--- name: "Marco Kreuzpaintner" canonical: "https://film.one/person/marco-kreuzpaintner" roles: ["Director"] born: "11 March 1977" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "director" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-17T16:37:11.174105+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Marco Kreuzpaintner Director. Born 11 March 1977 in Rosenheim, Germany. ## Details - **Work:** Director - **Born:** 11 March 1977, Rosenheim, Germany - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Kreuzpaintner, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q68855, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0471086/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/5192 ## Fi1m on Marco Kreuzpaintner > Marco Kreuzpaintner is an able guide through complicated genre stories, with a useful concern for actors. We recommend *The Lazarus Project* for its persuasive lead and difficult choices, while wishing the plotting would give both more room. Paapa Essiedu keeps *The Lazarus Project* (2022) engaging even when its time-reset plotting becomes hard work. Kreuzpaintner directed the opening four episodes, helping establish a science-fiction thriller with decisions worth arguing about. We recommend it, particularly for the lead performance, while finding its familiar espionage business less persuasive. It offers a useful starting point for a director whose career takes in coming-of-age drama, fantasy adaptations and elaborate television stories. His breakthrough, *Summer Storm* (2004), was a gay coming-of-age drama which he directed and co-wrote. The move from that film to the human-trafficking drama *Trade* (2007) and the fantasy adaptation *Krabat* (2008) makes it difficult to reduce him to a favourite subject. *The Collini Case* (2019), a legal thriller adapted from a novel, brought him back to features after television work. Adaptation is a recurring interest, connecting *Krabat* and *The Collini Case* to *Bodies* (2023), drawn from a graphic novel. Television has given him different degrees of responsibility. On *Beat* (2018), set in Berlin's club scene, he was creator, writer and director; on *Bodies*, as on *The Lazarus Project*, he directed the opening four episodes. He also directed five episodes of the Roman spectacle *Those About to Die* (2024), sharing directing duties on the series with Roland Emmerich. We would not treat all these programmes as his alone, or attribute their writing to him by default. What matters in *The Lazarus Project* is how readily its lead holds our attention when the story threatens to become too busy. Kreuzpaintner has spoken of preferring long takes that give actors space, moving the camera to make cutting unnecessary. That preference makes sense for a director handling stories with so much to explain, though it is no guarantee of simplicity. We grew impatient with the familiar espionage business in *The Lazarus Project*, because the decisions behind its time resets were more interesting. Essiedu's performance kept us involved despite those frustrations. Start there if intricate science fiction is your sort of evening; it will require some concentration. ## Biography Marco Kreuzpaintner (born 11 March 1977) is a German film director, screenwriter and executive producer. Born in Rosenheim, he studied art history at the University of Salzburg and began working in film, advertising and music video production. He assisted directors Peter Lilienthal and Edgar Reitz before making his first short film in 1999. Kreuzpaintner is known for feature films including *Summer Storm* (2004), *Trade* (2007), *Krabat* (2008) and *The Collini Case* (2019). In television he created and directed the Amazon series *Beat* (2018), directed and executive produced the BAFTA Cymru-winning series *The Lazarus Project* (2022) and episodes of *Bodies* (2023), and co-directed episodes of *Those About to Die* (2024) with Roland Emmerich. He is based in London. *Sources: deadline.com, en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *The Lazarus Project* (2022), Fi1m 78, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-lazarus-project.md) ## Complete filmography (16) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Those About to Die* (2024), series, Executive Producer, Director - *Bodies* (2023), series, Director, Executive Producer - *The Lazarus Project* (2022), series, Director — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-lazarus-project.md) - *The Collini Case* (2019), Director - *Beat* (2018), series, Creator - *Your Children* (2016), Director - *Stadtlandliebe* (2016), Micha, Director, Writer - *Look Who's Back* (2015), Adaptation - *Coming In* (2014), Writer, Story, Director - *Life Is Too Long* (2010), Acting - *Krabat* (2008), Writer, Director - *Trade* (2007), Director - *The Cloud* (2006), Screenplay - *Summer Storm* (2004), Author, Director - *Ganz und gar* (2003), Director - *Polizeiruf 110* (1971), series, Director ## Gallery - ![Marco Kreuzpaintner](https://film.one/media/person/781808/gallery-2ca9f221364e.jpg) Marco Kreuzpaintner — Franz Richter (User:FRZ), CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Marco_Kreuzpaintner.5178.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Verleihung des Grimme-Preises 2019.](https://film.one/media/person/781808/gallery-66a50b9e8f42.jpg) Verleihung des Grimme-Preises 2019. — Krd, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Grimmepreis_2019_002.jpg/1280px-Grimmepreis_2019_002.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Verleihung des Grimme-Preises 2019.](https://film.one/media/person/781808/gallery-cb8d77e674ff.jpg) Verleihung des Grimme-Preises 2019. — Krd, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d1/Grimmepreis_2019_017.jpg/1280px-Grimmepreis_2019_017.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Verleihung des Grimme-Preises 2019.](https://film.one/media/person/781808/gallery-668a2b816122.jpg) Verleihung des Grimme-Preises 2019. — Krd, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Grimmepreis_2019_048.jpg/1280px-Grimmepreis_2019_048.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) - ![Marco Kreuzpaintner bei der Pressekonferenz zur deutschen Filmpremiere Trade, Berlin, 11.10.2007](https://film.one/media/person/781808/gallery-404c8d15813c.jpg) Marco Kreuzpaintner bei der Pressekonferenz zur deutschen Filmpremiere Trade, Berlin, 11.10.2007 — Franz Richter (User:FRZ), CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Marco_Kreuzpaintner.5045.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Marco Kreuzpaintner bei der Pressekonferenz zur deutschen Filmpremiere Trade, Berlin, 11.10.2007](https://film.one/media/person/781808/gallery-dabf8a44f3a6.jpg) Marco Kreuzpaintner bei der Pressekonferenz zur deutschen Filmpremiere Trade, Berlin, 11.10.2007 — Franz Richter (User:FRZ), CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Marco_Kreuzpaintner.5087.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/marco-kreuzpaintner