Australians in Hollywood : Biographical Notes

Peter Weir
Peter Weir (b. 1944) worked for Channel 7 and the Commonwealth Film Unit before directing the ambitious The Cars That Ate Paris (1974). A string of Australian classics followed: Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), which won acclaim at Cannes , The Last Wave (1977), Gallipoli (1981) and The Year of Living Dangerously (1983). Weir then relocated to the US to make Witness (1985) with Harrison Ford. The film earned Weir an Oscar nomination for best director. His subsequent Hollywood works include Dead Poets Society (1989), for which he was again nominated as best director, Green Card (1990), for which he received a best screenplay nomination, and The Truman Show (1998), which established Jim Carrey as a serious actor, and offered a timely comment on the distinction between entertainment and reality. The film brought Weir his third nomination in the best director category. Master and Commander , starring Russell Crowe, is scheduled for release in late 2003.

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