Alexander Witt

Not to be confused with Alex Witt.

Alexander Witt
Witt in 2016
Born	(1952-04-10) April 10, 1952 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."

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

Director

• Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
• Sayen (2023)
• Sayen: La Ruta Seca (2023)

Cinematographer

• Body of Lies (2008)

Second unit

Year	Title	Director	DoP	Notes
1994	Speed	Yes	No
1995	Money Train	Yes	Yes	New York unit
1996	Twister	Yes	Yes
1997	Speed 2: Cruise Control	Yes	Yes
	The Postman	Yes	No
1998	The X-Files	Yes	Yes	Creature unit
1999	Forces of Nature	Yes	Yes
	Inspector Gadget	Yes	Yes	Uncredited
2000	Gladiator	Yes	Yes
	Remember the Titans	Yes	Yes
2001	Hannibal	Yes	Yes
	Black Hawk Down	Yes	No
2002	The Bourne Identity	Yes	Yes
	XXX	Yes	Yes
2003	Daredevil	Yes	Yes
	The Italian Job	Yes	No
	Hollywood Homicide	Yes	Yes	Additional photography
	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl	Yes	Yes
2004	Hidalgo	Yes	No
2005	Æon Flux	Yes	No
2006	She's the Man	Yes	No
	Casino Royale	Yes	Yes
2007	American Gangster	Yes	Yes
2008	Fool's Gold	Yes	No
2009	The Taking of Pelham 123	Yes	Yes
2010	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time	Yes	Yes	Uncredited
	Robin Hood	Yes	Yes
	The Town	Yes	Yes
2011	Fast Five	Yes	Yes
	X-Men: First Class	Yes	Yes
2012	Safe House	Yes	Yes
	Skyfall	Yes	Yes
	Code Name Oracle	Yes	No
2014	Hercules	Yes	Yes
2015	Cinderella	Yes	Yes
	Terminator Genisys	Yes	Yes
	Spectre	Yes	Yes
2018	Avengers: Infinity War	Yes	Yes
	Bird Box	Yes	Yes
2021	No Time to Die	Yes	Yes
	Jungle Cruise	Yes	Yes

External links

• Alexander Witt at IMDb