Rob Houwer

Biography

Rob Houwer is a Dutch feature film producer. He studied at the film academy in Munich. At the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s he directed a number of short films, such as Hundstage (1959), De sleutel and 24 Bilder (1965). Over the next decades, he developed into a true producer. Initially he produced German films, including Volker Schlöndorffs Mord und Totschlag (1966) and Michael Kohlhaas - Der Rebell (1968) and frivolities such as Engelchen (Marran Gosov, 1968).

In 1968 he produced his first Dutch feature film, Professor Columbus. After that he produced Paul Verhoeven's feature film debut, Wat zien ik? The film was successful and they continued their collaboration with Turks fruit, Keetje Tippel and Soldaat van Oranje. At the end of the 1970s he started to work with other filmmakers and ended up becoming, among other things, the producer of the Netherlands' 'first evening-long animated cartoon', Als je begrijpt wat ik bedoel. After a one-time reunion with Verhoeven for De vierde man, Houwer worked on feature films with directors such as Pieter Verhoeff and Jean van de Velde.

The documentary Het grootste van het grootste, a film made in 2002 about Abraham Tuschinski, is an exception in Houwer's oeuvre. Houwer passed on the chance to work with Paul Verhoeven on Zwartboek (2006), because he thought the budget was too high. In that same year, he released Het woeden der gehele wereld, adapted from the novel by Maarten 't Hart.