Biography
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,...
Known For
Complete Filmography
U-96, The True Story of 'Das Boot'
2023
as Self (archive footage)
Today, 80 years after the events and 40 years after the film, these images and testimonies shed an unexpected light on the reality of the fiction film...
Das Boot Revisited: An Underwater Success Story
2021
as Self - Das Boot Screenwriter and Director
In 1981, a film about the misadventures of a German U-boat crew in 1941 becomes a worldwide hit almost four decades after the end of the World War II....
Four Against the Bank
2016
Director
After losing their respective nest eggs thanks to a bumbling bank employee, three men use him to plot a bold and batty heist to get their money back.
And the Oscar Goes To...
2014
as Self (archive footage)
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy ...
Stardust Hollywood - Sternenstaub und Götterwelten
2013
as Self
Documentary about Hollywood.
Der Bernd
2012
as Self
Wolfgang Petersen: Back to the Boat
2011
as Self
Author Gundolf S. Freyermuth goes Back to the Boat with director Wolfgang Petersen, star Jürgen Prochnow, and others to discuss the production of 'Das...
Poseidon
2006
Director, Producer
A packed cruise ship traveling the Atlantic is hit and overturned by a massive wave, compelling the passengers to begin a dramatic fight for their liv...
Gottschalk meets Petersen
2005
as Himself
Troy
2004
Director, Producer
In year 1250 B.C. during the late Bronze age, two emerging nations begin to clash. Paris, the Trojan prince, convinces Helen, Queen of Sparta, to leav...
The Agency
2003
Executive Producer
The Agency receives word that Fidel Castro will be assassinated when he visits America and the CIA has 48 hours to stop the assassination.
Starbuck Holger Meins
2002
as Self
Twenty-five years after the death of Holger Meins, filmmaker and former student friend of the deceased, Gerd Conradt takes an in-depth look at the hel...
The Perfect Storm
2000
Director, Producer
In October 1991, a confluence of weather conditions combined to form a killer storm in the North Atlantic. Caught in the storm was the sword-fishing b...
Bicentennial Man
1999
Producer
Richard Martin buys a gift, a new NDR-114 robot. The product is named Andrew by the youngest of the family's children. "Bicentennial Man" follows the ...
Instinct
1999
Executive Producer
In a prison for the criminally insane, deranged anthropologist Ethan Powell is set to be examined by a bright young psychiatrist, Theo Caulder. Driven...
Red Corner
1997
Executive Producer
An American attorney on business in China, ends up wrongfully on trial for murder and his only key to innocence is a female defense lawyer from the co...
Air Force One
1997
Director, Producer
When Russian neo-nationalists hijack Air Force One, the world's most secure and extraordinary aircraft, the President is faced with a nearly impossibl...
Hollywood, Germany - Die amerikanische Herausforderung
1996
as Self
Documentary by Eckhart Schmidt.
Outbreak
1995
Director, Producer
A deadly airborne virus finds its way into the USA and starts killing off people at an epidemic rate. Col. Sam Daniels' job is to stop the virus sprea...
In the Line of Fire
1993
Director, Executive Producer
Veteran Secret Service agent Frank Horrigan is a man haunted by his failure to save President Kennedy while serving protection detail in Dallas. Thirt...
Shattered
1991
Director, Screenplay, Producer
Dan Merrick comes out from a shattering car accident with amnesia. He finds that he is married to Judith who is trying to help him start his life agai...
Enemy Mine
1985
Director
A soldier from Earth crashlands on an alien world after sustaining battle damage. Eventually he encounters another survivor, but from the enemy specie...
The NeverEnding Story
1984
as Man who drops Milk (uncredited)
While hiding from bullies in his school's attic, a young boy discovers the extraordinary land of Fantasia, through a magical book called The Neverendi...
The NeverEnding Story
1984
Director, Screenplay
While hiding from bullies in his school's attic, a young boy discovers the extraordinary land of Fantasia, through a magical book called The Neverendi...
Das Boot: Behind The Scenes
1981
as Self
Comprehensive classic piece that looks at the process of creating the movie, told with a strong, well-constructed narrative that plays almost as a mov...
Das Boot
1981
Director, Screenplay
A German submarine hunts allied ships during the Second World War, but it soon becomes the hunted. The crew tries to survive below the surface, while ...
Black and White Like Day and Night
1978
Director
A scientist who swore off playing chess after a nervous breakdown as a boy wunderkind, creates an undefeated chess program. But the Russian world cham...
The Consequence
1977
Director, Screenplay
Thomas, the son of a prison warden, falls for Martin, one of the prison inmates. After Martin is released, they try to build a relationship and a life...
Planübung
1977
Director, Writer
A fictionalized version of a military training fight.
Four Against the Bank
1976
Director
One evening, the once successful architect Helmut is tired of the recession giving no jobs, he gets the idea of robbing a bank. He recruits members of...
Hans in Luck
1976
Director
When Hans wakes up one morning, he realizes that he is longer than his bed, his feet sticking out over the edge of the bed. The young man remembers hi...
Stellenweise Glatteis
1975
Director
Karl Maiwald, a Dortmund auto mechanic, struggles amid neighbor disputes and family tension. Discovering his company’s clandestine bugging, he exposes...
Die Stadt im Tal
1975
Director
Pinned to the Ground
1974
Director
Two young oil salesmen from Hamburg, who are tasked with buying oil from the Middle East as cheaply as possible for their company, get caught up in a ...
One or the Other of Us
1974
Director
Psychological thriller that focuses on the intense conflict between a university professor and a blackmailer.
Van der Valk and the Rich
1973
Director
Dutch police officer Van der Valk is pulled away for a private investigation for a friend of the chief of police to find the missing junior manager. W...
Smog
1973
Director, Author
Every day they clean the dirty windows of their cars from the filthy film that has formed overnight. Measuring stations call a low smog warning. But o...
I Will Kill You, Wolf
1971
Director, Writer
A young woman takes the train to Berlin. She wants to kill her friend Wolf, a theater actor. When the woman meets him, he tells her about his weird wi...
Ich Nicht
1969
Director, Writer
A staging of a young man's liberation from his bourgeois confinement using only music and sounds.
The Cuckoo Years
1967
Assistant Director
Experimental fiction film about young people taking on different creative tasks.
The Foundling
1967
Assistant Director
The story centers on the Roman merchant Piacchi, who raises the foundling Nicolo after the death of his son and bequeaths all his possessions to the y...
Der Eine - der Andere
1967
Director, Writer
One man interacts with an invisible orchestra, another one is stuck in a bin.
Stadt auf Stelzen
1965
Director
Directorial debut of Wolfgang Petersen