Marc Forster (born 30 November 1969) is a Swiss filmmaker. He is best known for directing the feature films '' Monster's Ball'', '' Finding Neverland'', '' Stranger than Fiction'', ''

The Kite Runner ''The Kite Runner'' is the first novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. Published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, it tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul. The story is set against a backdrop of ...

'', ''

Quantum of Solace ''Quantum of Solace'' is a 2008 spy film and the twenty-second in the List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions. It is the sequel to Casino Royale (2006 film), ''Casino Royale'' (2006). Directed by Marc Forst ...

'', ''

World War Z ''World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War'' is a 2006 zombie apocalyptic horror novel written by American author Max Brooks. The novel is broken into eight chapters: “Warnings”, “Blame”, “The Great Panic”, “Turning the Ti ...

'', and ''

Christopher Robin Christopher Robin is a character created by A. A. Milne, based on his son Christopher Robin Milne. The character appears in the author's popular books of poetry and ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' stories, and has subsequently appeared in various Disney ...

'' & an upcoming live-action/animated film for

Mattel Films Mattel Films is the film production division of Mattel originally formed on October 16, 2013, as Mattel Playground Productions as part of Mattel Global Brands, a unified media structural and strategy unit. On March 31, 2016, Mattel placed the ...

called ''Thomas and Friends: The Movie'', as well as numerous television commercials. He is a BAFTA, Golden Globe, and

Independent Spirit Award The Independent Spirit Awards (abbreviated Spirit Awards and originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards), founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glas ...

nominee.

Life and career

Forster was born on 30 November 1969 in Au (today

Illertissen Illertissen () is a town in the district of Neu-Ulm in Bavaria. It is situated approximately 20 km south from Ulm nearby the river Iller. Coat of arms The coat of arms lent by Erhard Vöhlin in the year 1530 shows an upright standing li ...

), in the Neu-Ulm district of

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. His parents, a German doctor and a Swiss architect moved to

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

when Forster was 9 years old. He spent his adolescence in Davos, a winter resort in eastern Switzerland, and as well as at the international boarding school Institut Montana Zugerberg in central Switzerland. In 1990, when he was 20 years old, Forster moved to New York, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. For the next three years, he attended

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

's film school, making several documentary films. In 1995, he moved to Hollywood and shot an experimental

low-budget film A low-budget film or low-budget movie is a motion picture shot with little to no funding from a major film studio or private investor. Many independent films are made on low budgets, but films made on the mainstream circuit with inexperienced or ...

for $10,000 called ''Loungers'', which won the Audience Award at the

Slamdance Film Festival The Slamdance Film Festival is an annual film festival focused on emerging artists. The annual week-long festival takes place in Park City, Utah, in late January and is the main event organized by the year-round Slamdance organization, which als ...

. Forster's first feature-length motion picture was the psychological drama ''

Everything Put Together ''Everything Put Together'' is a 2000 drama film directed by Marc Forster starring Radha Mitchell, Megan Mullally and Louis Ferreira. The story focuses on a Californian couple expecting a child and their group of friends who are confronted with t ...

'' (2000), which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

. His breakthrough film was '' Monster's Ball'' (2001), in which he directed Halle Berry in her

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

-winning performance as the wife of a man on

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...

. The film also starred

Billy Bob Thornton Billy Bob Thornton (born August 4, 1955) is an American actor, filmmaker and musician. He had his first break when he co-wrote and starred in the 1992 thriller ''One False Move'', and received international attention after writing, directing, a ...

Heath Ledger Heath Andrew Ledger (4 April 1979 – 22 January 2008) was an Australian actor and music video director. After playing roles in several Australian television and film productions during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to ...

, Peter Boyle, and

Sean Combs Sean Combs (born Sean John Combs; November 4, 1969), also known by his stage names Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, Puffy, or Diddy, is an American rapper, actor, record producer, and record executive. Born in New York City, he worked as a talent directo ...

. His next film, '' Finding Neverland'' (2004), was based on the life of author

J.M. Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succe ...

. The film was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards and seven Academy Awards, including the

Best Picture This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

. Forster received BAFTA,

Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the group merge ...

, and Golden Globe nominations for his direction. Forster's next film, the thriller ''

Stay Stay may refer to: Places * Stay, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the US Law * Stay of execution, a ruling to temporarily suspend the enforcement of a court judgment * Stay of proceedings, a ruling halting further legal process in a tri ...

'' (2005) starred

Ewan McGregor Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British ...

and

Naomi Watts Naomi Ellen Watts (born 28 September 1968) is a British actress. After her family moved to Australia, she made her film debut there in the drama '' For Love Alone'' (1986) and then appeared in three television series, '' Hey Dad..!'' (1990), '' ...

and grossed $8 million (

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

) in the

on an estimated budget of $50 million. '' Stranger than Fiction'' (2006), a surreal

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

starring

Will Ferrell John William Ferrell (; born July 16, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, and producer. He first established himself in the mid-1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show '' Saturday Night Live'', where he performed from 1995 to 2 ...

, was a critical success. The film grossed $54 million worldwide and earned Will Ferrell a nomination for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Forster then directed an adaptation of best-seller

Khaled Hosseini Khaled Hosseini (;Pashto/Dari ; born March 4, 1965) is an Afghan-American novelist, UNHCR goodwill ambassador, and former physician. His debut novel ''The Kite Runner'' (2003) was a critical and commercial success; the book and his subsequent ...

's ''

'', scripted by repeat collaborator

David Benioff David Friedman (; born September 25, 1970), known professionally as David Benioff (), is an American writer, director and producer. Along with his collaborator D. B. Weiss, he is best known as co-creator and showrunner of '' Game of Thrones'' (2 ...

and starring British newcomer

Khalid Abdalla Khalid Abdalla ( ar, خالد عبدالله; ; born 26 October 1980) is a Scottish actor and activist of Egyptian descent. He came to international prominence after starring in the 2006 Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA-winning film '' United ...

. The film follows an Afghani-American man who returns to his war-ravaged country to save the son of his former best friend. ''

'' was released on December 14, 2007, and grossed $73 million worldwide. It also earned a nomination for a

Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film is a Golden Globe Award presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Until 1986, it was known as the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film, meaning that any non-American film coul ...

and a BAFTA bid for Film Not In the English Language. Additionally, Forster directed the 22nd

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

film, ''

'', which began shooting on January 2, 2008, shortly after his 38th birthday, making him the youngest director in the series' history (beating the previous record set by

Guy Hamilton Mervyn Ian Guy Hamilton, DSC (16 September 1922 – 20 April 2016) was an English film director. He directed 22 films from the 1950s to the 1980s, including four James Bond films. Early life Hamilton was born in Paris on 16 September 1922, w ...

, who was 41 when he directed '' Goldfinger'' five years before Forster's birth). ''

'' was released in the United Kingdom on October 31, 2008. It became one of the highest grossing Bond films in the franchise's history, with a worldwide box office of more than $586 million. ForsterQOS

Forster directed the

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

of the novel ''

'', starring

Brad Pitt William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. He is the recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award. ...

, which Paramount announced at the July 2010 San Diego Comic-Con. The film opened June 21, 2013 to more than $66 million and has grossed more than $540 million worldwide. To date, it is the highest-grossing film of Brad Pitt's career and is the most successful

Zombie movie ''Zombie Movie'' is a short zombie film produced by 2Chums Moving Pictures in 2005. 2Chums Moving Pictures consisted mainly of Michael J. Asquith & Ben Stenbeck, both former employees at Weta Workshop and current employees at Valve. The movie wa ...

of all time. Forster directed his screenplay of '' All I See Is You'', a visually driven drama following a blind woman (

Blake Lively Blake Ellender Lively ( Brown; born August 25, 1987) is an American actress. Born in Los Angeles, Lively is the daughter of actor Ernie Lively, and made her professional debut in his directorial project ''Sandman'' (1998). She starred as Brid ...

) and her husband (

Jason Clarke Jason Clarke (born 17 July 1969) is an Australian actor. He has appeared in many TV series, and is known for playing Tommy Caffee on the television series '' Brotherhood''. He has also appeared in many films, often as an antagonist. His film r ...

) who, upon the restoration of her sight, begin to discover previously unseen and disturbing details about themselves and their marriage, released in 2016. In November 2016,

Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios unit ...

announced that Forster would direct the live-action film adaptation of

Winnie the Pooh Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear and Pooh, is a fictional Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne and English illustrator E. H. Shepard. The first collection of stories about the character w ...

, which was titled ''

''. The film had its world premiere on July 30, 2018, and was theatrically released on August 3, 2018. Forster along with

Will Smith Willard Carroll Smith II (born September 25, 1968), also known by his stage name The Fresh Prince, is an American actor and rapper. He began his Will Smith filmography, acting career starring as Will Smith (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), a ...

bought German rights group Telepool in June 2018. In October 2020,

Mattel Mattel, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational toy manufacturing and entertainment company founded in January 1945 and headquartered in El Segundo, California. The company has presence in 35 countries and territories and sells products in more ...

announced that Forster will be directing and producing an animated/live-action ''

Thomas & Friends ''Thomas & Friends'' (originally known as ''Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'' and later ''Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!'') is a British children's television series that aired across 24 series from 1984 to 2021. Based on ''The ...

'' film based on the franchise of the same name. In January 2022, it was announced that Forster would reunite with ''Finding Neverland'' screenwriter

David Magee David Magee (born 1962) is an American screenwriter who was nominated for a 2004 Academy Award and a Golden Globe for '' Finding Neverland''. Along with Simon Beaufoy, he wrote the screenplay for ''Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day'' starring Franc ...

and direct ''

A Man Called Otto ''A Man Called Otto'' is a 2022 comedy-drama film directed by Marc Forster from a screenplay by David Magee. It is the second film adaptation of the 2012 novel ''A Man Called Ove (novel), A Man Called Ove'' by Fredrik Backman, and an American r ...

'', an English-language remake of the Swedish film '' A Man Called Ove'' starring

Tom Hanks Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...

. Filming began in February 2022 in Pittsburgh, while

Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio Conglomerate (company), conglom ...

acquired the worldwide distribution rights for $60 million at the

European Film Market The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...

, the highest-ever figure paid at the market for a film, for theatrical release in December 2022. In July, Forster was announced as directing an adaptation of the Neil Gaiman fantasy novel ''

The Graveyard Book ''The Graveyard Book'' is a young adult novel by the English author Neil Gaiman, simultaneously published in Britain and America in 2008. ''The Graveyard Book'' traces the story of the boy Nobody "Bod" Owens who is adopted and reared by the s ...

'' for

Filmography

Films

Producer * ''Sueño'' (2005) Executive producer * '' Disconnect'' (2012) * ''

Come Sunday "Come Sunday" is a piece by Duke Ellington, which became a jazz standard. It was written in 1942 as a part of the first movement of a suite entitled ''Black, Brown and Beige''. Ellington was engaged for a performance at Carnegie Hall on Januar ...

'' (2018) * ''

My Dog Stupid ''My Dog Stupid'' (french: Mon chien Stupide) is a 2019 French comedy film directed by Yvan Attal and starring Attal and Charlotte Gainsbourg. The screenplay, written by Attal, Dean Craig and Yaël Langmann, is based on the short story of the sa ...

'' (2019)

Short films

Television

Awards

References

External links

* *
"Straight on Till Morning"
Marc Forster interviewed at AlterNet. {{DEFAULTSORT:Forster, Marc 1969 births Living people German expatriates in the United States German film directors German film producers German male writers German screenwriters German male screenwriters People from Illertissen Swiss expatriates in the United States Swiss-German people Swiss film directors Swiss film producers Swiss male writers Swiss screenwriters Male screenwriters Tisch School of the Arts alumni Writers from New York City