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Its initial budget of $11.5 million would balloon to $44 million after marketing. The film became synonymous with over-budget and out-of-control productions, and a cautionary tale for giving artistic-minded directors too much power in the new Hollywood that had been defined by directors such as Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. "In his most iconic work, the DGA and Academy Award-winning film 'The Deer Hunter,' Michael captured the horrors of war through a personalized lens - captivating a nation in the process."Ĭimino's emerging career then took a U-turn with 1980's "Heaven's Gate," a Western starring Kris Kristofferson and Walken that was a critical and financial disaster. "With his visionary approach and attention to every detail, Michael Cimino is forever etched in the history of filmmaking," Paris Barclay, president of the Directors Guild of America said early Sunday. He will be missed," De Niro said in a statement Saturday.ĭespite controversy over its portrayal of the North Vietnamese and use of the violent game Russian roulette, the film was praised by some critics as the best American movies since "The Godfather" six years earlier. "Our work together is something I will always remember. Christopher Walken also won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. It helped lift the emerging-legend status of Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep. The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Cimino. He said Cimino had not been ill that he had known of.Ĭimino's masterpiece was 1978's "The Deer Hunter," the story of the Vietnam War's effect on a small steel-working town in Pennsylvania. He said Cimino had been living in Beverly Hills but did not yet have further details on the circumstances of his death.Įric Weissmann, a friend and former lawyer of Cimino's, said friends had been unable to reach Cimino by phone for the last few days and called the police, who found him dead in his bed. LOS ANGELES (AP) - Michael Cimino, the Oscar-winning director whose film "The Deer Hunter" became one of the great triumphs of Hollywood's 1970s heyday and whose disastrous "Heaven's Gate" helped bring that era to a close, has died.Ĭimino died Saturday at age 77, Los Angeles County acting coroner's Lt.