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Michael Cimino, Director of THE DEER HUNTER, Dies at 77
Michael Cimino, who won Oscars for director and best picture for the powerful 1978 Vietnam War film The Deer Hunter, has died. He was 77.
Thierry Fremaux, director of the Cannes Film Festival, announced the news on Twitter. No other details of his death were immediately available.
Despite his achievement with The Deer Hunter, his next project, Heaven's Gate (1980), capsized United Artists with his profligate budget excesses. Subsequently, the words "Heaven's Gate" entered filmmaking lexicon as an out-of-control, overbudget production.
A strong believer in location shooting, Cimino insisted that real places had a tremendous effect on actors' performances and the film's texture. It worked fine for his directorial debut in Thunderbolt & Lightfoot (1974), shot in Big Sky territory under the cost-conscious eye of producer/star Clint Eastwood and the inspired performance of co-star Jeff Bridges.
Yet Heaven's Gate, an epic about settlement of the West that was shot mainly at a studio-constructed Western town in Glacier National Park, outraged executives at UA. Cimino's insistence on authenticity, in the end, deflated the production and sank the troubled studio. In addition, its running time of 219 minutes exasperated theater owners.
Trying to cut its financial losses, UA pulled it from exhibition. Later, the studio reissued a trimmed version in 1981, which fared no better. The entire debacle was chronicled in Final Cut, a book written by former UA executive Steven Bach.
Michael Cimino, Director of 'The Deer Hunter' and 'Heaven's Gate,' Dies at 77 (Report)
Michael Cimino, who won Oscars for director and best picture for the powerful 1978 Vietnam War film The Deer Hunter, has died. He was 77.
Thierry Fremaux, director of the Cannes Film Festival, announced the news on Twitter. No other details of his death were immediately available.
Despite his achievement with The Deer Hunter, his next project, Heaven's Gate (1980), capsized United Artists with his profligate budget excesses. Subsequently, the words "Heaven's Gate" entered filmmaking lexicon as an out-of-control, overbudget production.
A strong believer in location shooting, Cimino insisted that real places had a tremendous effect on actors' performances and the film's texture. It worked fine for his directorial debut in Thunderbolt & Lightfoot (1974), shot in Big Sky territory under the cost-conscious eye of producer/star Clint Eastwood and the inspired performance of co-star Jeff Bridges.
Yet Heaven's Gate, an epic about settlement of the West that was shot mainly at a studio-constructed Western town in Glacier National Park, outraged executives at UA. Cimino's insistence on authenticity, in the end, deflated the production and sank the troubled studio. In addition, its running time of 219 minutes exasperated theater owners.
Trying to cut its financial losses, UA pulled it from exhibition. Later, the studio reissued a trimmed version in 1981, which fared no better. The entire debacle was chronicled in Final Cut, a book written by former UA executive Steven Bach.
Michael Cimino, Director of 'The Deer Hunter' and 'Heaven's Gate,' Dies at 77 (Report)
