Wolfgang Petersen, a German film director, producer, and screenwriter has died at age
81.
The director battled
pancreatic cancer and died at his home in Los Angeles on Friday, Aug 12.
Passing of Oscar-nominated German filmmaker best known for his WWII classic Das Boot, ‘The True Story,‘ The Perfect Storm,’ also the presidential thrillers In the ‘Line of Fire,‘ and ‘Air Force One‘ was announced
his production company.
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‘Das Boot‘ was the most expensive movie in German history before Petersen’s breakthrough in 1982.
The 149-minute film (the original cut ran 210 minutes) chronicled the intense claustrophobia of life aboard a doomed German U-boat during the Battle of the Atlantic, with Jurgen Prochnow as the submarine’s commander.
Heralded as an antiwar masterpiece, ‘Das Boot‘ was nominated for six Oscars, including for Petersen’s direction and his adaptation of Lothar-Gunther Buchheim’s best-selling 1973 novel.
‘Das Boot‘ awarded Petersen as a filmmaker in Hollywood, where he became one of the top makers of cataclysmic action adventures in films spanning war (2004’s Troy with Brad Pitt), pandemic (the 1995 ebolavirus-inspired Outbreak), and other ocean-set disasters (2000’s The Perfect Storm and 2006’s Poseidon, a remake of “The Poseidon Adventure,” about the capsizing of an ocean liner).
In the 1990s, he directed Clint Eastwood as the veteran presidential bodyguard out to stop an assassin in ‘In the Line of Fire (1993) and Harrison Ford (1997) as the embattled Commander-in-Chief in ‘Air Force One.’
Troy, the 2006 epic based on Homer’s Iliad, was less criticised but made about $US500 million ($712.6m) worldwide.
Petersen left behind his wife Maria Antoinette Borgel, son Daniel, daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren.
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