- For the Northern Ireland politician see Peter Weir (politician)
Peter Weir (born August 21, 1944) is an Australian film director.
Born in Sydney, Australia, Weir studied art and law at the University of Sydney. His interest in film was sparked by his meeting with fellow students, including Phillip Noyce and the future members of the Sydney film/lightshow collective Ubu.
After leaving university in the mid-1960s he joined Sydney television station ATN-7, where he worked as a production assistant on the groundbreaking satirical comedy program The Mavis Bramston Show . During this period he made his first two experimental short films, Count Vim's Last Exercise and The Life and Flight of Reverend Buckshotte. His first film was the underground cult classic, The Cars That Ate Paris.
Weir achieved considerable success in Australia with Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), and Gallipoli (1981), both regarded as classic Australian cinema. The Last Wave was a pensive, ambivalent film which explored the interaction between the native Aboriginal culture and the European.
His first two American films, Witness (1985) and The Mosquito Coast (1986) provided Harrison Ford with opportunities to play new kind of roles. Dead Poets Society (1989) brought him significant commercial success and Green Card (1990) will remain a favourite with many comedy lovers. In 2003 he made the blockbuster movie, Master and Commander; it was successful with mainstream audiences despite its slow pace and focus on period detail and characterization, qualities that are characteristic of Weir's work.
Filmography
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