Marc Forster
Born	1969 Ulm, Germany
Years active	1995 - present

Marc Forster (born 1969 in Ulm, Germany) is a Swiss film director and screenwriter.

Life and career

He was born the son of a Swiss doctor and a German architect and grew up in Davos, a winter resort in eastern Switzerland. Although he was born in Germany, he considers himself Swiss. The first film he saw in a cinema was Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola, when he was 12. He was so excited about it, that from that time on he didn't hesitate when asked about his dream job: "Director".

In 1990, when he was 20 years old, Forster moved to New York. For the next three years, he attended New York University's film school, making several documentary films. In 1995, he moved to Hollywood and shot an experimental low budget film ($10,000) called Loungers, which won the Slamdance Audience Award. Forster's first motion picture was the psychological drama Everything Put Together, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

His breakthrough film was Monster's Ball (2001), in which he directed Halle Berry in her Academy Award-winning performance as the wife of a man on death row. His next film, Finding Neverland (2004), was based on the life of author J.M. Barrie. The film was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards and seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Forster received BAFTA, Directors Guild of America, and Golden Globe nominations for his direction.

The thriller Stay (2005) was poorly received by critics, despite a complex visual style and an experienced cast, which included Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts. [1] The film grossed a scant $4 million (USD) in the United States. [2] Stranger than Fiction (2006), a surreal romantic comedy starring Will Ferrell, was a modest success at the box office, earning approximately $40 million off a $30 million budget. [3]

Forster's next film is an adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, scripted by repeat collaborator David Benioff and starring British newcomer Khalid Abdalla. The film follows an Afghani-American man who returns to his war-ravaged country to save the son of his former best friend. Its release is scheduled for November 2, 2007.

The director has also signed onto the next James Bond film, under the working title Bond 22. Though pre-production has just begun, it is scheduled for release on November 7, 2008. [4]

In 2009, Forster may direct Land of Roses, about a Kurdish immigrant who was wrongfully imprisoned as a terrorist by the Department of Homeland Security. [5]

Humanitarian efforts

Marc Forster was, together with Renée Zellweger, part of the 2005 HIV prevention campaign of the Swiss federal health department. He's shown smiling and making the V sign with his hand and the text "Don't take semen or blood into the mouth" and "Penetrate only with preservatives". [1]

Selected filmography

• Bond 22 (2008)
• The Kite Runner (2007)
• Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
• Stay (2005)
• Finding Neverland (2004)
• Monster's Ball (2001)
• Everything Put Together (2000)

self:

• "Von Davos nach Hollywood" (2005) documentary

Notes

External links

• Marc Forster at the Internet Movie Database
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910565/