Geoff Murphy

Geoff Murphy (born 13 June 1946) is an iconic New Zealand film maker best known for his work during the renaissance of New Zealand cinema that began in the last half of the 1970s.

He directed a string of big-budget Hollywood features during the 1990s, before returning to New Zealand as second unit director on all three movies of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. He has also worked as a scriptwriter, assistant director, special effects technician, schoolteacher and trumpet player.

Early life

Murphy grew up in Highbury, Wellington and attended St. Vincent de Paul School in Kelburn and St. Patrick's College, Wellington, before training and working as a schoolteacher.

Blerta

Murphy was a founding member of legendary 'hippy' musical and theatrical co-operative Blerta, which toured New Zealand and Australia performing multi-media shows in the early 1970s, and together made the feature film Wild Man. Many members of the group would work in Murphy's later films - in particular drummer, and founder, Bruno Lawrence.

Early films

Murphy made his name with the classic road movie Goodbye Pork Pie (1981), one of the first New Zealand films to attract large-scale audiences in its home country. Murphy demonstrated his versatility and ability to attract mainstream audiences with the two films that followed: Māori western Utu (1983) and the last man on earth piece The Quiet Earth (1985), both starring Bruno Lawrence.^[1]Murphy became most renowned for his artistry in action, brilliance in knockabout comedy, and fusing genres.

Hollywood

In the 1990s Murphy spent a number of years working in Hollywood directing big-budget movies such as Young Guns II, Freejack, and the Steven Seagal sequel Under Siege 2: Dark Territory; the latter being his most successful film at the box-office (grossing over US$100 million worldwide). However, none of these were well received by critics.

Return to New Zealand

He returned to New Zealand and worked with Peter Jackson on each of The Lord of the Rings films; made a documentary film chronicling the Blerta phenomenon - and the critically panned thriller Spooked, featuring Cliff Curtis. More recently, Murphy directed the New Zealand television comedy series Welcome to Paradise,^[2] worked on the remastered DVD release of Goodbye Pork Pie and was 2nd unit director on another Hollywood movie.

In 2013 Murphy was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2013 Rialto Channel New Zealand Film Awards.^[3]

Filmography

• 1974 Uenuku (TV, 37min)^[4]
• 1977 Wild Man (75min)
• 1977 Dagg Day Afternoon (30min)
• 1981 Goodbye Pork Pie
• 1983 Utu
• 1985 The Quiet Earth
• 1988 Never Say Die
• 1989 Red King White Knight
• 1990 Young Guns II
• 1992 Freejack
• 1993 Blind Side (HBO)
• 1994 The Last Outlaw
• 1995 Under Siege 2: Dark Territory
• 1996 Don't Look Back
• 1997 The Magnificent Seven - TV pilot
• 1997 Dante's Peak - 2nd Unit Director
• 1999 Fortress 2
• 2000 Race Against Time
• 2001 Blerta Revisited (documentary)
• 2001 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - 2nd Unit Director
• 2002 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - 2nd Unit Director
• 2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - 2nd Unit Director
• 2004 Spooked
• 2005 XXX: State of the Union - 2nd Unit Director
• 2009 Tales of Mystery and Imagination (film)^[5]

References

External links

• Geoff Murphy at the Internet Movie Database