Wolfgang Petersen, blockbuster filmmaker of 'Das Boot,' dies
Source: AP
By JAKE COYLE
NEW YORK (AP) — Wolfgang Petersen, the German filmmaker whose World War II submarine epic “Das Boot” propelled him into a blockbuster Hollywood career that included the films “In the Line of Fire,” “Air Force One” and “The Perfect Storm,” has died. He was 81.
Petersen died Friday at his home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood after a battle with pancreatic cancer, said representative Michelle Bega.
Petersen, born in Emden, Germany, made two features before his 1982 breakthrough, “Das Boot.” Then the most expensive movie in German film history, the 149-minute “Das Boot” (the original cut ran 210 minutes) chronicled the intense claustrophobia of life aboard a doomed German U-boat during the Battle of the Atlantic, with Jürgen Prochnow as the submarine’s commander. Heralded as an antiwar masterpiece, “Das Boot” was nominated for six Oscars, including for Petersen’s direction and his adaptation of Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s best-selling 1973 novel.
To Petersen, who grew up on the northern coast of Germany, the sea long held his fascination. He would return to it in the 2000 disaster film, “The Perfect Storm,” a true-life tale of a fishing boat lost at sea.
FILE - German film director Wolfgang Petersen speaks during a press conference promoting his latest film "Poseidon," a remake of the 1972 film "The Poseidon Adventure," in Tokyo, on April 19, 2006. Petersen, the German filmmaker whose WWII submarine epic “Das Boot” propelled him into a blockbuster Hollywood career, died Friday at his home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 81. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara, File)
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