Wolfgang+Petersen+by+Cody+Fermanich



Wolfgang Petersen was born during World War II on 14 March 1941 in the small north German community of Emden, where the Ems River flows into the North Sea. From 1953 to 1960 Petersen attended the Johanneum school in Hamburg. Coming into the entertainment business in 1960 as assistant director for Hamburg's Ernest Deutsch Theatre, Wolfgang Petersen went on to Berlin's German Film and Television Academy.

He kicked off his film directorial career in television, winning several awards in the process; his 1976 TV movie [|For Your Love Only] served as the debut for actress [|Nastassja Kinski].

Petersen's 1977 theatrical feature [|The Consequence], a discreetly handled study of male homosexuality which he both wrote and directed, won him praise on the international scene.

In 1981, Petersen helmed [|Das Boot], a vastly popular wartime drama set on a German submarine; the film earned Petersen two Oscar nominations, one for directing, the other for best screenplay.

Petersen made his English-language debut with the 1984 children's fantasy [|The Neverending Story] and had his big stateside breakthrough with the blockbuster [|Clint Eastwood] assassination thriller In the Line of Fire (1993).

With his status as an A-list Hollywood director well established, Petersen next directed [|Dustin Hoffman] and [|Rene Russo] in 1995's [|Outbreak], a film that successfully played on the public's fear of the unseen threat inherent in communicable diseases like ebola.

While [|Outbreak] was only a modest hit, Petersen scored very big just two years later when he helmed the [|Die Hard] -on-the-President's-plane actioner [|Air Force One]. Starring [|Harrison Ford] and [|Gary Oldman], the film would go on to gross more than 300 million dollars worldwide.

Anyone who thought [|Air Force One] may have been a fluke for the filmmaker need look no further than Petersen's next film, the true high-seas adventure [|The Perfect Storm] (2000).

After back-to-back films that each passed the 300-million-dollar mark worldwide, Petersen had no problem securing a 185-million-dollar budget for 2004's [|Troy], a historical epic starring [|Brad Pitt]. Based on [|Homer] 's -The Illiad, the film opened stateside with an impressive 46-million-dollar weekend.

At the end of 2005 Petersen was cementing his image as the master of the sea epic with [|Poseidon] (film), a re-telling of the 1969 Paul Gallico novel (and 1972 film) "The Poseidon Adventure." As of December 05 the film was beginning post-production and scheduled to be released in May of 2006 by Warner Bros. In 2006 he is scheduled to direct the film adaptation of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.

In 1982 Wolfgang was nominated for 2 Acadamy awards 2 Acadamy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie and 1 Directors Suild of America award all for the movie Das Boot (the boat).