A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Alias:
Вольфганг Петерсен
Birthplace:
Emden, Germany
Born:
March 14, 1941
Died:
August 12, 2022
Wolfgang Petersen was a German-born screenwriter, producer and film director who spent most of his career in the United States. In the 1960s he began working directing plays at the Ernst Deutsch Theater in Hamburg. After becoming interested in theater in Berlin and Hamburg, Petersen attended the Berlin Film and Television Academy (1966-70). His first productions were for German state television, and it was during his work on the popular crime series Crime Scene that he met actor Jürgen Prochnow, who would later appear in his iconic film Das Boot (1981). His other films include The NeverEnding Story (1984), cult film Enemy Mine (1985), Shattered (1991), In the Line of Fire (1993), Outbreak (1995), Air Force One (1997), The Perfect Storm (2000), Troy (2004), Poseidon (2006) and Four Against the Bank (2016), his latest film.
Assistant Director:
1967 Der Findling
1967 The Cuckoo Years
Author:
1967 Der Findling
1967 The Cuckoo Years
1973 Smog
Director:
1965 Stadt auf Stelzen
1967 Der Eine - der Andere
1967 Der Findling
1967 The Cuckoo Years
1969 Ich Nicht
1971 I Will Kill You, Wolf
1973 Smog
1973 Van der Valk and the Rich
1974 One or the Other of Us
1974 Pinned to the Ground
1975 Die Stadt im Tal
1975 Stellenweise Glatteis
1976 Four Against the Bank
1976 Hans in Luck
1977 Planübung
1977 The Consequence
1978 Black and White Like Day and Night
1981 Das Boot
1984 The NeverEnding Story
1985 Enemy Mine
1991 Shattered
1993 In the Line of Fire
1995 Outbreak
1997 Air Force One
2000 The Perfect Storm
2004 Troy
2006 Poseidon
2016 Four Against the Bank
Executive Producer:
1965 Stadt auf Stelzen
1967 Der Eine - der Andere
1967 Der Findling
1967 The Cuckoo Years
1969 Ich Nicht
1971 I Will Kill You, Wolf
1973 Smog
1973 Van der Valk and the Rich
1974 One or the Other of Us
1974 Pinned to the Ground
1975 Die Stadt im Tal
1975 Stellenweise Glatteis
1976 Four Against the Bank
1976 Hans in Luck
1977 Planübung
1977 The Consequence
1978 Black and White Like Day and Night
1981 Das Boot
1984 The NeverEnding Story
1985 Enemy Mine
1991 Shattered
1993 In the Line of Fire
1995 Outbreak
1997 Air Force One
1997 Red Corner
1999 Instinct
2000 The Perfect Storm
2003 The Agency
2004 Troy
2006 Poseidon
2016 Four Against the Bank
Producer:
1965 Stadt auf Stelzen
1967 Der Eine - der Andere
1967 Der Findling
1967 The Cuckoo Years
1969 Ich Nicht
1971 I Will Kill You, Wolf
1973 Smog
1973 Van der Valk and the Rich
1974 One or the Other of Us
1974 Pinned to the Ground
1975 Die Stadt im Tal
1975 Stellenweise Glatteis
1976 Four Against the Bank
1976 Hans in Luck
1977 Planübung
1977 The Consequence
1978 Black and White Like Day and Night
1981 Das Boot
1984 The NeverEnding Story
1985 Enemy Mine
1991 Shattered
1993 In the Line of Fire
1995 Outbreak
1997 Air Force One
1997 Red Corner
1999 Bicentennial Man
1999 Instinct
2000 The Perfect Storm
2003 The Agency
2004 Troy
2006 Poseidon
2016 Four Against the Bank
Screenplay:
1965 Stadt auf Stelzen
1967 Der Eine - der Andere
1967 Der Findling
1967 The Cuckoo Years
1969 Ich Nicht
1971 I Will Kill You, Wolf
1973 Smog
1973 Van der Valk and the Rich
1974 One or the Other of Us
1974 Pinned to the Ground
1975 Die Stadt im Tal
1975 Stellenweise Glatteis
1976 Four Against the Bank
1976 Hans in Luck
1977 Planübung
1977 The Consequence
1978 Black and White Like Day and Night
1981 Das Boot
1984 The NeverEnding Story
1985 Enemy Mine
1991 Shattered
1993 In the Line of Fire
1995 Outbreak
1997 Air Force One
1997 Red Corner
1999 Bicentennial Man
1999 Instinct
2000 The Perfect Storm
2003 The Agency
2004 Troy
2006 Poseidon
2016 Four Against the Bank
Writer:
1965 Stadt auf Stelzen
1967 Der Eine - der Andere
1967 Der Findling
1967 The Cuckoo Years
1969 Ich Nicht
1971 I Will Kill You, Wolf
1973 Smog
1973 Van der Valk and the Rich
1974 One or the Other of Us
1974 Pinned to the Ground
1975 Die Stadt im Tal
1975 Stellenweise Glatteis
1976 Four Against the Bank
1976 Hans in Luck
1977 Planübung
1977 The Consequence
1978 Black and White Like Day and Night
1981 Das Boot
1984 The NeverEnding Story
1985 Enemy Mine
1991 Shattered
1993 In the Line of Fire
1995 Outbreak
1997 Air Force One
1997 Red Corner
1999 Bicentennial Man
1999 Instinct
2000 The Perfect Storm
2003 The Agency
2004 Troy
2006 Poseidon
2016 Four Against the Bank
Creator:
1985 Das Boot
2001 The Agency
Director:
1970 Scene of the Crime
1985 Das Boot
2001 The Agency
Screenplay:
1970 Scene of the Crime
1985 Das Boot
2001 The Agency
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.