Without whom, no…
Le notti di Cabiria, directed by Federico Fellini, 1957 (pictured: Giuletta Masina)…
Danger: Diabolik, directed by Mario Bava, 1968 (pictured: John Phillip Law, Marisa Mell)…
The Serpent’s Egg, directed by Ingmar Bergman, 1977 (pictured: David Carradine)…and so very many more.
I honestly did not contrive for it to turn out this way, but as it happens, every single person cited in this post is dead.
A lion of a producer.
He and all those pictured will be missed.
Very sad, he always came across as a man full of love for life. I can’t imagine what my childhood would have been like without Flash Gordon or Dune, or my college years without Manhunter and Blue Velvet.
I don’t think there’s a single movie lover around the world who doesn’t absolutely cherishes at least one of his productions. In my case Blue Velvet and Evil Dead 2.
Huge man.
What, no mention of “The most exciting original motion picture event of all time” – the 1976, World Trade Center-set ‘King Kong’ remake? 😉
@Oliver_C: I saw John Guillermin’s King Kong remake in its initial theatrical release. I was only four years old at that time, but it was nothing less than trans/formative, the earliest memory I have of seeing a movie, even though my mother had taken me to countless pictures before it. Laugh all you want, but that movie is pretty much the reason I’m still to this day crazy in love with the movies. I don’t care what anyone says, it’s a good film and it belongs in the company of the scores of other movies this amazing producer is being heralded for. When Dino dies, everybody cry.
I can’t say I’ve bothered to look, but I can only imagine what Wells’s obit will look like. Not good, I’m guessing.
There is absolutely nobody like De Laurentiis around anymore. Not even Corman, who’s had a producing career as similarly beneficial to film, can boast a resume’ anywhere near as varied and strange and all-encompassing of the art form as De Laurentiis. We shall not see his like again.
Let’s just all pretend Jeff Wells doesn’t exist and, like an evil spirit, he’ll disappear in a puff.
Just to echo Bill above, it’s pretty rare to find a producer who would make films ranging from La Strada and Blue Velvet all the way to Orca and Hannibal Rising. I can’t think of any producer willing to work in such a range today.
Too bad the porpoises who saved Dick Van Dyke from drowning couldn’t save Dino De Laurentiis from time.