Jan de Bont (; born 22 October 1943) is a Dutch retired film director, producer, and a former cinematographer.
As director, he's best known for action and adventure films like Speed (1994) and Twister (1996). As cinematographer, he is known for blockbusters and genre films like Die Hard (1988), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Lethal Weapon 3 (1992), and Basic Instinct (1992).
Early life De Bont was born to a Roman Catholic family in Eindhoven, Netherlands, one of 17 children.
Career Cinematographer His earliest works were made while studying at the Amsterdam Film Academy with Dutch avant-garde director Adriaan Ditvoorst.
He first became known in the Netherlands as the cinematographer for the infamous Blue Movie in 1971, followed by the Turkish Delight (1973), directed by Paul Verhoeven.
After Max Havelaar, he worked frequently in American films during the 1980s.
While serving as cinematographer for the 1981 film Roar, de Bont was one of the many crew members to suffer on-set injuries, with a lion lifting his scalp. The injury required 220 stitches.
In 1988, he was director of photography on the critically acclaimed action film Die Hard.
Director De Bont made his directorial debut with the sleeper hit action thriller Speed. He followed this up with the even more successful Twister in 1996.
His output since has had mixed reception. In 1997, he returned to direct Speeds sequel Cruise Control, which fared much worse both critically and commercially. In 1999, he oversaw the commercially successful remake of The Haunting, which also received negative reviews from critics.
De Bont's final directorial outing was the 2003 action adventure film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life, sequel to the 2001 film.
Unrealised projects De Bont began pre-production on an American Godzilla film for a summer 1996 release, but quit at the end of 1994 when Sony Pictures Entertainment (Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures's parent company) refused to approve his budget request. He was eventually replaced by Roland Emmerich, who rewrote the script in addition to directing. While critically panned, Emmerich's Godzilla was moderately successful at the box-office.
At one point, de Bont mooted an asteroid/space shuttle disaster film project called Galileo's Wake as a possible follow-up to Speed 2: Cruise Control.
In 1997, de Bont was originally attached to direct the film Minority Report, which Steven Spielberg would end up directing instead. Also that year, de Bont was attached to direct Supertanker at Centropolis Entertainment. Bill Pullman and Samuel L. Jackson were set to star to the film. In May that same year it was reported the 20th Century Fox thriller film Zero Hour would be his next film; though he would drop out by the end of the year.
In February 1998, Fox optioned the rights to Gregory Benford's sci-fi novel Cosm for de Bont's Blue Tulip Productions to produce as a feature film, with Robert Collins attached as script writer. In March he was developing to produce and direct the action film Pathfinder for Paramount Pictures. By September, he was confirmed to additionally direct Cosm. Other projects touted as potential directing vehicles for de Bont that year included the Tazio Nuvolari biopic Nuvolari, the time travel thriller Old City, and the thriller Hindenberg.
In 1999 it was announced that he would direct The Adaptive Ultimate for Fox, with Nicole Kidman attached to star but her schedule was too busy to commit at the time.
In January 2000, it was reported that de Bont would take on Dust as his next film, which would have been based upon the novel of the same name by Charles Pellegrino. De Bont planned to develop the script with his production partner Lucas Foster under his company label, Blue Tulip, based on an adaptation already written by Ted Humphrey. Peter Dowling, Patrick Massett and John Zinman also worked on the script.
In June 2000, de Bont was considering directing either Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat, Food, LAX, or The 28th Amendment as his next film. None of the projects were produced, though the latter was reportedly further developed with Artists Production Group for Warner Bros.
More recently, de Bont was attached as the director of an early version of The Meg, the Dracula sequel The Undead, the John Cusack action thriller vehicle Stopping Power, the Point Break sequel Indo, the live action Mulan, which would have starred Zhang Ziyi, as well as a proposed remake of the Johnny Cash film Five Minutes to Live written by Raul Inglis.
De Bont's passion project, a film titled Riders in the Sky, about Indian tribes in the Midwest has been stuck in development hell for many years. "It was a beautiful story, very imaginative," said de Bont. The project went as far as locations having already been scouted and the sets designed before being cancelled.
Filmography Year Title Director Producer Notes1994Speed1996Twister1997Speed 2: Cruise ControlAlso story writer1998SLC Punk!1999The Haunting2002EquilibriumMinority Report 2003 Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life Thoughtcrimes Television film 2012 The Paperboy
Cinematographer credits Short film Year Title Director Notes1966 Ik kom wat later naar Madra Adriaan Ditvoorst With Jaap de Jonge Body and Soul Rene Daalder Documentary short 1969 Carna Adriaan Ditvoorst With Theo van de Sande and Piotr van Dijk
Feature film Year Title Director Notes 1966 De minder gelukkige terugkeer vanJoszef Katus naar het land van Rembrandt Wim Verstappen With Wim van der Linden 1967 Paranoia Adriaan Ditvoorst1969 De blanke slavin Rene Daalder With Oliver Wood Drop OutWim Verstappen With Frans Bromet and Theo van de Sande1971Blue Movie With Werner Leckebusch Business Is Business Paul Verhoeven1972 João and the Knife George Sluizer Kapsalon Frans Rasker1973 Turkish Delight Paul Verhoeven The Family Lodewijk de Boer De blinde fotograaf Adriaan Ditvoorst 1974 Dakota Wim Verstappen With Theo van de Sande1975 Keetje Tippel Paul Verhoeven De laatste trein Erik van Zuylen 1976 Max Havelaar Fons Rademakers 1978 Formula 1 - Febbre della velocità Ottavio FabbriMario MorraOscar OreficiPietro Rizzo Uncredited1981 Private Lessons Alan Myerson Night Warning William Asher Uncredited Roar Noel Marshall Also supervising editor1982 I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can Jack Hofsiss Breach of Contract Andre R. Guttfreund1983 The Fourth Man Paul Verhoeven Cujo Lewis Teague All the Right Moves Michael Chapman1984 Bad Manners Robert Houston American Dreamer Rick Rosenthal With Giuseppe Rotunno1985 Flesh & Blood Paul VerhoevenThe Jewel of the NileLewis Teague1986 The Clan of the Cave Bear Michael Chapman Ruthless People Jim AbrahamsDavid ZuckerJerry Zucker1987 Who's That Girl James Foley Leonard Part 6 Paul Weiland 1988 Die Hard John McTiernan1989 Bert Rigby, You're a Fool Carl Reiner Black Rain Ridley Scott1990 The Hunt for Red October John McTiernan Flatliners Joel Schumacher1992 Shining Through David Seltzer Basic Instinct Paul Verhoeven Lethal Weapon 3 Richard Donner Also made an uncredited cameo as "Dutch Cameraman" 2012 Nema aviona za Zagreb Louis van Gasteren Filmed during the 1960s
TV movies Year Title Director Notes 1966 Bah, September Ruud van Hemert 1973 51 minuten Ko van Dijk Paul HaenenGied Jaspars Uncredited 1985 Heart of a Champion: The Ray Mancini Story Richard Michaels 1990 Parker Kane Steve Perry
TV series Year Title Director Episode 1969 Swing In Wim van der Linden "Jethro Tull" 1992 Tales from the Crypt Joel Silver "Split Personality"
Accolades + Year Award Category Title Result 1995 Saturn Awards Best Director Speed 1997 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards Worst Sense of Direction (Stop them before they direct again!) Speed 2: Cruise Control 1999 The Haunting 1998 Golden Raspberry Awards Worst Picture Speed 2: Cruise Control Worst Director Worst Screenplay 2000 Worst Director The Haunting
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