Alexander Witt
1952– · Chilean-American filmmaker, second unit director and cinematographer
Alexander B. Witt (born 1952 in Santiago, Chile) is a Chilean-American filmmaker known mostly for his work in Hollywood as a second unit director on large action productions. He belongs to the third generation of a German-Chilean family. After spending time in Mexico, he moved to Europe in 1973 and started working at Arriflex, the camera manufacturer, later progressing through roles as camera assistant, operator and director of photography.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s he directed commercials. He worked with Jan de Bont, who gave him his break as second unit director on Speed. Since then he has contributed to films such as Casino Royale, Gladiator, Hannibal and Black Hawk Down, as well as several James Bond films. His feature directing debut was Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004), based on the Capcom video game franchise.
He was also director of photography on Ridley Scott's Body of Lies, and he collaborated with Scott on several occasions. His career shows a path from technical film work to directing, and his name is linked to much of the commercial action cinema of the first two decades of the twenty-first century.