WILLIAM HORBERG (Producer) is a partner with Zhang Xin in Closer Media, a new company that finances and produces films, series, and documentaries. Their recent films include Ezra, directed by Tony Goldwyn and starring Robert DeNiro, Bhutanese filmmaker Pawo Dorji’s The Monk and the Gun, and Alex Gibney’s In Restless Dreams, a two-part documentary series about songwriter Paul Simon.
Horberg produced The Queen’s Gambit, written and directed by Scott Frank and starring Anya Taylor-Joy, the most-watched scripted limited series in Netflix history, for which Horberg won the Emmy Award as well as the Golden Globe, Critics Choice and PGA awards for Best Limited Series. Other recent films include: Flag Day adapted by Jez Butterworth and directed by Sean Penn and starring Sean and Dylan Penn, as well as the Mick Jagger-starring noir thriller The Burnt Orange Heresy for Sony Pictures Classics. Along with Mike Medavoy and Eric Esraillian, Horberg produced Terry George’s epic Armenian genocide drama The Promise, starring Christian Bale, Oscar Isaac, and Charlotte LeBon.
Previously, Horberg was the President of Production at Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, where he Executive Produced Craig Gillespie’s Lars and the Real Girl, starring Ryan Gosling, and written by Academy Award nominee Nancy Oliver; and Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York, starring Academy Award winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams, and Samantha Morton, among many other films. Horberg was also an Executive Producer on Focus Features’ Milk, starring Academy Award winner Sean Penn and directed by Gus Van Sant. He also produced Marc Forster’s The Kite Runner, based on the international best-selling novel by Khaled Hosseini, for Dreamworks and Paramount Vantage.
Prior to forming Wonderful Films, he was partnered for 12 years with Academy Award-winning filmmakers Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella in their film and television production company, Mirage Enterprises. During Horberg’s tenure at Mirage, he produced such films as Minghella’s Cold Mountain, for which Renée Zellweger won an Academy Award and The Talented Mr. Ripley, starring Matt Damon and Academy Award nominee Jude Law; Phillip Noyce’s Quiet American, starring Academy Award nominee Michael Caine; Tom Tykwer’s Heaven, starring Cate Blanchett; Peter Howitt’s Sliding Doors starring Gwyneth Paltrow; and Steven Zaillian’s Searching for Bobby Fischer.
Horberg was formerly a Senior Vice President of Production at Paramount Pictures and is the Chairman Emeritus of the Producers Guild of America, East.
