1. Robert Lee Zemeckis was born on May 14,1952 and is an American filmmaker known for directing and producing a range of successful and influential movies, often blending cutting-edge visual effects with storytelling.
37 Facts About Robert Zemeckis
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Robert Zemeckis has received several accolades including an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for five British Academy Film Awards and a Daytime Emmy Award.
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Robert Zemeckis gained prominence directing the science-fiction comedy Back to the Future trilogy, the fantasy comedy Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and the comedy-drama Forrest Gump, the latter of which won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director.
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Robert Zemeckis has directed the satirical black comedy Death Becomes Her, the science fiction film Contact, and the drama films Cast Away, Flight, The Walk, and Allied.
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Robert Zemeckis has collaborated with film composer Alan Silvestri since 1984, and directed Tom Hanks in five films.
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Robert Lee Zemeckis was born on May 14,1952, in Chicago, the son of Rosa and Alphonse Zemeckis.
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Robert Zemeckis's father was Lithuanian-American while his mother was Italian-American.
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Robert Zemeckis's father's parents, Kazimieras Zemeckas and Marijona Dantaite-Zemeckiene, were born in Lithuania and later emigrated to the United States.
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Robert Zemeckis grew up on the South Side of the city in a working class family.
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Robert Zemeckis attended a Catholic grade school and Fenger Academy High School.
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Robert Zemeckis first attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, and gained early experience in film as a film cutter for NBC News in Chicago during a summer break.
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Robert Zemeckis applied to transfer from NIU to the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts in Los Angeles, California, and went into the Film School on the strength of an essay and a music video based on The Beatles song.
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Not having heard from the university itself, Robert Zemeckis called and was told he had been rejected because of his average grades.
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Robert Zemeckis gave an "impassioned plea" to the official on the other line, promising to go to summer school and improve his studies, and eventually convinced the school to accept him.
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Robert Zemeckis remembered not being much fazed by this, citing the "healthy cynicism" that had been bred into him from his Chicago upbringing.
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At USC Robert Zemeckis met a fellow student, writer Bob Gale.
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In 1992, Robert Zemeckis directed the black comedy Death Becomes Her, starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, and Bruce Willis.
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In 1997, Robert Zemeckis directed Contact, a long-gestating project based on Carl Sagan's 1985 novel of the same name.
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In 1996, Robert Zemeckis had begun developing a project titled The Castaway with Tom Hanks and writer William Broyles Jr.
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Robert Zemeckis shot the first part of Cast Away in early 1999, and shot What Lies Beneath in fall 1999, completing work on the former in early 2000.
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The company, ImageMovers Digital, created films using the motion capture technology, with Robert Zemeckis directing most of the projects which Disney distributed and marketed worldwide.
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Robert Zemeckis used the motion capture technology again in his film, Beowulf, to retell the Anglo-Saxon epic poem of the same name.
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In July 2007, Variety announced that Robert Zemeckis had written a screenplay for A Christmas Carol, based on Charles Dickens's 1843 short story of the same name, with plans to use motion capture and release it under the aegis of ImageMovers Digital.
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Robert Zemeckis wrote the script with Jim Carrey in mind, and Carrey agreed to play a multitude of roles in the film, including Ebenezer Scrooge as a young, middle-aged, and old man, and the three ghosts who haunt Scrooge.
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Robert Zemeckis is an avid supporter of 3-D Digital Cinema and has stated that since the 3-D presentations of Beowulf, all of his future films would be done in 3-D using digital motion capture.
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Robert Zemeckis has reportedly backed away from that statement and said that the decision to use 3-D will be on a film-by-film basis.
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The studio's final film, 2011's Robert Zemeckis-produced Mars Needs Moms, was the second-worst box office failure in history, with a net loss of roughly $130 million.
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Robert Zemeckis made his comeback to live-action filmmaking with Flight, a 2012 drama for Paramount, starring Denzel Washington.
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On October 18,2019, it was announced that Robert Zemeckis is in talks to direct Disney's live-action adaptation of Pinocchio.
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Robert Zemeckis was officially announced as the film's director and co-writer of the script in January 2020.
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The film was later released, as part of Disney+ Day on Disney+, on September 8,2022, to highly negative reviews from critics, nominated for six Razzies, including Worst Picture and Worst Director for Robert Zemeckis, losing to Blonde.
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Robert Zemeckis is known for his collaboration with composer Alan Silvestri, with whom he has worked since Romancing the Stone.
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Robert Zemeckis has said that, for a long time, he sacrificed his personal life in favor of a career.
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Robert Zemeckis described the marriage as difficult to balance with filmmaking, and his relationship with Trainor eventually ended in divorce.
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Robert Zemeckis owns a villa in the Tuscany region of Italy, which is within the ruins of a 10th-century castle and is dedicated for summer vacations.
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In 2013, Robert Zemeckis visited his father's parents home country Lithuania and its capital city Vilnius.