Dennis Gassner
Biography
Filmography
Notes
Gassner was responsible for the poster design for the restored and re-released version of Abel Gance's silent masterwork, "Napoleon" (1927).
Biography
A student of architecture and the arts, Gassner was a successful linebacker in college football but turned down a try-out for the Los Angeles Rams in order to continue his studies in graphic design. After designing some record albums, Gassner moved into film work when an old art school friend, then one of Francis Ford Coppola's assistant directors on "Apocalypse Now" (1979), got him a job as production assistant on the film. Gassner worked at Coppola's Zoetrope Studios for several years after that on such features as "Hammett" (1982) and "One From the Heart" (1982, a film that Gassner claims required "six miles of neon"). Shortly thereafter he earned his first production designer credit for the harsh, stylized look of Coppola's "Rumble Fish" (1983).
Since the mid-1980s, Gassner's eye for detail and talent for evoking the fantastic within the mundane have enhanced several films by the Coen brothers ("Miller's Crossing" 1990, "Barton Fink" 1991), as well as "Field of Dreams" (1989), "The Grifters" (1990) and "Bugsy" (1991), which earned him his first Oscar.
Filmography
Art Director (Feature Film)
Art Department (Feature Film)
Production Designer (Feature Film)
Film Production - Main (Feature Film)
Title Design (Feature Film)
Life Events
1982
Received screen credit for "graphic design" on Coppola's "One from the Heart" and on Wim Wenders's "Hammett"
1983
First credit as production designer (with Dean Tavoularis), "Rumble Fish"
1986
Did the title design for "Static" and "Under the Cherry Moon"
1986
First credit as solo production designer, "Wisdom"
1988
Production designer for "Earth Girls Are Easy"
1989
Designed the baseball film, "Field of Dreams"
1990
First film with the Coen brothers, "Miller's Crossing"
1991
Designed Barry Levinson's "Bugsy," which won him an Oscar and the Coen brother's "Barton Fink" for which he earned an Oscar nomination
1994
Production designer for the Coen's brothers, "The Hudsucker Proxy"
1998
Designed "The Truman Show"
2000
Re-teamed with the Coen brothers for "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"
2003
Designed tim Burton's "Big Fish"
2004
Sixth collaboration with the Coen brother's "The Ladykillers"
2006
Production designer for Robert Towne's "Ask the Dust"
2007
Earned third Oscar nomination for Best Art Direction for "The Golden Compass"
Videos
Trailer
Bibliography
Notes
Gassner was responsible for the poster design for the restored and re-released version of Abel Gance's silent masterwork, "Napoleon" (1927).
