‘The Neverending Story’ and ‘Air Force One’ director Wolfgang Petersen dies at 81

The German filmmaker was known for his action thrillers and suspense, including In the Line of Fire, Outbreak and The Perfect Storm.

This Tuesday, August 16, the production company of German filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen announced his disappearance at the age of 81, following pancreatic cancer. He died at home with his wife, Maria Borgel Petersen.

Wolfgang Petersen, acclaimed German director of such film as Das Boot, The Neverending Story, and Air Force One, has sadly passed away at the age of 81.

Rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/fXcbDD8Vma

— Rotten Tomatoes (@RottenTomatoes) August 16, 2022

Wolfgang Petersen died at the age of 81 on Friday August 12 at his home in Los Angeles, a spokesperson said.

Wolfgang Petersen, born in 1941 in the northern German port city of Emden, made two feature films before his breakthrough in 1982 with The Boat (Das Boot), then the most expensive in the history of cinema German. The 149-minute feature (the first version was 210 minutes), whose plot takes place aboard a submarine during the Second World War, received six nominations for the 1983 Oscars and opened the doors to ‘Hollywood to its director.

This will have led him above all to the United States, driven by the success of « The Boat », a German war film released in 1981 and which will have revealed him thanks to his six Oscar nominations, including one for the statuette. for best director.

The following year saw the release of the first film, The Neverending Story, the adaptation of a children’s literature success telling the adventures of a boy who steals a novel from a bookstore before being propelled into the story of the work.

It was in Hollywood that he definitely made a name for himself, directing a number of blockbuster films, including the first part of « The Neverending Story » and the peplum « Troy », in which appeared notably Diane Kruger, Brad Pitt or Orlando Bloom.

He also toured with Clint Eastwood for “In the Line of Fire”, Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman for “Air Force One”, Dustin Hoffman for “Alert! or even George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg for “In the middle of a storm”.

He teamed up with Clint Eastwood for the assassination thriller In the Line of Fire, which was nominated for three Oscars, before working with Dustin Hoffman in the 1995 disaster thriller Outbreak and Harrison Ford in 1997’s Air Force One.

At the end of his career, he will have made a last big-budget film, « Poseidon », released in 2006, which he will end up regretting, deploring with great lucidity the haste and the lack of preparation surrounding this shooting. After a ten-year hiatus, he released one last film, the crime comedy “German Stealing,” in 2016.

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