Aurelio De Laurentiis

In his career, Aurelio De Laurentiis has produced and distributed more than 400 films directed by such filmmakers as Mario Monicelli, Carlo Verdone, Ettore Scola, Ridley Scott, David Cronenberg, Luc Besson, Paul Haggis, Joel and Ethan Coen, David Lynch, Roberto Benigni and many others. In September 2010, he was awarded with the "Variety Profile in Excellence", given by the prestigious magazine Variety with the following motivation: "Aurelio De Laurentiis has always been able to stay in touch with the taste of the audience. He is really the only Italian producer with an authentic grandeur that results from his symbiotic relationship with a wide audience. Aurelio has an innate radar for pop culture, he has business acumen and a real willingness to take risks". In the United States, the Guinness World Records introduced the Christmas comedies (a movie franchise invented by De Laurentiis) in the category of longest-running movie franchise. In June 1995, when Oscar Luigi Scalfaro was Presid