Wim Verstappen

Wim Verstappen
Wim Verstappen in 1987
Born	(1937-05-04)4 May 1937 Gemert, Netherlands
Died	24 July 2004(2004-07-24) (aged 67) Amsterdam, Netherlands
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter
Years active	1965-2004

Wim Verstappen (4 May 1937 – 24 July 2004) was a Dutch film director and producer, television director, and screen writer.

Verstappen grew up on Curaçao. He started at the Netherlands Film and Television Academy in 1961, and released his first movie in 1966, De minder gelukkige terugkeer van Joszef Katus naar het land van Rembrandt. He joined the editorial staff of the film magazine Skoop in 1964, working alongside Nicolai van der Heyde, Gied Jaspars, and Pim de la Parra. From 1966 on he directed and produced films with De la Parra, and in 1967 they founded a production company, Scorpio Films, becoming known as 'Pim & Wim'. Among their productions was the 1971 explicit film Blue Movie, which led to the abolition of the Dutch film rating system for adults.

After the demise of Scorpio Films, Verstappen directed two films based on novels by Simon Vestdijk, Pastorale 1943 (1978) and Het verboden bacchanaal (1981). While the first was a commercial success, drawing an audience of over a million, the second film flopped, as did two later film, De Zwarte Ruiter (1983) and De Ratelrat (1987).

Verstappen stopped directing films and focused on film rights, founding an organization to secure authors' copyrights. In 1992 he was awarded the Dutch Filmmuseum Award for his contributions to the Dutch film industry, and in 1995 he received a Golden Calf for his body of work. He died of cancer in 2004.