Alexander Witt

Alexander Witt
Alexander Witt
	Witt in 2016
Born	April 10, 1952 (age 72); Santiago, Chile
Occupation(s)	Film director and cinematographer

Alexander B. Witt (born 1952) is a Chilean-American filmmaker and cinematographer mostly known for his work as a camera operator and second unit director, including regular collaborations with director Ridley Scott.

Life and career

From a 2004 interview on IGN, he says this about his history:

"I was born in Chile, the third generation of Germans there. And, we moved to Mexico, from Mexico in '73 I moved to Europe, where I started working in film. I started with Arriflex, the company that makes the cameras. I was there for a year and I did kind of a trainee type of year where I was in the sound department, in the lab, in the studio working with the actual productions and also assembling cameras. And then I moved to Europe, where I lived three years, and then, back in '76, I did my first movie as a camera assistant, which was 21 Hours at Munich. And then, I kept on going, I moved up to focus puller or first AC, and then operating and then DP-ing. And then I was DP-ing commercials and then I started directing commercials in the late 80's and beginning of [the] 90's. I was working with Jan de Bont and doing his second unit as a DP while he was a DP. He is the one that really gave me the break on Speed to start directing second unit."^[1]

Witt works mostly as a second unit director and cinematographer and has worked on a plethora of films ranging from Gladiator to Cinderella. He is a frequent collaborator of director Ridley Scott, and served as the director of photography on his 2007 film Body of Lies. He made his directorial debut in 2004 with the video game adaptation Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Witt also served as the second unit director on the James Bond films Casino Royale (2006), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2020).

Filmography

Second unit

Year	Title	2nd unit director	2nd unit DoP	Director	Notes
1985	The Jewel of the Nile	No	Yes	Lewis Teague
1990	The Hunt for Red October	No	Yes	John McTiernan
1992	Lethal Weapon 3	No	Yes	Richard Donner
1992	Chaplin	No	Yes	Richard Attenborough	As Alex Witt
1994	Speed	Yes	No	Jan De Bont
1995	Money Train	Yes	Yes	Joseph Ruben	New York unit
1996	Twister	Yes	Yes	Jan De Bont
1997	Speed 2: Cruise Control	Yes	Yes	Jan De Bont
1997	The Postman	Yes	No	Kevin Costner
1998	The X-Files	Yes	Yes	Rob Bowman	Creature unit
1999	Forces of Nature	Yes	Yes	Bronwen Hughes
1999	Inspector Gadget	Yes	Yes	David Kellogg	Uncredited
2000	Gladiator	Yes	Yes	Ridley Scott
2000	Remember the Titans	Yes	Yes	Boaz Yakin
2001	Hannibal	Yes	Yes	Ridley Scott
2001	Black Hawk Down	Yes	No	Ridley Scott
2002	The Bourne Identity	Yes	Yes	Doug Liman
2002	XXX	Yes	Yes	Rob Cohen
2003	Daredevil	Yes	Yes	Mark Steven Johnson
	The Italian Job	Yes	No	F. Gary Gray
	Hollywood Homicide	Yes	Yes	Ron Shelton	Additional photography
	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl	Yes	Yes	Gore Verbinski
2004	Hidalgo	Yes	No	Joe Johnston
2005	Æon Flux	Yes	No	Karyn Kusama
2006	She's the Man	Yes	No	Andy Fickman
2006	Casino Royale	Yes	Yes	Martin Campbell
2007	American Gangster	Yes	Yes	Ridley Scott
2008	Fool's Gold	Yes	No	Andy Tennant
2009	The Taking of Pelham 123	Yes	Yes	Tony Scott
2010	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time	Yes	Yes	Mike Newell
	Robin Hood	Yes	Yes	Ridley Scott
	The Town	Yes	Yes	Ben Affleck
2011	Fast Five	Yes	Yes	Justin Lin	Train heist sequence
2011	X-Men: First Class	Yes	Yes	Matthew Vaughn
2012	Safe House	Yes	Yes	Daniel Espinosa
	Skyfall	Yes	Yes	Sam Mendes
	Code Name Oracle	Yes	No	Max Bartoli
2014	Hercules	Yes	Yes	Brett Ratner
2015	Cinderella	Yes	Yes	Kenneth Branagh
	Terminator Genisys	Yes	Yes	Alan Taylor
	Spectre	Yes	Yes	Sam Mendes
2017	First They Killed My Father	No	Yes	Angelina Jolie
2018	Avengers: Infinity War	Yes	Yes	Anthony and Joe Russo
2018	Bird Box	Yes	Yes	Susanne Bier
2021	No Time to Die	Yes	Yes	Cary Joji Fukunaga
2021	Jungle Cruise	Yes	Yes	Jaume Collet-Serra
2023	Fast X	Yes	Yes	Louis Leterrier
2023	Ferrari	Yes	Yes	Michael Mann