Marcus Nispel

Marcus Nispel is a German film director and producer, best known for several high-profile American remakes such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He has also directed various television commercials and music videos, including C+C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" and "Things That Make You Go Hmmm...", Janet Jackson's "Runaway", Fugees' "Ready or Not", and Spice Girls' "Spice Up Your Life".

WWW Official Site

Early life and career

Nispel was born on 26 May 1963 in Frankfurt. He grew up near McNair Barracks and was able to learn English from hanging out with children of soldiers. At the age of 15, he got a job at a boutique called Hessler and Kehrer. When he had his first interview at an American ad agency, he was asked what do Oreos mean, and he realized the importance of understanding American culture, and how working in advertising helped him understand that. He received a Fulbright Scholarship at the age of 20 and attended Brooklyn College and New York Institute of Technology. He was also an art director for Young & Rubicam. He started a production company, Portfolio Artists Network which later merged with RSA Black Dog Films to form Portfolio/Black Dog. He worked at RSA as a commercial director for several years, resigning in 2000.

Feature career

Nispel was set to make his feature directorial debut with End of Days, but stepped down before shooting due to issues with the budget. In 2002, Nispel signed on to direct The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He was initially opposed to remaking the film, but Daniel Pearl, the cinematographer for the original film and regular collaborator with Nispel, convinced him to direct. The film was released on October 17, 2003 to negative reviews but was financially successful, grossing $107 million worldwide.
Throughout the 2000s and into the 2010s, Nispel would direct several more remakes of prominent genre films, such as Friday the 13th and Conan the Barbarian. In 2015, Nispel directed the ghost exorcism film Exeter, formerly titled Backmask.

Unrealized projects

The 59-Story Crisis, a film about the Citicorp Center engineering crisis for Interscope Communications.
S.W.A.T.
Full Contact, a remake of the Hong Kong film for New Line Cinema.
End of Days
The Expendables, an action film written by Scott Marshall Smith and Scott Rosenberg for Warner Bros. Pictures.
Need, a psychological thriller starring Diane Lane for Paramount Pictures and Escape Artists. He picked the film as he wanted something 'diametrically opposed to TCM'.
Alice, a film adaptation of American McGee's Alice for Universal Pictures.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter
Hack/Slash, a film adaptation of the horror-action comic book for Relativity Media.
Stowaway, a seafaring horror-thriller based on a story by Nispel.

Personal life

He is married to singer/songwriter/commercial editor Dyan Humes-Nispel who has written songs for various artists including Whitney Houston. They have two children.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Notes
2003	The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
2004	Frankenstein			TV movie
2007	Pathfinder
2009	Friday the 13th
2011	Conan the Barbarian
2015	Exeter			Also story writer