Roger Donaldson

Roger Donaldson
Born	November 15, 1945 Victoria, Australia

Roger Donaldson (born 15 November 1945) is an Australian-born New Zealand film producer, director and writer who has made numerous successful movies. He was one of several co-founders of the New Zealand Film Commission.

Career and life

Roger Donaldson was born in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia and in 1965 he emigrated to New Zealand to establish a small still photography business. He first entered the film industry when he made the drama series Winners and Losers for New Zealand television, then later directed and produced his first film Sleeping Dogs in 1977. As this was the first film to come out of New Zealand in nearly 15 years, he lobbied the New Zealand Government to found the New Zealand Film Commission in 1978. Donaldson's first films were made in close collaboration with his friend and leading man, actor and musician Bruno Lawrence, with whom Donaldson worked extensively in the 1970s, but the partnership and their long friendship effectively ended after Smash Palace.

Donaldson's first American break was his remake of the film Mutiny of the Bounty, which was released as The Bounty and featured Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins and Laurence Olivier. He was nominated for a Golden Palm from the Cannes Film Festival for this film. Since then Donaldson has been involved with many popular and successful movies, among them being the thriller No Way Out (starring Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman), Cocktail (starring Bryan Brown and Tom Cruise), Dante's Peak (starring Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton), Thirteen Days (starring Kevin Costner and Steven Culp) and the popular yet oft-maligned Species. In 2003, he directed Al Pacino and Colin Farrell in The Recruit.

His son Chris has represented New Zealand at Olympic level in athletics in the 100m and 200m events.^[1]

Filmography

Director

• Sleeping Dogs (1977)
• Nutcase (1980)
• Smash Palace (1981)
• The Bounty (1984)
• Marie (1985) also known as Marie: A True Story (1985)
• No Way Out (1987)
• Cocktail (1988)
• Cadillac Man (1990)
• White Sands (1992)
• The Getaway (1994)
• Species (1995)
• Dante's Peak (1997)
• Thirteen Days (2000), also known as Thirteen Days Which Shocked the World (2000)
• The Recruit (2003)
• The World's Fastest Indian (2005)
• The Bank Job (2008)

Producer

• Sleeping Dogs (1977)
• Smash Palace (1981)
• Cadillac Man (1990)
• Fearless (1999) (TV) (executive producer)
• The World's Fastest Indian (2005)

Writer

• Smash Palace (1981)
• The World's Fastest Indian (2005)

Art Director

• Sleeping Dogs (1977)

References

External links

• Roger Donaldson at the Internet Movie Database