--- name: "William Horberg" canonical: "https://film.one/person/william-horberg" fi1m_id: "william-horberg" imdb_id: "nm0394564" tmdb_id: 15906 wikidata_id: "Q8012508" roles: ["Producer"] reviewed_on_fi1m: 11 average_fi1m_score: 71 average_as: "producer" average_over: 9 updated: "2026-10-12T20:13:13.307585+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." --- # William Horberg ## Identity William Horberg - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/william-horberg - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** william-horberg - **IMDb ID:** nm0394564 - **TMDB ID:** 15906 - **Wikidata ID:** Q8012508 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Horberg, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8012508, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0394564/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/15906 Producer. Born in Chicago, Illinois, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Producer - **Active:** 1991–present - **Titles on Fi1m:** 11: 1 acting, 1 writing, 9 producing - **Frequently works with:** [Anthony Minghella](https://film.one/person/anthony-minghella.md), [Gwyneth Paltrow](https://film.one/person/gwyneth-paltrow.md), [Jude Law](https://film.one/person/jude-law.md), [Sydney Pollack](https://film.one/person/sydney-pollack.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 71, as producer, over 9 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 72 (4), 2000s 72 (4), 2020s 69 (3) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 71 to 65 across 9 titles - **Score spread:** 3 at 80+, 6 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Genres:** Drama 6, Romance 3, Comedy 2, Crime 2, History 2, Adventure 1 - **Screen time:** 21 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $507m across 8 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Horberg, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8012508, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0394564/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/15906 ## Streaming the US now - **Hulu:** [*The Talented Mr. Ripley*](https://film.one/film/the-talented-mr-ripley.md) (80) - **Peacock:** [*Sliding Doors*](https://film.one/film/sliding-doors.md) (63) - **Pluto TV:** [*The Kite Runner*](https://film.one/film/the-kite-runner.md) (60) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on William Horberg > William Horberg is a producer, which means what he does is choose: the book, the director, the moment to go. Across *Fallen Angels* and the Minghella years the choices are consistently good, and the credit for what follows is always somebody else's. Every half-hour of *Fallen Angels* (1993) has a body in it and a different director standing over it. Horberg created the series and took his stories from the writers who built the genre, Chandler, Hammett, Thompson, Woolrich, then handed each one to somebody else, Soderbergh, Cuarón, Holland, Bogdanovich, Dahl, and, less predictably, Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks. He has said the idea was "The Twilight Zone, but with hard-boiled crime stories instead of speculative fiction and fantasy stories." That is the whole of his method in one sentence: find good material, find a director who wants it, and step back. The career reads as a series of such hand-offs. He ran a repertory cinema in Chicago, joined Paramount as a creative executive in 1987, and in 1993 moved to Mirage with Sydney Pollack, where he produced *The Talented Mr. Ripley* (1999) and *Cold Mountain* (2003) with Anthony Minghella. Then a spell running production at Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, which gave us *The Kite Runner* (2007), then his own company and *Disconnect* (2012) with Marc Forster. *The Queen's Gambit* (2020), on which he was executive producer, had been in development for twenty years by the time it was shot. He is patient, and he likes a novel. *Ripley* is the best evidence for what he chooses. Minghella made class envy close and physical, and Matt Damon gave Tom Ripley a wanting so plain that we found him hard to sit with, a man whose every smile is a request, and we spent much of the film wishing he would stop asking. That discomfort is the point, and it is why the film holds up. The plotting in the last hour grows over-elaborate, and no producer could have fixed that without a different director. The weakness of the method shows in *Fallen Angels*, where letting fourteen directors loose means half the episodes are handsome dressing-up and the other half are the real thing. Soderbergh's and Cuarón's prove how much a good short story and thirty minutes can carry. Others prove how little. An anthology built on trust is only as good as the episode you land on, and Horberg accepted that trade. A producer is the hardest person on a credits list to review, because the work is a set of decisions nobody films. What we can say is that his name on a title has meant a decent book, a director given room, and a development period measured in years rather than months. If the next one takes another two decades, that is probably a good sign. ## Biography William Horberg is an American film producer. Born in Chicago, Illinois, he owned and operated the Sandburg Movie Theatre from 1979 to 1981. He began his career in 1987 as a creative executive at Paramount Pictures, later becoming Senior Vice President of Production, and joined Sydney Pollack's Mirage Enterprises in 1993. Horberg produced *The Talented Mr. Ripley* (1999), *Cold Mountain* (2003) and *The Kite Runner* (2007). He has also served as executive producer on films including *Sliding Doors* (1998), *Lars and the Real Girl* (2007), *Milk* (2008) and *Adventureland* (2009), and on the television miniseries *The Queen's Gambit* (2020). He is chair emeritus of the Producers Guild of America on the East coast. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (11) ### Performed in (1) - *The Queen's Gambit* (2020), Fi1m 74, as Toby — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-queens-gambit.md) ### Wrote (1) - *Fallen Angels* (1993), Fi1m 72, Creator, Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/fallen-angels-1993.md) ### Produced (9) — the average rests on these - *Musk* (2026), Fi1m 70, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/musk.md) - *The History of Sound* (2025), Fi1m 62, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/the-history-of-sound.md) - *Milk* (2008), Fi1m 83, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/milk.md) - *Synecdoche, New York* (2008), Fi1m 84, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/synecdoche-new-york.md) - *The Kite Runner* (2007), Fi1m 60, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/the-kite-runner.md) - *Cold Mountain* (2003), Fi1m 62, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/cold-mountain.md) - *The Talented Mr. Ripley* (1999), Fi1m 80, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/the-talented-mr-ripley.md) - *Sliding Doors* (1998), Fi1m 63, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/sliding-doors.md) - *A Rage in Harlem* (1991), Fi1m 71, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/a-rage-in-harlem.md) ## Complete filmography (44) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Musk* (2026), Executive Producer — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/musk.md) - *An Eye for an Eye* (2026), Executive Producer - *Couture* (2026), Producer - *Teenage Wasteland* (2025), Executive Producer - *Orwell: 2+2=5* (2025), Executive Producer - *The History of Sound* (2025), Executive Producer — Fi1m 62, [page](https://film.one/film/the-history-of-sound.md) - *In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon* (2024), Executive Producer - *Ezra* (2024), Producer - *In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon* (2024), series, Executive Producer - *The Monk and the Gun* (2023), Executive Producer - *Flag Day* (2021), Producer - *The Queen's Gambit* (2020), series, as Toby · Executive Producer — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-queens-gambit.md) - *The Burnt Orange Heresy* (2020), Producer - *Crash Pad* (2017), Producer - *The Promise* (2016), Producer - *In Secret* (2014), Producer - *Disconnect* (2013), Producer - *Charlie Countryman* (2013), Producer - *Don't Be Afraid of the Dark* (2010), Executive Producer - *Death at a Funeral* (2010), Producer - *Adventureland* (2009), Executive Producer - *Management* (2009), Executive Producer - *Milk* (2008), Executive Producer — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/film/milk.md) - *Synecdoche, New York* (2008), Executive Producer — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/synecdoche-new-york.md) - *Charlie Bartlett* (2008), Executive Producer - *The Kite Runner* (2007), Producer — Fi1m 60, [page](https://film.one/film/the-kite-runner.md) - *Lars and the Real Girl* (2007), Executive Producer - *Death at a Funeral* (2007), Executive Producer - *Talk to Me* (2007), Executive Producer - *Breach* (2007), Executive Producer - *Cold Mountain* (2003), Producer — Fi1m 62, [page](https://film.one/film/cold-mountain.md) - *The Quiet American* (2002), Producer - *Heaven* (2002), Producer - *Blow Dry* (2001), Producer - *The Talented Mr. Ripley* (1999), Producer — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/the-talented-mr-ripley.md) - *Poodle Springs* (1998), Executive Producer - *Sliding Doors* (1998), Producer — Fi1m 63, [page](https://film.one/film/sliding-doors.md) - *Red Wind* (1995), Producer - *Searching for Bobby Fischer* (1993), Producer - *Fallen Angels* (1993), series, Producer, Creator — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/tv/fallen-angels-1993.md) - *A Rage in Harlem* (1991), Executive Producer — Fi1m 71, [page](https://film.one/film/a-rage-in-harlem.md) - *Miami Blues* (1990), Associate Producer - *Useful Idiots*, Producer - *Say Her Name*, Producer ## Gallery - ![William Horberg](https://film.one/media/person/88732/gallery-8c83e9daf9c8.jpg) William Horberg — Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Last_Days_Production_Team_-_William_Horberg.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![The producers of Last Days at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival](https://film.one/media/person/88732/gallery-c83d17932c35.jpg) The producers of Last Days at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival — Bryan Berlin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/Last_Days_Production_Team.jpg/1280px-Last_Days_Production_Team.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail) --- © 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/william-horberg