The Hollywood community is reacting to the reported death of film director Michael Cimino Saturday.
Director William Friedkin was among those tweeting their respects after Variety, citing a tweet from the director of the Cannes Film Festival, reported that the Oscar-winning director of “The Deer Hunter” and “Heaven’s Gate” has died at the age of 77.
Cimino’s death has not been officially verified.
“I wish I had paid tribute to Michael Cimino while he was alive. He was an important and masterful film maker. We will always have his work,” tweeted Friedkin, director of the landmark 1970s films “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist.”
Thierry Fremaux, director of the famous French film festival, broke the news with this tweet: “Michael Cimino has died, in peace, surrounded by friends and the two women who love him. We love him too.”
Cimino will be remembered for two late-’70s films that met with drastically opposite receptions. His 1978 Vietnam War drama “The Deer Hunter” was an unqualified triumph, winning Cimino the Best Picture and Best Director awards at the following year’s Oscars.
Flush with the success of that film, Cimino set off to make the epic western morality tale “Heaven’s Gate.” Released in 1980 by United Artists, the film was a notorious box office bomb that is credited by many with helping to bring down the studio. Cimino became the poster boy for what some perceived as Hollywood’s runaway production budgets and excessive deference to the young directors of the 1970s.
—City News Service