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Peter Weir

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Peter Weir

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Also known as Peter Lindsay Weir

Australian film director (born 1944)

Person · Open Library

Works
8

Top works

  • Life of a Forestry Ploughman and Other Adventures
  • Der Club der toten Dichter - Dead Poets Society von Nancy H. Kleinbaum. Königs Erläuterungen.
  • More Ways Than Means
  • Report on the Inquiry into Shared and Integrated Education
  • A garden of delights & other stories

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Directing · Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Peter Lindsay Weir AM (born August 21, 1944) is a retired Australian film director. He is known for directing films crossing various genres over forty years with films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Gallipoli (1981), Witness (1985), Dead Poets Society (1989), Fearless (1993), The Truman Show (1998), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), and The Way Back (2010). He has…

Known for

  • Timeless Heroes: Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford — Self2023
  • Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound — Self2019
  • Dubai Winter Diary VI: Light and Reflections — Self2012
  • How's It Going to End - The Making of 'The Truman Show' — Self2005
  • Entrenched: The Making of Gallipoli — Himself2005
  • The Hundred Days — Self2004
  • A Dream Within a Dream: The Making of 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' — Self2004
  • Walkabout to Hollywood — Self1980
  • A Recollection... Hanging Rock 1900 — Self1975
  • Spécial cinéma — Self1974

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
Surrey
Active from
1944

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
711
Total plays
1,449

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Peter+Weir">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Peter Weir

Quotes

  • Get the right actor, and the job's halfway done. I've only miscast major people twice in my life – out of respect to them, I won't tell you who. After a couple of days' shooting, I had to tell them I was letting them go. It was hideous.
  • Music is the fountainhead: everything comes from that. At the moment, I'm getting intoxicated on Beethoven, and I use Pink Floyd for inspiration while making a film. Their music contains a sound for almost everything I do.
  • When you get a cut and think, 'I'm going to make a halfway decent film.
  • The feeling that maybe you won't ever get your inspiration back. That's a very cold place to be.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born
Peter Lindsay Weir , ( 1944-08-21 ) 21 August 1944 (age 81) , Sydney, Australia
Occupations
Film director screenwriter producer
Years active
1967–2010
Spouse
Wendy Stites ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1966 ) ​

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image
PeterWeirApr2011 (cropped).jpg
Number of children
2
Show 6 more facts
date of birth
1944-08-21
Commons category
Peter Weir
start of work period
1968-00-00
floruit
1966-01-01
birth name
Peter Lindsay Weir
end of work period
2020-00-00
Sources (12)

via Wikidata · CC0

~15 min read

Article

Peter Lindsay Weir (/wɪər/ WEER; born 21 August 1944) is an Australian retired film director, screenwriter, and producer. He directed films crossing various genres over forty years, such as Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Gallipoli (1981), The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Witness (1985), Dead Poets Society (1989), Fearless (1993), The Truman Show (1998), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), and The Way Back (2010). He has received six Academy Award nominations and he has won two AACTA Award for Best Direction and two BAFTA Award for Best Direction. In 2022, he was awarded the Academy Honorary Award for his lifetime career achievement. In 2024, he received an honorary life-time achievement award at the Venice Film Festival (Golden Lion).

Early in his career as a director, Weir was a leading figure in the Australian New Wave cinema movement (1970–1990). Weir made his feature film debut with The Cars That Ate Paris (1974), and continued with the mystery drama Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), the supernatural thriller The Last Wave (1977) and the historical drama Gallipoli (1981). Weir gained tremendous success with the multinational production The Year of Living Dangerously (1982).

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