Бен Стассен

Ben Stassen is a Belgian film director, producer and screenwriter. He founded nWave Pictures in 1994, producing successful CGI ride films including the groundbreaking Devils Mine. Starting in 1997, Stassen began focusing on large-format films, and made some of the most successful large-format films to date, including Thrill Ride: The Science of Fun and Alien Adventure. Contrary to most large-format films, which mix education with spectacular visuals, Stassen's earlier large-format films were aimed exclusively at the entertainment market. As IMAX theaters around the world increasingly became capable of screening stereoscopic (3-D) films in the late 1990s, Stassen embraced this new technology, and directed a succession of popular 3-D large-format films, including Encounter in the Third Dimension and Haunted Castle.

In 2005, Stassen produced and directed Wild Safari 3D, the first 3-D wildlife film for the giant screen.

Ben Stassen's first feature-length animated film, Fly Me to the Moon, was released in North America on 15 August 2008 on both regular-size and IMAX screens, exclusively in 3-D. According to nWave, Fly Me to the Moon was the first animated film to be designed, created, and released solely in 3-D. The film was originally announced for the spring or summer of 2007. The delay is believed to be the result of the slow roll-out of 3-D projection technology.

On 7 May 2008, nWave announced that its next feature-length animated film would be called Around the World in 50 Years and that it too would be directed by Ben Stassen. It was released in 2010 as A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures. Further animated features directed or co-directed by Stassen include A Turtle's Tale 2: Sammy's Escape from Paradise (2012), The House of Magic (2013), The Wild Life (2016) and the upcoming The Son of Bigfoot (2017).

Stassen was also involved in the production of several films directed by famed Croatian film director Krsto Papić, most notably My Uncle's Legacy.