- Geoff Murphy
Geoff Murphy (born 12 October 1938Fact|date=February 2008) became a key New Zealand filmmaker during the renaissance of New Zealand cinema that began in the last half of the 1970s. He has also worked as a scriptwriter, assistant director, special effects man, schoolteacher and
trumpet player.Growing up in Highbury, Wellington, Murphy attended St. Vincent de Paul School in Kelburn and St Patrick's College Wellington (1952-56).
Murphy was a founding member of legendary 'hippy' group
Blerta , which toured New Zealand and Australia performing multi-media shows in the early 1970s. Murphy later made a 'best of' film chronicling theBlerta phenomenon, and the group's drummer Bruno Lawrence would make a name for himself as an actor, partly through starring in a number of Murphy's 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:Maori western "Utu (1983)" and the last man on earth piece "The Quiet Earth" (1985), both starring Bruno Lawrence. [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0614276/filmorate]In the 1990s Murphy spent a number of years working in Hollywood. During this period he directed at least three features which had the number two in the title, including the sequel to
Young Guns (1990).Later he returned to New Zealand and worked for
Peter Jackson on The Lord of the Rings as a second unit director, before making the critically-panned thriller "Spooked", featuringCliff Curtis . More recently Murphy directed the New Zealand comedy series Welcome to Paradise.Filmography
*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 ""
*1996 "Don't Look Back"
*1997 "Magnificent Seven" - TV pilot
*1997 "Dante's Peak " - 2nd Unit Director
*1999 "Fortress 2 "
*2000 "Race Against Time"
*2001 "Blerta Revisited " (documentary)
*2001 "" - 2nd Unit Director
*2002 "" - 2nd Unit Director
*2003 "" - 2nd Unit Director
*2004 "Spooked"
*2005 "" - 2nd Unit DirectorExternal links
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0614276/ IMDb entry for Murphy]
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