# E. J. Foerster

Eric J. Foerster is an American stuntman, film director, second unit director, and actor most known for his collaborations with Tom Dey, Breck Eisner, and Brian Levant.

## Career

In 1993, Foerster started his second unit directing career on Patrick Hasburgh's Aspen Extreme. In a 2021 interview, Hasburgh credits Foerster with shooting Doug Coombs, saying "Doug Coombs. I mean, fuck, Doug Coombs. It was done with movie magic, but boy did that work as a piece of film. I have to give credit to E.J. Foerster [second unit director]; he shot that part. Even to this day, that film captures Doug."
His next credit as second-unit director is James Cameron's 1994 film True Lies, with him taking over the big chase scene. According to cinematographer Russell Carpenter, Foerster and the second unit continued work on the scene after Cameron and the rest of the first unit crew left to shoot more scenes. "We shot a lot of the sequence at Boreal, a ski resort near Lake Tahoe, and the rest at Donner Pass, in California... The first unit spent three or four days there, and the second unit, led by director E.J. Foerster and cinematographer Shelly Johnson, spent about five more days. While the first unit was off shooting other scenes, the second unit blocked in the lighting for all four quadrants. Fill light was usually just bounced off the snow. Our thinking was, 'We've got the world's biggest bounce cards right here/ so we would fill by bouncing a conventional HMI into the snow."
Foerster joined the Rhythm & Hues Commercial Studios in early 2009.
In 2023, Foerster made his directorial debut with the father-daughter coming-of-age comedy-drama film Gringa, starring Steve Zahn.
The films Foerster has directed second unit on include The Chronicles of Riddick, Year One, Snow Dogs, Vice, Godzilla, Tropic Thunder, Sahara, The Crazies, and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Stunts | Second unit director | Director |
| 1993 | Aspen Extreme | No | Yes | Patrick Hasburgh |
| 1994 | True Lies | No | Yes | James Cameron |
| 1996 | Alaska | No | Yes | Fraser Clarke Heston |
| 1997 | Private Parts | No | Yes | Betty Thomas |
| 1997 | Out to Sea | No | Yes | Martha Coolidge |
| 1997 | Kundun | No | Yes | Martin Scorsese |
| 1998 | Deep Impact | No | Yes | Mimi Leder |
| 1998 | The X-Files | No | Yes | Rob Bowman |
| 1998 | Patch Adams | No | Yes | Tom Shadyac |
| 1999 | The 13th Warrior | No | Yes | John McTiernan |
| 2000 | Shanghai Noon | No | Yes | Tom Dey |
| 2002 | Snow Dogs | No | Yes | Brian Levant |
| 2002 | Showtime | No | Yes | Tom Dey |
| 2003 | Shanghai Knights | No | Yes | David Dobkin |
| 2003 | The Rundown | No | Yes | Peter Berg |
| 2003 | Dreamcatcher | No | Yes | Lawrence Kasdan |
| 2004 | The Chronicles of Riddick | No | Yes | David Twohy |
| 2005 | Sahara | No | Yes | Breck Eisner |
| 2006 | The Shaggy Dog | No | Yes | Brian Robbins |
| 2006 | Charlotte's Web | No | Yes | Gary Winick |
| 2006 | Eragon | No | Yes | Stefen Fangmeier |
| 2007 | Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer | No | Yes | Tim Story |
| 2008 | Tropic Thunder | No | Yes | Ben Stiller |
| 2008 | The X-Files: I Want to Believe | No | Yes | Chris Carter |
| 2009 | Year One | No | Yes | Harold Ramis |
| 2010 | The Crazies | Yes | Yes | Breck Eisner |
| 2010 | The Twilight Saga: Eclipse | No | Yes | David Slade |
| 2011 | The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 | No | Yes | Bill Condon |
| 2012 | The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 | No | Yes | Bill Condon |
| 2013 | Carrie | No | Yes | Kimberly Peirce |
| 2014 | Godzilla | No | Yes | Gareth Edwards |
| 2015 | Hot Pursuit | Yes | Yes | Anne Fletcher |
| 2016 | Office Christmas Party | No | Yes | Will Speck and Josh Gordon |
| 2017 | Max 2: White House Hero | No | Yes | Brian Levant |
| 2017 | Snatched | No | Yes | Jonathan Levine |
| 2017 | The Greatest Showman | No | Yes | Michael Gracey |
| 2018 | Vice | Yes | Yes | Adam McKay |
| 2018 | Death Wish | Yes | Yes | Eli Roth |
| 2023 | Murder Mystery 2 | Yes | Yes | Jeremy Garelick |