Wolfgang Petersen Biography (3)

Director-producer Wolfgang Petersen continued his remarkable string of commercially and artistically successful movies, directing and producing the multiple-Academy Award-nominated box office smash Air Force One, starring Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman and Glenn Close. He previously directed the Warner Bros. hit Outbreak, starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo and Morgan Freeman, while supervising the director's cut and re-release of his acclaimed war drama, Das Boot, for which he earned Oscar nominations as Best Director and Best Screenwriter.

The Academy's recognition of Petersen, for Das Boot in 1982, had made him the first Best Director nominee ever to have been so honored for a German-language film. That picture earned a total of six Academy Award nominations and was the highest-grossing foreign language film ever released in the U.S. up to that time.

In 1993, Petersen directed the suspense thriller In the Line of Fire, starring Clint Eastwood, John Malkovich and Rene Russo. It received three Academy Award nominations.

Petersen began his feature film career as winner of the German National Film Prize for best new director for One of Us Two 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.

After Das Boot, he wrote and directed the lavish fantasy The Neverending Story and the futuristic Enemy Mine, starring Louis Gossett Jr. and Dennis Quaid. Upon taking up permanent residence in the United States, Petersen wrote and directed the stylish thriller Shattered, starring Tom Berenger, Bob Hoskins and Greta Scacchi.

Petersen recently produced Bicentennial Man, starring Robin Williams. He executive produced Instinct, starring Anthony Hopkins and Cuba Gooding Jr., and the suspense thriller Red Corner, with Richard Gere. All are projects developed by his company, Radiant Productions, which he formed with producer Gail Katz.

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