Producer Martha De Laurentiis has died at the age of 67. She passed away at her home after a battle with brain cancer.
De Laurentiis was the wife of late producer Dino De Laurentiis, with whom she had two daughters, and was a producing force in her own right with movies including Ridley Scott’s “Hannibal,” Brett Ratner’s “Red Dragon,” Jonathan Mostow’s “Breakdown” and “U-571,” and more recently Joe Penna’s “Arctic”.
However she’s arguably best known for her work alongside Bryan Fuller as executive producer of NBC’s acclaimed “Hannibal” series starring Mads Mikkelsen and Hugh Dancy.
Born Martha Schumacher, she worked at Dino De Laurentiis Communications as an assistant production accountant before moving into production itself with her first credit being the 1984 adaptation of Stephen King’s “Firestarter”. That work ended upcoming full circle as her last screen credit will be as an executive producer on next year’s “Firestarter” remake.
It was hardly her last King credit either as she was involved in the film adaptations of “Cat’s Eye,” “Silver Bullet” and “Maximum Overdrive”. Other screen credits include “Desperate Hours,” “King Kong Lives,” “Raw Deal,” “Virgin Territory” and “The Last Legion”.
Source: Variety
