http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_16584861?source=rss&nclick_check=1
LOS ANGELES -- Dino De Laurentiis, one of the last great, intrepid film producers who with unmatched showmanship shepherded movies as varied as "La Strada" and "Barbarella," has died. He was 91.
De Laurentiis helped build the Italian film industry during the heyday of its "new wave," oversaw seminal American films such as "Serpico" and "Blue Velvet," and pursued blockbusters in flops like "Dune" and critical fiascos such as the 1976 remake of "King Kong," which nearly ended the career of a young Jessica Lange.
In producing more than 500 wide-ranging films over six decades, he presided over an incredible mix of high and low. That the same filmmaker could be involved with Federico Fellini's "Nights of Cabiria" and Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Conan the Barbarian" would seem to contradict normal understanding of taste. Instead, he was irrevocably drawn to the spectacle of the movies.
An entrepreneur, De Laurentiis pioneered the way films were sold internationally -- and he did it all in grand style. The sprawling studio complex he built on the outskirts of Rome he dubbed Dinocitta (Dino City).
"The extraordinary thing that Dino taught all of us is the true figure of the independent producer," De Laurentiis' nephew, Aurelio De Laurentiis, a noted Italian film producer, said Thursday. "He always behaved in the U.S. as a major studio, even though he was a one-man show.
