114 Facts About Michael Cimino

Notorious for his obsessive attention to detail and determination for perfection, Cimino achieved widespread fame with The Deer Hunter, which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.

The accolades received for co-writing, directing, and producing The Deer Hunter led to Michael Cimino receiving creative control of Heaven's Gate.

Michael Cimino made only four subsequent films and grew infamous for the number of projects left unfinished due to his uncompromising artistry.

In 2002, Michael Cimino claimed he had written at least 50 scripts overall.

Michael Cimino publicly shared few details of his early life and family background and is believed to have given false birth year information.

Michael Cimino was regarded as a prodigy in early private education, but rebelled as an adolescent by consorting with delinquents, getting into fights, and coming home drunk.

Michael Cimino was convinced she was cheating on him, and he had a gun, he was going to kill her.

Michael Cimino was a bit like a Vanderbilt or a Whitney, one of those guys.

Michael Cimino was the life of the party, women loved him, a real womanizer.

Michael Cimino entered Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan.

At Michigan State, Michael Cimino majored in graphic arts, was a member of a weightlifting club, and participated in a group that welcomed incoming students.

Michael Cimino graduated in 1959 with honors and won the Harry Suffrin Advertising Award.

Michael Cimino thoroughly restyled the Spartan's derivative Punch look, designing a number of its strikingly handsome covers himself.

The Michael Cimino-designed covers are bold and strong, with a sure sense of space and design.

At Yale, Michael Cimino continued to study painting as well as architecture and art history and became involved in school dramatics.

Michael Cimino trained for five months at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and had a month of medical training in Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

Michael Cimino graduated from Yale University, receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1961 and his Master of Fine Arts in 1963, both in painting.

Michael Cimino directed ads for L'eggs hosiery, Kool cigarettes, Pepsi, Canada Dry and Maxwell House coffee, among others.

Michael Cimino apparently shot close to eight thousand feet of film, which was whittled down to 2 minutes.

At the height of his commercial career, Michael Cimino met Joann Carelli, then a commercial director representative, and the two began to date.

Thomas McGrath and Michael Cimino co-wrote two scripts together, Paradise and Kef.

Shortly after the project was cancelled, Gruskoff assigned Michael Cimino to help draft the script for a story outline by Douglas Trumbull for his science fiction film Silent Running, and he brought aboard Deric Washburn to help.

Michael Cimino, who had never written on his own, began by writing stories about people he knew about.

Michael Cimino gained representation from Stan Kamen of the William Morris Agency, who urged him to make it a contemporary story.

Michael Cimino told him that it wasn't for sale, and that he would have to direct the film or else there was no deal.

When Magnum Force was in production, Michael Cimino was looking at various locations in Montana and preparing for Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.

Michael Cimino went on to say that this guy, Lightfoot, was no one other than me, that I couldn't make a mistake, or a false move, even if I wanted to.

Michael Cimino had since compared their chemistry in the film to that of Laurel and Hardy.

Michael Cimino was careful to make Eastwood happy by keeping things moving quickly and efficiently.

Michael Cimino sent his script to Elliott Kastner, who was going to produce, and his first choice to play the character of Howard Rourk was Clint Eastwood.

Michael Cimino then worked for a year and a half at Paramount Pictures on a film from his original screenplay Perfect Strangers.

Michael Cimino conceived the film's story with producer Marvin Worth and collaborated on the script in association with Oscar-winning screenwriter Bo Goldman.

Michael Cimino saw the mobster as Gatsby; to him, he had a vision of America.

Since he had to spend the next several months prepping for the film and scouting for locations, Michael Cimino brought in Deric Washburn to help him write the film's script.

When Michael Cimino returned, he was shocked with what he read, recalling that he felt it was written by someone who was "mentally deranged".

Roy Scheider was initially considered for the lead role, but after he dropped out, Michael Cimino took the script to Robert De Niro, who insisted that he accompany him for the location scouting.

Michael Cimino specifically requested that wild deer be used, which they had to ship from a special game preserve in New Jersey.

Once there, Michael Cimino advised De Niro, Walken and Savage that they sleep in their uniforms and never take them off, wet or dry, for the entire month.

Michael Cimino's chosen length came in at almost three and a half hours.

The day after the Academy Awards, Michael Cimino flew up to Kalispell, Montana to begin shooting his Western epic Heaven's Gate, where it had been in pre-production for several months; finding locations, casting five hundred extras and building complicated sets.

The origins of the project dated back to a script Michael Cimino had written earlier in the '70s titled The Johnson County War, based on a rare bit of history he stumbled across when researching the development of barbed wire and its use in the American West.

Michael Cimino gave UA the initial budget estimation of $7.8 million, even though the period detail required for the film was astronomical.

Ironically, a few years later, Michael Cimino would be the first director approached to take over for Lean on the out-of-control production of The Bounty.

Michael Cimino was intent on "painstakingly constructing his film according to photographs from the time" and immersing the audience into the world created in the film:.

Michael Cimino intended to follow up Heaven's Gate with Conquering Horse through his two-picture deal with United Artists, but was never realized after its failure.

Michael Cimino's version was to have starred Meryl Streep and Orson Welles.

The film was scheduled to be released in 1982, alongside a slate of films including Table for Five Michael Cimino's never went into production, just as with several of the other reported projects.

Michael Cimino allegedly proposed his Frank Costello biopic, then retitled Proud Dreamer, to CBS with Robert De Niro in mind to star, but his script was rejected due to the project's budget.

In early September 1982, Michael Cimino approached short story writer Raymond Carver and his wife Tess Gallagher to rework a screenplay based on the life of Fyodor Dostoevsky, in hopes that he would direct it.

Michael Cimino was impressed with the results, but Ponti returned to Europe shortly thereafter, halting further development.

Producer Daniel Melnick warned him that if the film went over its budget of $7.5 million, Michael Cimino would have to cover the expenses himself and he agreed.

Michael Cimino's proposed reimagination of the film, "a John Steinbeck inspired musical-comedy" set during the Great Depression, was to have followed a rich girl from Houston who falls in love with a dancer from a shanty town.

Michael Cimino apparently tried to revive his Fountainhead adaptation again, even attracting the interest of Barbra Streisand for the role of Dominique Francon.

Michael Cimino wanted to finesse its screenplay with some rewriting and restructuring, which would have taken beyond the mandated start date for shooting.

In 1975, Michael Cimino had been brought on board to direct the film and visited the Tour for the first time, for research.

Michael Cimino said that production was long controlled by Foreman, who died in June 1984.

Michael Cimino accepted under the conditions that the book be nothing more than a point of departure, that he keep the freedom to tell the story his way and to change characters, and De Laurentiis agreed.

Since the project already had a set start date for shooting, Michael Cimino enlisted the help of Oliver Stone in writing the screenplay.

Michael Cimino eventually settled on Mickey Rourke after collaborating with him briefly on the production of The Pope of Greenwich Village, as well as Heaven's Gate several years prior.

Confident that he'd deliver on time and within budget, Michael Cimino had a wager going with De Laurentiis that if he didn't go over budget, he would get the luxurious Mercedes that John Lone's character drove in the film.

In 1986, Michael Cimino accepted the deal to direct the adaptation of the best-selling Mario Puzo novel The Sicilian, after Dino De Laurentiis cancelled the production of Hand Carved Coffins.

At the time Cimino boarded the project, it initially had Michael Corleone set up as a character, but due to rights issues, all Godfather references were removed.

Feeney, Michael Cimino's first casting choice for Salvatore Giuliano was Daniel Day-Lewis, but since he was relatively unknown at the time, the producers suggested Christopher Lambert, whom Michael Cimino accepted because his name guaranteed financing.

When Gladden tried to re-edit the film, Michael Cimino filed a lawsuit to stop them.

Michael Cimino's contract granted him final cut privilege as well as two test screenings of his longer version, which he was never given.

Feeney, who saw Michael Cimino's director's cut, released only in France.

In 1987, before the release of The Sicilian, Cimino began work on an epic saga chronicling the life of the Irish patriot Michael Collins, based on a screenplay by Eoghan Harris.

Michael Cimino began scouting for locations in Edinburgh, Liverpool and in Ireland.

Michael Cimino's representative added that the film was "about the San Fernando Valley and the friendship between two guys" and "more intimate" than Michael Cimino's previous big-budget work like Heaven's Gate and the then unreleased The Sicilian.

Michael Cimino finished out his picture deal with Dino De Laurentiis in 1989 when Mickey Rourke suggested he direct the remake of the 1955 home invasion thriller The Desperate Hours.

The interior house from the film, which was designed by Michael Cimino, was built at the Ventura Entertainment Center in Orem, Utah, with fully constructed rooms in order to create a look and feel of claustrophobia.

Michael Cimino's original cut apparently lasted over two and half hours.

In 1991, Michael Cimino participated in that year's Avoriaz Fantasy Film Festival, where he served as jury president and awarded director John Harrison with the Grand Prix for his film Tales from the Darkside: The Movie.

The Washington Post reported that Michael Cimino had developed the project at Paramount.

Michael Cimino later resurrected the script and was able to publish it in France as a short novel.

Michael Cimino was arrogant, and I don't know that he ever gave it up.

In 1995, Michael Cimino was approached by Regency producer Arnon Milchan to helm The Sunchaser, which would ultimately become Michael Cimino's last feature-length film.

Michael Cimino was to follow the film up with An American Dream in 1997, about the first Asian immigrant to join Al Capone's mob.

That same year, Michael Cimino was reported to direct The Dreaming Place for Trimark Pictures.

In July 1997, Michael Cimino served as president of the international competition jury at the 42nd annual Taormina Film Fest.

That year, Michael Cimino was in Brazil to choose sets and scout locations, which included Porto Seguro and Portugal.

Michael Cimino claimed that an exact replica of Cabral's flagship had been constructed for the production.

Michael Cimino later tried seeking interest from US publishers, to no avail.

Michael Cimino first appeared with the screenplay treatment, at that year's Venice Film Festival, where he conducted a staged reading from the piece and proclaimed that the next time he would return with a film made from the story.

Michael Cimino was then honored at Deauville, where he received the Prix litteraire Lucien-Barriere, an award that previously went to Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal.

In what would be his last interview in March 2015, Michael Cimino had said he still hoped to make the film someday.

Michael Cimino was attached to produce the independent film The Silk Curtain about Empress Dowager Cixi, who ruled China for 47 years until 1908.

In 2003, Michael Cimino published his second novel, a two-volume work; the first a partially fictitious memoir called Conversations en miroir which he co-authored with Francesca Pollock, and the other a short story called A Hundred Oceans.

The latter of the two Michael Cimino adapted from his pre-existing feature-length screenplay Heaven Is a Sometime Thing.

Michael Cimino began writing it as early as 1997, and it still to this day, remains unpublished.

In 2004, after Terrence Malick exited as director of the Che Guevara biopic, Michael Cimino apparently pitched himself to direct it.

In 2007, Michael Cimino was asked by Cannes director Thierry Fremaux to contribute a 3-minute short segment for the collective film To Each His Own Cinema, celebrating the 60th year of the Cannes Film Festival.

Michael Cimino's segment depicts a cigar-smoking French filmmaker who films a Cuban pop star's music video in a movie theater.

Michael Cimino wanted Taylor Swift to play one of leads, but since she was unknown at the time, Maraval passed on it.

At the persistence of Joann Carelli, Michael Cimino meticulously supervised a restoration of Heaven's Gate frame-by-frame, for The Criterion Collection, where he restored the original film's color.

Michael Cimino said, while at first hesitant to revisit the film, that his instincts quickly took over:.

Michael Cimino was deeply moved by the positive reception at the film's re-release, "All of those years, I felt like Heaven's Gate was a beautiful, fantastically colored balloon tied to a string fastened to my wrist, so the balloon could never fly," he said.

Michael Cimino was confirmed dead on July 2,2016, at age 77, at his home in Beverly Hills, California.

Michael Cimino took deliberate care to mend fences with as many people as he could in the last year of his life, and with me that last day he was more reflective than I'd ever known him to be about his early life.

Michael Cimino was full of amused memories centered on his dad's fierce perfectionism.

Michael Cimino's work has been lauded by such filmmakers as Stanley Kubrick, Agnes Varda, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Milos Forman, Spike Lee, Olivier Assayas, Greta Gerwig, Steven Soderbergh, Brett Ratner, David Gordon Green, James Gray and Quentin Tarantino.

Michael Cimino was in a very precise past and therefore a bit in a fantasy.

Joann Carelli and her daughter Calantha Mansfield have been the proprietors of Michael Cimino's legacy following his death.

At some point between the releases Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and The Deer Hunter, Michael Cimino attempted to write an adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.

In 1976, Michael Cimino met Oliver Stone who offered him the chance to direct his script adaptation of Midnight Express, which he loved.

Michael Cimino declined however, as he was already doing extensive pre-production work for The Deer Hunter, but the two remained in touch and would collaborate on several other projects.

At that time, Michael Cimino was eager to make another film about Vietnam and the stories of returning veterans, even going as far as to offer to work for free.

Sometime after Michael Cimino finished post-production work on The Deer Hunter, he gave a "unique pitch" to direct The Empire Strikes Back.

However, following the disastrous reception of Heaven's Gate in New York and Hollywood, a spokesman with Stigwood claimed that Michael Cimino had never been involved with Evita at any capacity and that they "planned to seek a retraction from Time magazine," which had listed him as the film's director.

Michael Cimino moved on after the project fell through with De Laurentiis at MGM, and from there the script was passed to John Daly and released in 1986.

Around the same time he was doing Year of the Dragon for Dino De Laurentiis, Michael Cimino had a deal to direct a biopic at Embassy Pictures based on the William Kennedy novel Legs.

Michael Cimino's films have been noted for their controversial subject matter and striking visual style.

Michael Cimino's films are slowly paced, focusing less on story and more on characters, allowing the viewer to observe their nuances and the setting.

Michael Cimino developed a reputation for giving exaggerated stories about himself, his background, and his filmmaking experiences.