WOLFGANG PETERSEN (Director/Producer) was named 2001 ShoWest Director of the Year after his epic sea drama, The Perfect Storm (2000), starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, grossed over $327 million and earned two Academy Award nominations.
Petersen shot to international attention in 1981 as the director of the extraordinary underwater thriller Das Boot. For his work on the film, the Motion Picture Academy recognized Petersen with two Academy Award nominations, Best Director and Best Screenwriter, making him the first Best Director nominee ever to have been so honored for a German-language film. Das Boot earned six Academy Award nominations and became the highest-grossing foreign language film ever released in the U.S. at that time.
Noted for his remarkable string of commercially and artistically successful films, Petersen directed and produced the multiple-Academy Award nominated box office smash Air Force One (1997), starring Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman and Glenn Close. That same year, he supervised the director’s cut of Das Boot which was re-released theatrically to enormous critical and audience acclaim.
In 1995, Petersen directed and produced the Warner Bros. Pictures hit Outbreak, starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo and Morgan Freeman. His classic suspense thriller In The Line of Fire (1993), starring Clint Eastwood, John Malkovich and Rene Russo, received three Academy Award nominations.
After Das Boot, Petersen wrote and directed the lavish fantasy The Neverending Story (1984) and directed the futuristic Enemy Mine (1985) starring Louis Gossett, Jr. and Dennis Quaid. Upon taking up permanent residence in the United States, Petersen wrote and directed the stylish thriller Shattered (1991), starring Tom Berenger, Bob Hoskins and Greta Scacchi.
Petersen began his feature film career as the winner of the German National Film Prize for best new director for One of Us in 1973. He first gained international notice with the controversial 1977 drama The Consequence. The following year he won the award for Best Director at the Paris Film Festival for Black and White Like Day and Night.
Through his company, Radiant Productions, Petersen also produced the feature film Bicentennial Man starring Robin Williams, and executive produced Instinct, starring Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding, Jr., as well as the suspense thriller Red Corner with Richard Gere. Radiant also developed the television series The Agency.
Petersen’s upcoming directing projects include the epic survival story Endurance; Shutter Island by best-selling author Dennis Lehane; and the sci-fi thriller Ender’s Game based on the classic novel.
He is also set to produce Whiteout starring Reese Witherspoon; the action/adventure Cold Shelter with Alexander Witt directing; and the remake of The Poseidon Adventure.
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