Wolfgang Petersen

He made it big in Hollywood with box-office hits, but he's best remembered for a harrowing, Oscar-nominated German film set inside a U-boat in World War II.

There were also the disaster films “Outbreak” (1995), about a deadly virus, “The Perfect Storm” (2000), about commercial New England fishermen caught in a terrifying tempest, and “Poseidon” (2006), a remake of “The Poseidon Adventure,” the 1972 blockbuster about a capsized luxury liner. Discussing the “Iliad”-inspired “Troy” (2004), Mr. His film career seemed to come full circle in 2016 with “Vier gegen die Bank,” a remake of his 1976 comedy-heist film based on an American novel, “The Nixon Recession Caper,” by Ralph Maloney. Petersen moved to Los Angeles, where he would remain for two decades, working with big stars in a string of mainstream successes that included the political dramas “In the Line of Fire” (1993), about a Secret Service agent’s efforts to prevent a presidential assassination, and “Air Force One” (1997), about the hijacking of the presidential jetliner. “I got to know the medium of film when I was 8 years old, and I was immediately enthusiastic about it,” he told the journalist André Müller in a 1985 interview for German Playboy. Maslin called it “a costly, awful-looking science-fiction epic with one of the weirdest story lines ever to hit the screen.” “The Consequence” (1977) was controversial for its frank depiction of homosexuality, a taboo topic at the time. He later married Maria-Antoinette Borgel, whom he had met on the set of “Smog,” where she worked as a script supervisor. “Smog” (1972) dealt with the effects of pollution in the Ruhr, the industrial region in Northwest Germany. In the English-speaking world, that frequently mispronounced title alone (“Boot” is spoken exactly like the English “boat”) has attained a kind of pop-cultural status, thanks to references on “The Simpsons” and other TV shows. Petersen prepared various versions of “Das Boot” over the next decade and a half. For all his success in Hollywood, however, “Das Boot,” a tense drama about sailors on a German U-boat during World War II, is the work for which Mr.

Deadline reports that Petersen died Friday, when he passed peacefully “in the arms of his wife of 50 years, Maria Antoinette,” after battling pancreatic cancer.

He also directed [Outbreak](https://decider.com/movie/outbreak), a film about a dangerous virus starring Dustin Hoffman, and Air Force One, Harrison Ford’s box office smash from 1997. [In the Line of Fire](https://decider.com/movie/in-the-line-of-fire), a drama about an FBI agent haunted by the assassination of John F. [Deadline](https://deadline.com/2022/08/wolfgang-petersen-dead-director-perfect-storm-das-boot-air-force-one-1235093543/) reports that Petersen died Friday, when he passed peacefully “in the arms of his wife of 50 years, Maria Antoinette,” after battling pancreatic cancer.

The German-born filmmaker was also known for making big-budget blockbusters including "Air Force One" and "The Perfect Storm."

Petersen directed “Poseidon” (2006), a big-budget remake of the 1972 disaster film “The Poseidon Adventure,” which was savaged by critics. Petersen insisted on unswerving accuracy to re-create the look and feel of a submarine, evoking what he described as “the smell of reality, the blood, the sweat and the tears, the claustrophobia.” His later work included “The Consequence” (1977), a melodrama about the sexual relationship between an incarcerated young man and the prison warden’s teenage son, which generated controversy in Germany for its sensitive, forthright depiction of gay love. Wolfgang Petersen was born in Emden, Germany, a port city near the North Sea, on March 14, 1941, and grew up in an era of postwar deprivation. He later directed Clooney and Mark Wahlberg in “The Perfect Storm” (2000), based on Sebastian Junger’s nonfiction account of a Massachusetts fishing vessel lost at sea. Petersen a chance to return to a maritime setting without having to reenter the narrow tube of a submarine. He seemed especially comfortable working from historical material and journalistic research, adapting Richard Preston’s nonfiction book “The Hot Zone” into “Outbreak” (1995), a medical thriller about the spread of an Ebola-like virus. Petersen later transported viewers to the world of Homer’s “Iliad,” directing the big-budget war film “Troy” (2004) with Pitt. All 200 people on the stage had a wonderful time watching it, with the exception of the six actors on the boat.” Petersen was vaulted to international prominence by “Das Boot,” or “The Boat” (1981), a harrowing antiwar film that brought audiences inside a cramped, sweaty German submarine during World War II. By the time the film ended 2½ hours later, he told the New Jersey Record, “the audience was in tears, in shock, and totally turned around by the message: ‘OK, I know these guys were the other side, but if you cut through to the bottom, what war is all about, is kids on all sides getting killed.’ ” Wolfgang Petersen, a German filmmaker whose 1981 drama “Das Boot” earned global acclaim for its humane depiction of U-boat sailors during World War II, and who later had a long Hollywood career directing action-driven blockbusters including “Air Force One,” “The Perfect Storm” and “Troy,” died Aug.

Wolfgang Petersen rode his acclaimed German-language film “Das Boot” into a career directing blockbusters such as “In the Line of Fire” and “Air Force One."

While working on the popular German TV series “Tatort” (Crime Scene), he first met and worked with actor Jurgen Prochnow — who would appear in several of his films, including as the U-boat captain in “Das Boot.” The original told the story of “four members of an exclusive country club who decide to rob a bank to solve their money problems.” The new film starred Til Schweiger. In “Air Force One” (1997), it was not the Secret Service agents protecting the president who kicked ass but the president himself. Adjusted for inflation, “Air Force One” was the director’s most successful film. Petersen made an extraordinary creative leap with the critically acclaimed Clint Eastwood film “In the Line of Fire” (1993). His next effort was “Enemy Mine,” about an astronaut (Dennis Quaid) who crash-lands on an alien planet and teams with a lizard-like alien (Louis Gossett Jr.) from the species he was battling in order to survive the harsh environment. With both critical acclaim — the film sports a 95% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes — and impressive B.O., Petersen had finally arrived in Hollywood. Petersen’s first film in Hollywood was the 1984 fantasy adventure “The NeverEnding Story,” which he directed and co-scripted. Variety said: “Director Wolfgang Petersen sends the story efficiently down its straight and narrow track, deftly engineering the battle of wills between two desperately committed men.” He returned in 1991 with the mystery thriller “Shattered,” starring Tom Berenger, Bob Hoskins and Greta Scacchi. He discovers the kingdom in a magical bookstore, and as he begins to read the adventure between the covers, it becomes so real that the people in the story know about Bastian. Offering suspense and tragedy, “Das Boot” was nominated for six Oscars — an enormous number for a foreign film — including two for Petersen, for director and adapted screenplay.

Wolfgang Petersen, the German filmmaker whose World War II submarine epic "Das Boot" propelled him into a blockbuster Hollywood career that included the ...

"The power of water is unbelievable," he said in a 2009 interview. The big-budget "Poseidon," a high-priced flop for Warner Bros., was Petersen's last Hollywood film. His final film was 2016's "Four Against the Bank," a German film that remade Petersen's own 1976 German TV movie. With a budget of $120 million, "The Perfect Storm" made $328.7 million. "In school, they never talked about the time of Hitler. Petersen, born in the north German port city of Emden, made two features before his 1982 breakthrough, "Das Boot," then the most expensive movie in German film history.

Petersen died Friday at his home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood after a battle with pancreatic cancer, said representative Michelle Bega.

“The power of water is unbelievable,” Petersen said in a 2009 interview. The big-budget “Poseidon,” a high-priced flop for Warner Bros., was Petersen’s last Hollywood film. With a budget of $120 million, “The Perfect Storm” made $328.7 million. “Air Force One,” with $315 million in global box office, was a hit, too, but Petersen went for something even bigger in 2000′s “The Perfect Storm,” the true-life tale of a Massachusetts fishing boat lost at sea. His final film was 2016′s “Four Against the Bank” a German film that remade Petersen’s own 1976 German TV movie. “The film is rooted in a profound pessimism about what’s unfortunately happened to this country in the last 30 years. Arguably Petersen’s finest Hollywood film came almost a decade later in 1993′s “In the Line of Fire,” starring Clint Eastwood as a Secret Service agent protecting the president of the United States from John Malkovich’s assassin. “When John’s character says, ‘Nothing they told me was true and there’s nothing left worth fighting for,’ I think his words will resonate for many people,” Petersen told The Los Angeles Times. Petersen, born in the north German port city of Emden, made two features before his 1982 breakthrough, “Das Boot,” then the most expensive movie in German film history. Eastwood met with Petersen, checked out his work and gave him the job. In it, Petersen marshalled his substantial skill in building suspense for a more open-air but just as taut thriller that careened across rooftops and past Washington D.C. “We kids were looking for more glamorous dreams than rebuilding a destroyed country though, so we were really ready for it when American pop culture came to Germany.

Film director Wolfgang Petersen died Friday at age 81 from pancreatic cancer, a representative confirmed to Newsweek. The German-born Petersen first found ...

"Wolfgang Petersen made some terrific thrillers, including In the Line of Fire and Das Boot, but I'll always associate him most with The NeverEnding Story. The film was a remake of a movie he made for German television in 1976. Petersen's first feature film was 1974's Einer von uns beiden, which he followed up with Die Konsequenz in 1977. In 2004, his period piece Troy with Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom became one of the year's biggest hits. The German-born Petersen first found acclaim with his 1981 film Das Boot (The Boat), which received six Academy Award nominations. One of his most well-known films, Air Force One, was released in 1997.

Wolfgang Petersen, the Oscar-nominated director of films like "Das Boot" and "Air Force One," died on August 12, his spokesperson, Michelle Bega from Rogers ...

He would point to us in turn and say, 'Acting...acting...NO acting...NO acting...ACTING... aaaacting!'" she recalled. "Being directed by Wolfgang on 'Air Force One' remains a special memory," actress Glenn Close said in a statement provided to CNN. Petersen, she said, would set up a remote-controlled camera that could rotate in place, enabling him to film all the actors and Petersen wiould provide them cues when they were being filmed. After writing and directing 1984's children's fantasy film "The NeverEnding Story," he went on to make a string of action films with some of the biggest stars of their eras, like "In the Line of Fire" (starring Clint Eastwood and Rene Russo), "Outbreak" (with Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman and Russo) and "Air Force One" (with Harrison Ford and Glenn Close). In the aughts, he continued the trend, helming "The Perfect Storm" with George Clooney and "Troy" with Brad Pitt and "Poseidon."

Oscar nominee Wolfgang Petersen directed 1984's 'The NeverEnding Story,' plus action films like 'Das Boot' and 'In the Line of Fire'

ACTING... NO acting... acting... "That was a concept that was very difficult to get through the studio system because it was very expensive. And the story— I mean six guys on the Andrea Gail boat, who, at the end, as we all know, die," he said. Can you at least have one, like Mark Wahlberg, survive at the end?' But we did it." And they all die at the end? "I was on a roll at that time. Five in a row," he said at the time. It was the biggest storm ever shown. ... I haven't told anybody that before." In the Line of Fire, Outbreak, Air Force One, Perfect Storm, Troy — I did all these films in a row, and each one was more successful than the one before.

“The Das Boot bloke dies” — there's a good chance that this will be the gist of many a Wolfgang Petersen obituary. It's understandable.

It was pancreatic cancer that would cause the credits to role on the life of Wolfgang Petersen. “It’s almost impossible to explain just how challenging it must have been for him to come out here after he made his masterpiece [Das Boot] and deal with the politics and the bullshit and the egos involved in big-time ’90s Hollywood action cinema. Pandemic drama Outbreak (1995), president-in-peril picture Air Force One (1997) and trouble at sea epic The Perfect Storm (2000) led studio executive Barry Isaacson to explain, “He was the perfect studio director of his era; technically proficient, a natural storyteller, able to accommodate the big stars and the big money without compromising his vision.” It’s really hard to explain just how big a deal Das Boot was in the 1980s. Indeed, three years would pass before he was again hired by a film studio, this time to make The Consequence, a controversial picture about a prison guard’s son, played by Ernst Hannawald, who falls in love with an inmate, again played by Prochnow. “The Das Boot bloke dies” — there’s a good chance that this will be the gist of many a Wolfgang Petersen obituary.

Wolfgang Petersen, the German filmmaker whose World War II submarine epic “Das Boot” propelled him into a blockbuster Hollywood career that included the ...

“The power of water is unbelievable,” Petersen said in a 2009 interview. The big-budget “Poseidon,” a high-priced flop for Warner Bros., was Petersen’s last Hollywood film. With a budget of $120 million, “The Perfect Storm” made $328.7 million. “Air Force One,” with $315 million in global box office, was a hit, too, but Petersen went for something even bigger in 2000′s “The Perfect Storm,” the true-life tale of a Massachusetts fishing boat lost at sea. Arguably Petersen’s finest Hollywood film came almost a decade later in 1993′s “In the Line of Fire,” starring Clint Eastwood as a Secret Service agent protecting the president of the United States from John Malkovich’s assassin. Petersen, born in the north German port city of Emden, made two features before his 1982 breakthrough, “Das Boot,” then the most expensive movie in German film history.