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director. [4]

He has also directed the satirical black comedy Death Becomes Her (1992), the science fiction film Contact (1997), and the drama films Cast Away (2000), Flight (2012), The Walk (2015), and Allied (2016). His exploration of performance capture techniques can be seen in the animated films The Polar Express (2004) and A Christmas Carol (2009) as well as the action fantasy drama Beowulf (2007), and the drama Welcome to Marwen (2018). He has collaborated with film composer Alan Silvestri since 1984, and directed Tom Hanks in five films.

Early life and education

Robert Lee Zemeckis was born on May 14, 1952, in Chicago, [5] the son of Rosa (née Nespeca) [6] and Alphonse Zemeckis. [7] His father was Lithuanian-American while his mother was Italian-American. [6] His father's parents: Kazimieras Žemeckas (1877–1960) and Marijona Dantaitė-Žemeckienė (1887–1945) were born in Lithuania and later emigrated to the United States. [8]

Zemeckis grew up on the South Side of the city in a working class family. [9] [8] He attended a Catholic grade school and Fenger Academy High School. [10] Zemeckis has said "the truth was that in my family there was no art. I mean, there was no music, there were no books, there was no theater ... The only thing I had that was inspirational, was television—and it actually was." [10]

As a child, he loved television and was fascinated by his parents' 8 mm film home movie camera. Starting off by filming family events like birthdays and holidays, he gradually began producing narrative films with his friends that incorporated stop-motion work and other special effects. Along with enjoying movies, Zemeckis remained an avid TV viewer. "You hear so much about the problems with television," he said, "but I think that it saved my life." Television gave Zemeckis his first glimpse of a world outside of his blue-collar upbringing; [10] specifically, he learned of the existence of film schools on an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson .

After seeing Bonnie and Clyde with his father, [11] Zemeckis decided that he wanted to go to film school. His parents disapproved of the idea, Zemeckis later said, "But only in the sense that they were concerned ... for my family and my friends and the world that I grew up in, this was the kind of dream that really was impossible. My parents would sit there and say, 'Don't you see where you come from? You can't be a movie director.' I guess maybe some of it I felt I had to do in spite of them, too." [10]

Zemeckis first attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, and gained early experience in film as a film cutter for NBC News in Chicago during a summer break. [12] He also edited commercials in his home state. [13] Zemeckis applied to transfer from NIU to the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles, California, and went into the Film School on the strength of an essay and a music video based on a Beatles song. Not having heard from the university itself, Zemeckis called and was told he had been rejected because of his average grades. He gave an "impassioned plea" to the official on the other line, promising to go to summer school and improve his studies, and eventually convinced the school to accept him.

Arriving at USC that fall, Zemeckis encountered a program that was, in his words, made up of "a bunch of hippies [and] considered an embarrassment by the university". The classes were difficult, with professors constantly stressing how hard the movie business was. Zemeckis remembered not being much fazed by this, citing the "healthy cynicism" that had been bred into him from his Chicago upbringing. [10] At USC Zemeckis met a fellow student, writer Bob Gale. Gale later recalled, "The graduate students at USC had this veneer of intellectualism ... So Bob and I gravitated toward one another because we wanted to make Hollywood movies. We weren't interested in the French New Wave. We were interested in Clint Eastwood and James Bond and Walt Disney, because that's how we grew up." [14] Zemeckis graduated from USC in 1973, [15] and he and Gale cowrote the unproduced screenplays Tank and Bordello of Blood , which they pitched to John Milius, the latter of which was later developed into a film which was released in 1996. [16] [17] [18]

Career

1978–1984: Early comedy films

As a result of winning a Student Academy Award at USC for his film A Field of Honor, [19] Zemeckis came to the attention of Steven Spielberg. Spielberg said, "He barged right past my secretary and sat me down and showed me this student film ... and I thought it was spectacular, with police cars and a riot, all dubbed to Elmer Bernstein's score for The Great Escape ." [14] Spielberg became Zemeckis's mentor and executive produced his first two films, both of which Gale and Zemeckis co-wrote.

Spielberg produced I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978, starring Nancy Allen) and Used Cars (1980, starring Kurt Russell); both were critical, but not commercial, successes. I Wanna Hold Your Hand was the first of several Zemeckis films to incorporate historic figures and celebrities into his movies; he used archival footage and doubles to simulate the presence of the Beatles. After the failure of his first two films, and the Spielberg-directed 1941 (1979) (written by Gale and Zemeckis), the pair gained a reputation for writing "scripts that everyone thought were great [but] somehow didn't translate into movies people wanted to see." [14]

As a result of his reputation within the industry, Zemeckis had trouble finding work in the early 1980s, though he and Gale kept busy. They wrote scripts for other directors, including Car Pool for Brian De Palma and Growing Up for Spielberg; neither ended up getting made. Another Zemeckis-Gale project, Back to the Future , about a teenager who accidentally travels back in time to the 1950s, was turned down by every major studio. [20] The director was jobless until Michael Douglas hired him in 1984 to direct Romancing the Stone . A romantic adventure starring Douglas and Kathleen Turner, Stone was expected to flop (to the point that, after viewing a rough cut of the film, the producers of the then-in-the-works Cocoon fired Zemeckis as director), [20] but the film became a sleeper hit. While working on Romancing the Stone, Zemeckis met composer Alan Silvestri, who has scored all his subsequent pictures.

1985–1999: Breakthrough and acclaim

Overseeing the filming of Contact (1997) Zemeckis1997(cropped).jpg
Overseeing the filming of Contact (1997)

After Romancing the Stone, Zemeckis had the clout to direct his time-traveling screenplay. Starring Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Christopher Lloyd, the 1985 film was wildly successful upon its release and was followed by two sequels, released as Back to the Future Part II in 1989 and Back to the Future Part III in 1990. Before the Back to the Future sequels were released, Zemeckis collaborated with Disney and directed another film, the madcap 1940s-set mystery Who Framed Roger Rabbit , which combined traditional animation and live-action; its $70 million budget made it one of the most expensive films made up to that point. The film was both a financial and critical success and won three Academy Awards. In 1990, Zemeckis commented, when asked if he would want to make non-comedies, "I would like to be able to do everything. Just now, though, I'm too restless to do anything that's not really zany." [20]

In 1992, Zemeckis directed the black comedy Death Becomes Her , starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, and Bruce Willis. Although his next film would have some comedic elements, it was Zemeckis's first with dramatic elements and was also his biggest commercial success to date, Forrest Gump . Starring Tom Hanks in the title role, Forrest Gump tells the story of a man with a low I.Q., who unwittingly participates in some of the major events of the twentieth century, falls in love, and interacts with several major historical figures in the process. The film grossed $677 million worldwide and became the top-grossing US film of 1994; it won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (for Hanks) and Best Director (for Zemeckis). From this point, Hanks and Zemeckis became frequent collaborators. [21] [22] In 1997, Zemeckis directed Contact , a long-gestating project based on Carl Sagan's 1985 novel of the same name. The film centers on Eleanor Arroway (Jodie Foster), who believes she has made contact with extraterrestrials. In the early 1990s, he founded South Side Amusement Company, which later became ImageMovers. [23]

During this same time period, Zemeckis was an executive producer of HBO's Tales from the Crypt (1989–1996) and directed three episodes. In 1999, Zemeckis donated $5 million towards the Robert Zemeckis Center for Digital Arts at USC, a 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) center. When the Center opened in March 2001, Zemeckis spoke in a panel about the future of film, alongside friends Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Of those (including Spielberg) who clung to celluloid and disparaged the idea of shooting digitally, Zemeckis said, "These guys are the same ones who have been saying that LPs sound better than CDs. You can argue that until you're blue in the face, but I don't know anyone who's still buying vinyl. The film, as we have traditionally thought of it, is going to be different. But the continuum is man's desire to tell stories around the campfire. The only thing that keeps changing is the campfire." [24] The Robert Zemeckis Center currently hosts many film school classes, much of the Interactive Media Division, and Trojan Vision, USC's student television station, which has been voted the number one college television station in the country.

Zemeckis has collaborated with Tom Hanks for five films Tom Hanks face.jpg
Zemeckis has collaborated with Tom Hanks for five films

In 1996, Zemeckis had begun developing a project titled The Castaway with Tom Hanks and writer William Broyles Jr. The story, inspired by Robinson Crusoe , is about a man who becomes stranded on a tropical island and undergoes a profound physical and spiritual change. [25] While working on The Castaway, Zemeckis also became attached to a Hitchcockian thriller titled What Lies Beneath , the story of a married couple experiencing an extreme case of empty nest syndrome that was based on an idea by Steven Spielberg. [26] Because Hanks's character needed to undergo a dramatic weight loss over the course of The Castaway (retitled Cast Away for release), Zemeckis decided that the only way to retain the same crew while Hanks lost the weight was to shoot What Lies Beneath in between. He shot the first part of Cast Away in early 1999, and shot What Lies Beneath in fall 1999, completing work on the former in early 2000. [26] Zemeckis later quipped, when asked about shooting two films back-to-back, "I wouldn't recommend it to anyone." [25] What Lies Beneath, starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, was released in July 2000 to mixed reviews, but did well at the box office, grossing over $155 million domestically. Cast Away, starring Hanks and Twister actress Helen Hunt, was released that December and grossed $233 million domestically; [27] Hanks received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of Chuck Noland.

2004–present: Career fluctuations

In 2004, Zemeckis reteamed with Hanks for The Polar Express , based on Chris Van Allsburg's children's book of the same name. The Polar Express utilized the computer animation technique known as performance capture, whereby the movements of the actors are captured digitally and used as the basis for the animated characters. As the first major film to use performance capture, The Polar Express caused The New York Times to write that, "Whatever critics and audiences make of this movie, from a technical perspective it could mark a turning point in the gradual transition from an analog to a digital cinema." [28] Zemeckis served as an executive producer for Monster House (2006), a family-friendly horror comedy that used performance capture. [29]

Zemeckis's star on Walk of Fame, Hollywood, LA Robert Lee Zemeckis (Walk of Fame Star).jpg
Zemeckis's star on Walk of Fame, Hollywood, LA

In February 2007, Zemeckis and Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook announced plans for a new performance capture film company devoted to CG-created, 3-D movies. [30] The company, ImageMovers Digital, created films using the performance capture technology, with Zemeckis directing most of the projects which Disney distributed and marketed worldwide. Zemeckis used the performance capture technology again in his film, Beowulf , to retell the Anglo-Saxon epic poem of the same name. It featured Ray Winstone, Angelina Jolie, and Anthony Hopkins. Neil Gaiman, who co-wrote the adaptation with Roger Avary, described the film as a "cheerfully violent and strange take on the Beowulf legend." [31] The film was released on November 16, 2007, to mostly positive reviews and grossed $196 million worldwide. In July 2007, Variety announced that Zemeckis had written a screenplay for A Christmas Carol , based on Charles Dickens's 1843 short story of the same name, with plans to use performance capture and release it under the aegis of ImageMovers Digital. Zemeckis wrote the script with Jim Carrey in mind, and Carrey agreed to play a multitude of roles in the film, including Ebenezer Scrooge as a young, middle-aged, and old man, and the three ghosts who haunt Scrooge. [32] The film began production in February 2008 and was released on November 6, 2009, to mixed reviews [33] and grossed $325 million at the box office. Actor Gary Oldman also appeared in the film. [34] Zemeckis is an avid supporter of 3-D Digital Cinema and has stated that since the 3-D presentations of Beowulf , all of his future films would be done in 3-D using digital motion capture. He has reportedly backed away from that statement and said that the decision to use 3-D will be on a film-by-film basis.[ citation needed ]

On August 19, 2009, it was reported that Zemeckis and his company were in talks with Apple Corps Ltd to remake the animated film Yellow Submarine utilizing performance capture. However, on March 12, 2010, with Zemeckis's biggest Disney ally, former chairman Dick Cook, gone, and amid drastic cost-cutting by the new management team, Disney announced that it was ending its relationship with ImageMovers Digital. [35] The studio's final film, 2011's Zemeckis-produced Mars Needs Moms , was the second-worst box office failure in history, with a net loss of roughly $130 million. Zemeckis made his return to live-action filmmaking with Flight , a 2012 drama for Paramount, starring Denzel Washington. On January 31, 2014, it was announced that a stage musical adaptation of Zemeckis's first Back to the Future film was in production. [36] The show would be co-written by original writers Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. [37] According to Gale, the musical would be "true to the spirit of the film without being a slavish remake". [38]

Zemeckis with wife Leslie Harter, at the French premiere of Flight, January 2013 Robert Zemeckis 2013.jpg
Zemeckis with wife Leslie Harter, at the French premiere of Flight , January 2013

In August 2008, IGN revealed in an interview with Philippe Petit that Zemeckis was working with Petit to turn Petit's memoir To Reach the Clouds into a feature film. [39] In 2015, he directed The Walk , about Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his ambition to tightrope walk between the towers of the World Trade Center. Paramount Pictures and New Regency announced in February 2015 that Zemeckis would direct Brad Pitt in Allied , a romantic thriller set during World War II. [40] The film was released on November 23, 2016. Next, Zemeckis directed the fantasy drama Welcome to Marwen , starring Steve Carell, which was released in December 2018 to mixed reviews and flopped at the box office. [41] Zemeckis's film The Witches , an adaptation of the Roald Dahl novel of the same name, premiered on October 22, 2020, on HBO Max, also to mixed reviews. [42]

On October 18, 2019, it was announced that Zemeckis is in talks to direct Disney's live-action adaptation of Pinocchio . [43] Zemeckis was officially announced as the film's director and co-writer of the script in January 2020. [44] In addition, Tom Hanks was reportedly announced as playing Mister Geppetto in the film, marking the fourth collaboration with Hanks since Forrest Gump, Cast Away, and The Polar Express. [45] The film was later released, as part of Disney+ Day on Disney+, on September 8, 2022, to highly negative reviews from critics, nominated for six Razzies, including Worst Picture and Worst Director for Zemeckis ("winning" Worst Remake), ultimately losing the former to Blonde . Despite this, it also received a Visual Effects Society Award nomination for Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature.

On February 17, 2022, Zemeckis signed on to direct Here, an adaptation of the graphic novel by Richard McGuire, with Tom Hanks set to star and Forrest Gump screenwriter Eric Roth working on the screenplay with Zemeckis. [46] On May 11, it was announced that Robin Wright had been cast and that TriStar Pictures had acquired distribution rights for the United States, with Miramax handling international sales and production expected to begin in September 2022 for a theatrical release in 2024. [47] On October 31, 2024, Zemeckis, during an appearance on Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast to promote Here, hinted at his plans to produce and direct a film adaptation of the stage musical version of Back to the Future that would also serve as a remake of the original film. Universal has yet to green-light the project after an initial rejection of Zemeckis' pitch to the studio. [48]

Style and recognition

Zemeckis is regarded as an innovator in visual effects. [49] [50] His exploration of state-of-the-art special effects includes the early use of computer graphics inserted into live-action footage in Back to the Future Part II (1989) and Forrest Gump, the insertion of hand-drawn animation into live-action footage in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and the performance capture techniques seen in The Polar Express (2004), Beowulf (2007), A Christmas Carol (2009), and Welcome to Marwen (2018). He is known for his collaboration with composer Alan Silvestri, with whom he has worked since Romancing the Stone. David Thomson, a prominent film critic, wrote that "no other contemporary director has used special effects to more dramatic and narrative purpose." [5]

Personal life

Zemeckis has said that, for a long time, he sacrificed his personal life in favor of a career. "I won an Academy Award when I was 44 years old," he explained, "but I paid for it with my 20s. That decade of my life from film school till 30 was nothing but work, nothing but absolute, driving work. I had no money. I had no life." [10] In the early 1980s, Zemeckis married actress Mary Ellen Trainor, with whom he had a son, Alexander Francis.[ citation needed ] He described the marriage as difficult to balance with filmmaking, [10] and his relationship with Trainor eventually ended in divorce. On December 4, 2001, he married Leslie Harter, an actress, [51] with whom he has three children. [7] [52] [53]

Zemeckis is a private pilot who has logged approximately 1,600 hours of flight time, as of October 2012, [54] flying a Cirrus SR22. [55]

According to campaign donation records, Zemeckis has frequently contributed to political candidates affiliated with the Democratic Party, as well as PACs that support the interests of aircraft owners and pilots, family planning interests, and a group that advocates for Hollywood women. [56] [ unreliable source? ]

Zemeckis owns a villa in the Tuscany region of Italy, which is within the ruins of a 10th-century castle and is dedicated for summer vacations. [57]

In 2013, Zemeckis visited his father's parents home country Lithuania and its capital city Vilnius. [58]

Filmography

Short film

YearTitleDirectorWriter
1972The LiftYesYes
1973A Field of HonorYesYes

Feature film

YearTitleDirectorWriterProducer
1978 I Wanna Hold Your Hand YesYesNo
1979 1941 NoYesNo
1980 Used Cars YesYesNo
1984 Romancing the Stone YesNoNo
1985 Back to the Future YesYesNo
1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit YesNoNo
1989 Back to the Future Part II YesStoryNo
1990 Back to the Future Part III YesStoryNo
1992 Death Becomes Her YesNoYes
Trespass NoYesExecutive
1994 Forrest Gump YesNoNo
1996 Bordello of Blood NoStoryExecutive
1997 Contact YesNoYes
2000 What Lies Beneath YesNoYes
Cast Away YesNoYes
2004 The Polar Express YesYesYes
2007 Beowulf YesNoYes
2009 A Christmas Carol YesYesYes
2012 Flight YesNoYes
2015 The Walk YesYesYes
2016 Allied YesNoYes
2018 Welcome to Marwen YesYesYes
2020 The Witches YesYesYes
2022 Pinocchio YesYesYes
2024 Here YesYesYes

Producer

Executive producer

Executive Soundtrack Producer

  • Forrest Gump (1994)

Television

YearTitleDirectorExecutive
producer		WriterCreatorNotes
1975 Kolchak: The Night Stalker NoNostoryNoEpisode: "Chopper"
1984Used CarsYesYesNoYesUnsold pilot
1986 Amazing Stories YesNoNoNoEpisode: "Go to the Head of the Class"
1989–1996 Tales from the Crypt YesYesNoNoExecutive producer: all episodes

Director: "And All Through the House", "Yellow", and "You, Murderer"

1991–1992 Back to the Future NoNoNoYes
1993 Johnny Bago YesYesstoryYesEpisode: "Johnny Bago Free at Last"
1999The Pursuit of Happiness: Smoking,
Drinking and Drugging in the 20th Century		YesNoNoNoTV documentary in the series "In the 20th Century" [59]
2018 Medal of Honor NoYesNoNo
2018–2023 Manifest NoYesNoNo
2019–2020 Project Blue Book NoYesNoNo
2019 What/If NoYesNoNo

Awards and nominations

OrganizationsYearCategoryProjectResultRef.
Academy Award 1985 Best Original Screenplay Back to the Future Nominated
1994 Best Director Forrest Gump Won
BAFTA Awards 1985 Best Film Back to the Future Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Nominated
1994 Best Film Forrest Gump Nominated
Best Direction Nominated
2004 Best Feature Film The Polar Express Nominated
César Award 1988 Best Foreign Film Who Framed Roger Rabbit Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association 1985 Best Director Who Framed Roger Rabbit Won
1994Forrest GumpNominated
2000 Cast Away Nominated
Daytime Emmy Award 1997 Outstanding Game Show Secrets of the Cryptkeeper's Haunted House Nominated
Directors Guild of America 1989 Outstanding Directing - Feature Film Who Framed Roger Rabbit Nominated
1994 Forrest Gump Won
Golden Globe Awards 1985 Best Screenplay Back to the Future Nominated
1994 Best Director Forrest Gump Nominated
Golden Raspberry Awards 2023 Worst Picture Disney's Pinocchio Nominated
Worst Director Nominated
Worst Screenplay Nominated
Las Vegas Film Critics Society 2000Best DirectorCast AwayNominated
Venice International Film Festival 1985 Young Venice AwardBack to the FutureNominated
1988Special MentionWho Framed Roger RabbitNominated
Writers Guild of America 1985Best Original Screenplay Back to the Future Nominated

Accolades received by individual films

YearTitleAcademy AwardsBAFTA AwardsGolden Globe Awards
NominationsWinsNominationsWinsNominationsWins
1984 Romancing the Stone 122
1985 Back to the Future 4154
1988 Who Framed Roger Rabbit 73512
1989 Back to the Future Part II 111
1992 Death Becomes Her 11111
1994 Forrest Gump 1368173
1997 Contact 11
2000 Cast Away 2111
2004 The Polar Express 31
2012 Flight 21
2016 Allied 11
Total3611224206

See also

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Kenneth Ralston is an American visual effects artist, currently the Visual Effect Supervisor and Creative Head at Sony Pictures Imageworks. Ralston began his career at the commercial animation and visual effects company, Cascade Pictures in Hollywood, where he worked on over 150 advertising campaigns in the early 1970s. In 1976, he was hired at Industrial Light & Magic by Dennis Muren to help George Lucas create the effects for Star Wars. He remained at ILM for 20 years before joining Sony Pictures Imageworks as president. Ralston is best known for his work in the films of Robert Zemeckis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Burgess (cinematographer)</span> American cinematographer (born 1956)

Don Michael Burgess, is an American cinematographer, best known for his collaborations with director Robert Zemeckis. He was nominated for the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography for Zemeckis' Forrest Gump (1994). In 2024, he received the American Society of Cinematographers' Lifetime Achievement Award.

<i>Welcome to Marwen</i> 2018 film by Robert Zemeckis

Welcome to Marwen is a 2018 American drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis, who co-wrote the script with Caroline Thompson. It is inspired by Jeff Malmberg's 2010 documentary Marwencol. The film stars Steve Carell, Leslie Mann, Diane Kruger, Merritt Wever, Janelle Monáe, Eiza González, Gwendoline Christie, Leslie Zemeckis, Siobhan Williams and Neil Jackson. It tells the true story of Mark Hogancamp, a man struggling with PTSD who, after being physically assaulted, creates a fictional village to ease his trauma.

<i>Pinocchio</i> (2022 live-action film) Film by Robert Zemeckis

Pinocchio is a 2022 American musical fantasy film directed by Robert Zemeckis from a screenplay by Zemeckis and Chris Weitz. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures, Depth of Field and ImageMovers, this film is a live-action remake of Walt Disney's 1940 animated film Pinocchio, which is itself based on the 1883 Italian book The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. It stars Tom Hanks, Cynthia Erivo, and Luke Evans in live-action roles, and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Keegan-Michael Key, and Lorraine Bracco in voice roles. The reimagined story follows a wooden puppet named Pinocchio, who is brought to life by a blue fairy (Erivo) after being crafted by an old Italian woodcarver named Geppetto (Hanks). While the role of Pinocchio's conscience Jiminy Cricket (Gordon-Levitt) attempts to guide Pinocchio in matters of right and wrong, Pinocchio encounters a host of unsavory characters in his efforts to become a real boy.

The following is a list of unproduced Robert Zemeckis projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American film director Robert Zemeckis has worked on several projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage. Some of these projects fell in development hell, were officially cancelled, were in development limbo or would see life under a different production team.

<i>Here</i> (2024 film) Film by Robert Zemeckis

Here is a 2024 American drama film produced and directed by Robert Zemeckis, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Roth, based on the 2014 graphic novel by Richard McGuire. Echoing the source material, the film is told in a nonlinear fashion: the story covers the events of a single spot of land and its inhabitants, spanning from the distant past to the 21st century. During the film, the screen is often subdivided into multiple panes, presenting events from different time periods simultaneously. The film stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Paul Bettany, and Kelly Reilly, with digital de-aging being used on much of the cast to have them portray their characters over the course of the different time periods.

References

  1. ↑ Attanasio, Paul (July 3, 1985). "Bob Zemeckis, Zooming Ahead". Washington Post. Retrieved December 12, 2021.
  2. ↑ Leicester, John (July 24, 2021). "At Tokyo Olympics, a debt to 'Back to the Future' and 'E.T.'". ABC News. Retrieved December 12, 2021. 'The skateboard associations and the BMX associations should be giving Bob Zemeckis, myself and Steven Spielberg lifetime achievement awards,' joked 'Back to the Future' screenwriter Bob Gale in an interview with The Associated Press ahead of the competitions.
  3. ↑ "Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 9–15". Associated Press. May 14, 2021. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
  4. ↑ Harris, Mark (July 15, 1994). "Movie Review: Forrest Gump". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved January 26, 2007.
  5. 1 2 Thomson, David. The New Biographical Dictionary of Film . p. 985.
  6. 1 2 "Arquata: un paese da Oscar secondo Robert Zemeckis" (in Italian). Arquata del Tronto. February 20, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2021.
  7. 1 2 "Rose Zemeckis Obituary". Northwest Herald . Crystal Lake, Illinois . Retrieved October 20, 2012.
  8. 1 2 Blynaitė, Laura. "Robert Zemeckis". Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija (in Lithuanian). Retrieved December 7, 2024.
  9. ↑ Kunk, Deborah J. (June 26, 1988). "The Man Who Framed Roger Rabbit". Pioneer Press . St. Paul, Minnesota . Retrieved December 10, 2007.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Robert Zemeckis interview". Academy of Achievement: A Museum of Living History, June 29, 1996. p.  . Archived from the original on February 8, 2007. Retrieved January 22, 2007.
  11. ↑ Kehr, Dave (December 17, 2000). "'Cast Away' Director Defies Categorizing". The New York Times . Retrieved March 31, 2008.
  12. ↑ Hevrdejs, Judy; Conklin, Mike (April 19, 1998). "Director Zemeckis in a Class by Himself at NIU". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 28, 2021.
  13. ↑ Biotex
  14. 1 2 3 Shone, Tom. Blockbuster: How Hollywood Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Summer. New York: Free Press, 2004; ISBN   0-7432-3568-1 pp. 123-125.
  15. ↑ Notable Alumni, USC School of Cinematic Arts Archived August 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine .
  16. ↑ "25 Development Facts Behind the Back to the Future Trilogy". Huffington Post. October 21, 2015.
  17. ↑ "Bob Zemeckis, Zooming Ahead". Washington Post. July 3, 1985.
  18. ↑ Milius, John (2002). The Making of 1941: In the Beginning. Universal Studios. Event occurs at 01:39. ISBN   0783231032.
  19. ↑ "A Field of Honor". YouTube. Archived from the original on June 2, 2018.
  20. 1 2 3 Horowitz, Mark. "Back with a Future", American Film, July/August 1988. pp. 32–35.
  21. ↑ Boucher, Geoff (November 14, 2018). "Robert Zemeckis Returns To Science Fiction With 'Project Blue Book' & 'Bios'". Deadline. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
  22. ↑ Kroll, Justin (August 5, 2020). "Disney Eyeing Tom Hanks To Play Geppetto In Robert Zemeckis' 'Pinocchio'". Deadline. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
  23. ↑ Busch, Anita M. (June 18, 1997). "Zemeckis, Rapke wrap up DreamWorks deal". Variety. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
  24. ↑ Hayes, Dade, and Dana Harris. "Helmers mull digital around state-of-art campfire," Variety , March 5, 2001 (accessed August 27, 2014).
  25. 1 2 Fall Movie Preview: December, Entertainment Weekly, August 18, 2000 (accessed October 28, 2021).
  26. 1 2 Petrikin, Chris. "Pairing for Zemeckis", Variety , October 14, 1998 (accessed September 11, 2007).
  27. ↑ "Cast Away". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  28. ↑ Kehr, Dave (October 24, 2004). "FILM: The Face That Launched A Thousand Chips". The New York Times. Retrieved March 31, 2008.
  29. ↑ Scott, A. O. (July 21, 2006). "In 'Monster House', It's Home Creepy Home". The New York Times.
  30. ↑ "Disney, "Polar Express" director in animation deal". Reuters . February 5, 2007. Retrieved November 21, 2010.
  31. ↑ Goldstein, Hilary (July 21, 2006). "Comic-Con 2006: Neil Gaiman's Future Movies". IGN.com. Retrieved January 13, 2007.
  32. ↑ Fleming, Michael. "Jim Carrey set for 'Christmas Carol': Zemeckis directing Dickens adaptation", Variety , July 6, 2007 (accessed September 11, 2007).
  33. ↑ McClintock, Pamela (February 7, 2008). "Studios rush to fill '09 schedule". Variety. Retrieved October 28, 2021.
  34. ↑ Gary Oldman To Play Three Roles in Robert Zemeckis' ‘A Christmas Carol, geeksofdoom.com; accessed August 27, 2014.
  35. ↑ "Disney to Close Zemeckis' ImageMovers Digital Studio". AWN.
  36. ↑ "Back to the Future musical announced". BBC News. January 31, 2014.
  37. ↑ "Back to the Future: 80s movie gets musical makeover". The Guardian . January 31, 2014. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  38. ↑ "Back to the Future: stage musical version of 80s classic film to hit London's West End". standard.co.uk. London Evening Standard. January 31, 2014. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
  39. ↑ Aftab, Kaleem "Man on Wire Q&A"
  40. ↑ Hayden, Erik (February 6, 2015). "Robert Zemeckis to Direct Brad Pitt Romantic Thriller". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on February 12, 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2015.
  41. ↑ Adams, Sam (December 19, 2018). "Welcome to Marwen". Slate.
  42. ↑ Rubin, Rebecca (October 2, 2020). "Robert Zemeckis' 'The Witches' Skips Theaters for HBO Max Debut". Variety. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  43. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (October 10, 2019). "Disney Live-Action 'Pinocchio' Has Robert Zemeckis Circling To Direct". Deadline.
  44. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 24, 2020). "Robert Zemeckis Closes Deal To Direct & Co-Write Disney's Live-Action 'Pinocchio'". Deadline Hollywood .
  45. ↑ Kroll, Justin (August 5, 2020). "Disney Eyeing Tom Hanks To Play Geppetto In Robert Zemeckis' 'Pinocchio'". Deadline. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  46. ↑ Fleming, Mike Jr. (February 17, 2022). "Hot Package: 'Forrest Gump' Trio Tom Hanks, Robert Zemeckis, Eric Roth Team For Graphic Novel Adaptation 'Here'". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved May 12, 2022.
  47. ↑ Fleming, Mike Jr. (May 11, 2022). "Sony Pictures Lands U.S. Rights To Miramax's 'Here'; Robin Wright Joins Tom Hanks, Robert Zemeckis, Eric Roth In 'Forrest Gump' Reteam – Cannes Market". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved May 12, 2022.
  48. ↑ "Robert Zemeckis Wants to Make Another Back to the Future Movie (With a Twist)". Screen Rant . November 2024.
  49. ↑ Day, Patrick Kevin; Phillips, Jevon (October 19, 2012). "Robert Zemeckis's cinematic innovations". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  50. ↑ Cwik, Greg (October 7, 2015). "Robert Zemeckis is An Important Filmmaker (Even When He Fails)". IndieWire . Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  51. ↑ TCM Biography. "Robert Zemeckis". prod.tcm.com. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
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  53. ↑ Kogan, Rock (November 7, 2018). "Let 'em entertain you: Faith Bacon and Sally Rand are the subjects of 'Feuding Fan Dancers'". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 19, 2024.
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