Robert Zemeckis Filmography

Born:: May 14, 1952 in Chicago, IL
Occupation:: Director, Executive Producer, Producer, Screenwriter
Biography:: American director Robert Zemeckis studied filmmaking at Northern Illinois University, and then got his start with a job with the film editing department at WMAQ-TV, Chicago's NBC flagship station. After commercial work, Zemeckis and his friend and collaborator, Bob Gale, became assistants to Steven Spielberg...Read More

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Airman

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: Monster House's producer Robert Zemeckis and director Gil Kenan collaborate once again on this adaptation of Eoin Colfer's children's novel centering on a young man's escape from a prison island through the power of a flight machine. The picture will utilize the motion-capture process, wherein Read More

1/1/10
A Christmas Carol

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Jim Carrey, Robin Wright Penn, Bob Hoskins, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth

Synopsis: Writer/director Robert Zemeckis adapts Charles Dickens' classic holiday tale A Christmas Carol as a star vehicle for Jim Carrey in this performance capture/Disney Digital 3-D animated film for all ages. Carrey will not only take on the role of Ebenezer Scrooge, but all of the three ghosts who come Read More

11/6/09
Calling All Robots

Crew: Producer

Synopsis: Superman Returns' screenwriter Michael Dougherty helms this animated adventure he penned with Breehn Burns and Simeon Wilkins that hearkens back to the days of Godzilla-type monster mayhem, this time with more of a sci-fi spin. The Walt Disney/ImageMovers co-production is set to be filmed via Read More

2009
Beowulf

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, Brendan Gleeson

Synopsis: Inspired by the epic Old English poem of the same name, director Robert Zemeckis's digitally rendered film follows the Scandinavian hero Beowulf (Ray Winstone) as he fights to protect the Danes from a ferocious beast named Grendel (Crispin Glover). Though at first Grendel seems invincible, Beowulf Read More

11/16/07
The Reaping

Crew: Producer

Actors: Hilary Swank, David Morrissey, Idris Elba, AnnaSophia Robb, Stephen Rea

Synopsis: Her faith shaken by a family tragedy from which she was never quite able to fully recover, a professor of theology from Louisiana State University moonlighting as a debunker of unexplained religious phenomena finds herself faced with an apocalyptic series of events that seem to reflect the ten Read More

4/5/07
Monster House

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Steve Buscemi, Nick Cannon, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jon Heder, Kevin James

Synopsis: A suburban home has become physically animated by a vengeful human soul looking to stir up trouble from beyond the grave, and it's up to three adventurous kids from the neighborhood to do battle with the structural golem in this comically frightful tale, directed by Gil Kenan and featuring the Read More

7/21/06
Last Holiday

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, Timothy Hutton, Giancarlo Esposito, Alicia Witt

Synopsis: A woman learns to love life when she finds out she won't be around long in this comedy. Georgia Byrd (Queen Latifah) lives in New Orleans, where she works in the cookware department of an upscale gourmet supply shop. While Georgia carries a torch for Sean (LL Cool J), one of her co-workers, she Read More

1/13/06
The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

Crew: Producer

Actors: Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson, Laura Dern, Trevor Morgan, Ellary Porterfield

Synopsis: The true story of one woman's effort to keep her family afloat under difficult circumstances comes to the screen in this bittersweet comedy drama. Evelyn Ryan (Julianne Moore) was a woman of intelligence, talent, and pluck living in the small town of Defiance, OH, in the 1950s. Evelyn was married Read More

9/30/05
House of Wax

Crew: Producer

Actors: Elisha Cuthbert, Chad Michael Murray, Brian Van Holt, Paris Hilton, Jared Padalecki

Synopsis: A bunch of college students are stranded in a small town where suffering for art takes on a whole new meaning in this tale of terror. Carly (Elisha Cuthbert) and her boyfriend, Wade (Jared Padalecki), have hit the road with a handful of their friends to attend a championship college football game; Read More

5/6/05
Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters

Actors: George Clooney, Danny DeVito, Peter Bogdanovich, David Brown, Richard Dreyfuss

Synopsis: Take a walk on the fine line between box-office blockbusters and instantly forgettable bombs as Oscar and Emmy-winning producer/director Bill Couturie sets out to explore just what separates such high-profile hits as Jaws from such room-clearing disasters as Howard the Duck. Executive produced by Read More

2005
The Polar Express

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Eddie Deezen, Tom Hanks

Synopsis: Directed by Robert Zemeckis and based on children's author Chris Van Allsburg's modern holiday classic of the same name, The Polar Express revolves around Billy (Hayden McFarland), who longs to believe in Santa Claus but finds it quite difficult to do so, what with his family's dogged insistence Read More

11/10/04
Gothika

Crew: Producer

Actors: Halle Berry, Robert Downey, Jr., Charles S. Dutton, John Carroll Lynch, Bernard Hill, Penélope Cruz

Synopsis: A woman is taken on a voyage to the other side of sanity in this moody thriller. Dr. Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) is a clinical psychologist who works alongside her husband, Dr. Doug Grey (Charles S. Dutton), in the mental ward of a top security prison, where Miranda has been devoting much of her Read More

11/21/03
Matchstick Men

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Alison Lohman, Bruce Altman, Bruce McGill, Fran Kranz

Synopsis: Ridley Scott directs the crime comedy Matchstick Men, based on the novel of the same name by Eric Garcia. Neurotic con man Roy (Nicolas Cage) suffers from several emotional problems, including obsessive-compulsive disorder. He and his partner Frank (Sam Rockwell) swindle people out of money by Read More

9/12/03
Ghost Ship

Crew: Executive Producer, Producer

Actors: Julianna Margulies, Ron Eldard, Desmond Harrington, Isaiah Washington

Synopsis: A salvage team think they've made the find of a lifetime, until they discover there's more on board than meets the eye in this supernatural thriller. Led by Captain Sean Murphy (Gabriel Byrne), the crew of the tugboat Arctic Warrior have discovered a sideline far more lucrative than hauling Read More

10/25/02
13 Ghosts

Crew: Producer

Actors: Tony Shalhoub, Embeth Davidtz, Alec Roberts, Matthew Lillard, Shannon Elizabeth, Kathryn Anderson

Synopsis: This haunted house chiller is the second feature from Dark Castle Entertainment, the mid-budget outfit put together in 1999 to remake the cheesy horror genre pictures of William Castle by his daughter, Terry Castle, and producers Gilbert Adler, Robert Zemeckis, and Joel Silver. Financially ravaged Read More

10/26/01
Cast Away

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Chris Noth

Synopsis: An exploration of human survival and the ability of fate to alter even the tidiest of lives with one major event, Cast Away tells the story of Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks), a Federal Express engineer who devotes most of his life to his troubleshooting job. His girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt) is often Read More

12/22/00
What Lies Beneath

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Harrison Ford, Michelle Pfeiffer, Diana Scarwid, Miranda Otto, James Remar, Joe Morton

Synopsis: In this supernatural thriller, a woman believes that a visitor from another dimension is trying to guide her into a sinister mystery. Feeling lonely after her daughter leaves home for college, Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer) begins to sense that something is wrong in her house, and feels a spirit is Read More

7/21/00
House on Haunted Hill

Crew: Producer

Actors: Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen, Taye Diggs, Peter Gallagher, Chris Kattan

Synopsis: In this remake of William Castle's campy 1958 classic, an eccentric millionaire named Steven Price invites a diverse group of people to a reputedly haunted mansion that was formerly the site of an insane asylum. Steven offers his guests $1,000,000 each if they can spend the entire night at the old Read More

10/29/99
Contact

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, John Hurt, Tom Skerritt

Synopsis: The search for life outside our solar system becomes a personal and spiritual quest for a young researcher. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) is a scientist who lost her faith in God after her parents died when she was a child. However, Ellie has learned to develop a different sort of faith in the Read More

1997
Tales From the Crypt Presents Bordello of Blood

Crew: Executive Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Dennis Miller, Erika Eleniak, Angie Everhart, Chris Sarandon, Corey Feldman

Synopsis: In this satirical horror-comedy, a gumshoe investigates a combination TV ministry/whorehouse/vampire infestation. After bounty hunter Vincent (Phil Fondacaro) unearths the remains of Lilith, queen of the vampires, he restores the alluring creature to life and lords over her using a magical Read More

1996
The Frighteners

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, John Astin, Jeffrey Combs

Synopsis: Charlatan Frank Bannister (Michael J. Fox) has genuine psychic powers, but he doesn't use them to help people. Rather, he generates cases for his supernatural private-eye firm by harassing a group of hapless ghosts (including a dearly departed Wild West outlaw and an undead judge played by John Read More

1996
Tales From the Crypt: You, Murderer

Crew: Director

1995
First Works: A Revealing Look at Today's Greatest Directors, Vol. 1

Synopsis: This documentary examines the first films of some top Hollywood directors, featuring interviews with the filmmakers and clips of their early student films, as well as some of their blockbuster hits. The program explores how each director learned from early mistakes, and seeks to illuminate the Read More

1995
The Shadow

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Alec Baldwin, John Lone, Penelope Ann Miller, Peter Boyle, Ian McKellen

Synopsis: A crime fighter created in the 1930s and popularized in movies, pulp novels, and a radio show starring a young Orson Welles, The Shadow came back to life in 1994 in this slick, well-cast production. Alec Baldwin stars as Lamont Cranston, a murderous opium dealer reformed by a Tibetan mystic, who Read More

1994
Forrest Gump

Crew: Director

Actors: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright Penn, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, Sally Field

Synopsis: "Stupid is as stupid does," says Forrest Gump (played by Tom Hanks in an Oscar-winning performance) as he discusses his relative level of intelligence with a stranger while waiting for a bus. Despite his sub-normal IQ, Gump leads a truly charmed life, with a ringside seat for many of the most Read More

1994
Demon Knight

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Billy Zane, Bill Sadler, Jada Pinkett Smith, Brenda Bakke, CCH Pounder

Synopsis: This first theatrical feature spun off from the television series Tales from the Crypt (which was in turn inspired by the infamous EC horror comics of the 1950s) concerns a mysterious man named Brayker (Bill Sadler), who arrives at a church-turned-rooming house in a small town in New Mexico. Hot Read More

1994
Trespass

Crew: Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Bill Paxton, Ice-T, Bill Sadler, Ice Cube, Art Evans

Synopsis: Maverick director Walter Hill, who had a big hit with 48 Hrs., indulges his customary yen for violent and disturbing scenes in this overlooked action film, which was also released under the name Looters. Set in the economically-depressed town of East St. Louis, IL, the film's release was delayed Read More

12/25/92
The Public Eye

Crew: Producer

Actors: Joe Pesci, Barbara Hershey, Stanley Tucci, Jerry Adler, Jared Harris

Synopsis: Howard Franklin wrote and directed this film noir character study based on the famed New York Daily News photographer Weegee. Joe Pesci plays a character named Bernstein, a freelance photographer for the New York City tabloids of the 1940s. His life is dedicated to his work; with a police radio Read More

10/14/92
Death Becomes Her

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Meryl Streep, Bruce Willis, Goldie Hawn, Isabella Rossellini, Ian Ogilvy

Synopsis: High-concept director Robert Zemeckis applies his usual polish -- helped by an equally adept cast -- for this surprisingly gruesome and extremely funny black comedy. The film begins with narcissistic actress Madeline (Meryl Streep) stealing the latest in a series of potential fiancées, wimpy Read More

7/31/92
The Secrets of the Back to the Future Trilogy

1991
Tales From the Crypt: Yellow

Crew: Director

1991
Back to the Future Part III

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Mary Steenburgen, Thomas F. Wilson, Lea Thompson

Synopsis: The final installment in the Back to the Future trilogy picks up where the second film left off, but it casts off the dizzying time travel of the first two films for mostly routine comedy set in the Old West. Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) receives a 70-year-old letter from his inventor friend, Doc Read More

5/25/90
Back to the Future Part II

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Thomas F. Wilson, Harry Waters, Jr.

Synopsis: Things have barely settled from the excitement and resolve of the original Back to the Future, when in pops that crazy inventor Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) with news that in order to prevent a series of events that could ruin the McFly name for posterity, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox ) and Read More

11/22/89
Tales From the Crypt [TV Series]

Crew: Executive Producer

Synopsis: It isn't often that a popular TV series is inspired by a literary property that all but destroyed a particular industry, but such was the case with the weekly, half-hour horror anthology Tales From the Crypt. Most of the episodes depicted herein were based on stories originally published in the EC Read More

1989
Tales From the Crypt: And All Through the House

Crew: Director

Actors: Larry Drake, Mary Ellen Trainor, Marshall Bell

Synopsis: Robert Zemeckis' "And All Through the House" is about a psychotic Santa Claus (Larry Drake) who has just escaped from an insane asylum and comes knocking at the door of a woman (Mary Ellen Trainor), who's fresh from killing her husband for greedy reasons. The episode is a remake of one of the Read More

1989
Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Crew: Director

Actors: Bob Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, Joanna Cassidy, Charles Fleischer, Stubby Kaye, Alan Tilvern

Synopsis: In Robert Zemeckis's trailblazing combination of animation and live-action, Hollywood's 1940s cartoon stars are a subjugated minority, living in the ghettolike "Toontown" where their movements are sharply monitored by the human power establishment. The Toons are permitted to perform in a Cotton Read More

6/22/88
Amazing Stories: Go to the Head of the Class

Crew: Director

Actors: Christopher Lloyd, Scott Coffey, Mary Stuart Masterson

1986
Back to the Future

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson, Thomas F. Wilson

Synopsis: Contemporary high schooler Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) doesn't have the most pleasant of lives. Browbeaten by his principal at school, Marty must also endure the acrimonious relationship between his nerdy father (Crispin Glover) and his lovely mother (Lea Thompson), who in turn suffer the Read More

1985
Romancing the Stone

Crew: Director

Actors: Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, Danny DeVito, Zack Norman, Alfonso Arau

Synopsis: Kathleen Turner plays a writer of adventure stories, Joan Wilder, who has been having trouble selling her works of late because they aren't remotely believable. The basic problem is that the mousy Joan has never had any real adventure in her life. All this changes when she receives a frantic phone Read More

1984
Used Cars

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Kurt Russell, Jack Warden, Frank McRae, Gerritt Graham, Deborah Harmon, Michael McKean

Synopsis: Used Cars is one of Robert Zemeckis' pre-Roger Rabbit and pre-Forrest Gump efforts starring Kurt Russell is a devious car salesman who goes to work for affable but monumentally unsuccessful used car dealer Jack Warden. Warden's principal rival is his more prosperous twin brother, also played by Read More

1980
1941

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Dan Aykroyd, Ned Beatty, John Belushi, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Toshiro Mifune, Christopher Lee, Nancy Allen

Synopsis: It's December of 1941, and the people of California are in varying states of unease, ranging from a sincere desire to defend the country to virtual blind panic in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Thus begin several story threads that comprise the "plot" of this strange period Read More

1979
I Wanna Hold Your Hand

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Nancy Allen, Bobby Di Cicco, Marc McClure, Susan Kendall Newman, Theresa Saldana

Synopsis: The time is 1964, and the Beatles, already a hugely popular group, are about to go on the Ed Sullivan Show for the first time, an appearance that launched them into a worldwide phenomenon. Already, girls are fainting during their concerts from sheer excitement at being in the same theater with Read More

1978

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