Phillip NoyceBirth Place: Griffith, New South Wales, Australia Date of Birth: April 29, 1950 Heritage: Australian Famous for: Director of 'The Quiet American' (2002) Contact Phillip Noyce | 
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Dead Calm Background: “A true director is not a director because he necessarily understands the technical aspects of making movies. That can be learned. What can't be learned is a voracious appetite for telling stories. Directors spend most of their lives caught up in telling stories. It's a lifelong passion. Don't wait around. Work on your own stories. It's quite cheap.” Phillip Noyce Australian born filmmaker Phillip Noyce began making short movies and documentaries in the late 1960s and attracted attention with the award winning documentary “Castor and Pollux” (1973). He eventually directed his first feature, “Backroads” (1977) and was established as a prominent director in his native country with his sophomore effort, “Newsfront” (1978), which earned him AFI Awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay, Original. After scoring another success with “Heatwave” (1982), from which he nabbed a Special Mention at the 1983 Mystfest, Noyce gained international recognition with a vehicle for Nicole Kidman, “Dead Calm” (1989). Following “Blind Fury” (1989), the director enjoyed a string of box office successes with “Patriot Games” (1992), “Sliver” (1993), “Clear and Present Danger” (1994) and “The Bone Collector” (1999). Back to Australia after 12 years working inside the Hollywood system, Noyce experienced victory with “Rabbit-Proof Fence” (2002), which he directed and produced. He nabbed an AFI Award for Best Picture, two Castellinaria International Festival of Young Cinema Awards, a Denver International Film Festival Award, a Durban International Film Festival Award, and an Edinburgh International Film Festival Award, to name a few honors. More recently, he directed the Hollywood thriller “Salt” (2010), which starred Angelina Jolie. Noyce was honored with the Australian Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Achievement in 2006. The same year, he received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Australian Screen Directors' Association Awards.
Childhood and Family: Phillip Noyce was born on April 29, 1950, in Griffith, New South Wales, Australia. His family moved to Sidney when he was 12 years old. He graduated from Sydney's Barker College and went on to attend the University of Sydney's law school, but dropped out to play amateur rugby. He then re-enrolled in the University's fine arts department. Enjoying movies since an early age, Phillip began experimenting with a 8mm camera as a teen and made his first short film, “Better to Reign in Hell” (1967), before his high school graduation. He was a member of the University of Sydney's film society and in 1973 was accepted to the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. Phillip has been married three times. Meeting in the late 1960s while at college, he married film producer Jan Chapman (born on March 28, 1950) on December 1971, but they divorced in 1977. He was then married to Jan Sharp from 1979 to 2004 and they have two children. In 2005, while filming “Catch A Fire,” Phillip met Vuyo Dyasi and they married in 2006. They had a son named Luvuyo William Noyce in March 2008.
Career: During his first year at the Australian National Film School, Phillip Noyce made the documentary short “Castor and Pollux” (1973), which won the award for Best Australian Short Film of 1974. Also in 1973, he created the short film “That's Showbiz.” His professional debut arrived two years later with “God Knows Why, But It Works” (1975), a 50 minute documentary. The same year, he also made his big screen debut when he contributed to the Ayten Kuyululu independent drama “The Golden Cage” as an assistant director. The following year, he served as a second assistant director on Oliver Howes' “Let the Balloon Go” (1976), which earned two nominations at the AFI Awards. In 1977, Noyce made his feature directorial debut with “Backroads,” which he also co-wrote with Josephine Emery and produced. Starring Bill Hunter and Gary Foley, the film received mixed reviews from Australian critics and opened commercially in only one cinema. He resurfaced the following year with the commercial hit “Newsfront” (1978), which he co-wrote and directed. The drama, in which he was reunited with “Backroads” star Bill Hunter, received fifteen AFI nominations and won eight categories, including Best Director and Best Screenplay, Original, and Best Picture. “Newsfront” became the first Australian film to screen at the New York Film Festival (in September 1978). In 1980, Noyce served as a part time manager of the Sidney Filmmaker's Co-operative. He returned to the director's chair two years later when he helmed Judy Davis, Richard Moir and Hunter in the 1982 drama “Heatwave,” which he co-wrote with Marc Rosenberg. It was nominated for two AFIs and brought Noyce the Special Mention and a Best Film nomination at the 1983 Mystfest. “Heatwave” was chosen to screen at the Cannes Film Festival and released in the United States in June 1983. 1983 found Noyce branching out to Australian television by directing and co-writing the six hour miniseries “The Dismissal,” which won several awards. He then co-wrote and co-directed the ten hour Aussie miniseries “Cowra Breakout” (1984). From 1985 to 1989, he directed several episodes of “The Hitchhiker,” a mystery series that was broadcasted from 1983 to 1987 on HBO and First Choice in Canada and the USA Network from 1989 to 1991. The episodes were “Nightshift,” “Man's Best Friend,” “The Curse,” “Man of Her Dreams” and “The Marty.” Noyce returned to features when he directed the independent drama “Echoes of Paradise” (1987), a love story about an Australian woman and a Balinese dancer. It was nominated for AFIs in the categories of Best Actress in a Lead Role (Wendy Hughes), Best Achievement in Sound and Best Original Music Score. The director, however, did not enjoy international triumph until he directed the 1989 thriller “Dead Calm,” starring Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane. Adapted from the 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Williams, the film received rave reviews from critics and grossed $7,825,009 in the U.S., where it premiered on April 7, 1989. Noyce earned an AFI nomination for Best Director for his work in the film. Following his success of “Dead Calm,” Noyce made his Hollywood feature directorial debut with “Blind Fury” (1989), a samurai action film starring Rutger Hauer, Terry O'Quinn and Brandon Call. Noyce's next American film, “Patriot Games” (1992), a sequel to the 1990 hit “The Hunt for Red October,” starred Harrison Ford as Jack Ryan, a role played by Alec Baldwin in the first film, Anne Archer as Jack's wife, Dr. Cathy Muller Ryan, and Sean Bean as the revengeful IRA terrorist Sean Miller. The movie was a box office success. Also in 1992, Noyce returned to the small screen directing the pilot episode of the horror series “Nightmare Cafe” (NBC). In 1993, Noyce directed Sharon Stone, William Baldwin and Tom Berenger in the thriller “Sliver,” which was scripted by Joe Eszterhas and based on Ira Levin's 1991 novel of the same title. The film was generally panned by critics and nominated for seven Razzie Awards. However, it managed to collect $36.3 million in the U.S. and $80 million internationally against a budget of $40 million. Noyce scored even bigger commercial success with his next feature, “Clear and Present Danger” (1994), an installment to “Patriot Games” and his second film based on a Tom Clancy novel. Starring Harrison Ford, the film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing and Best Sound. In 1997, Noyce directed Val Kilmer, Elisabeth Shue, William Hope, Rade Šerbedžija and Michael Byrne in the action movie “The Saint,” based on the character of Simon Templar and created by Leslie Charteris in 1928 for a series of books published as “The Saint.” The film garnered primarily negative reviews from critics and was nominated for a Razzie in the category of Worst Actor for Val Kilmer's performance as Simon Templar. It was also a box office disappointment in the U.S. Two years later, Noyce helmed Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie in the thriller “The Bone Collector” (1999), based on the 1997 novel of the same name by Jeffery Deaver. Noyce returned to the Australian cinema with the critically acclaimed drama “Rabbit-Proof Fence” (2002), an adaptation of the book “Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence” by Doris Pilkington Garimara. A true story of three Aborigine girls kidnapped from their families by Australian authorities in 1931, the film, which Noyce also produced, amassed a number of awards and nominations and Noyce took home an AFI for Best Film, not to mention an additional nomination for Best Director, an ASPI Award and a Golden Castle from the 2002 Castellinaria International Festival of Young Cinema, a Chlotrudis nomination for Best Director, a People's Choice Award for Best Feature-Length Fiction Film at the 2002 Denver International Film Festival, the Audience Awards from the 2002 Durban International Film Festival and the 2002 Edinburgh International Film Festival, a Film Critics Circle of Australia for Best Director, an IF nomination for Best Direction, an Audience Award at the 2002 Leeds International Film Festival, the São Paulo International Film Festival's Audience Award for Best Foreign Film, and an Audience Award for Meeting Point Section: Feature Film at the 2002 Valladolid International Film Festival. Later that same year, Noyce directed Michael Caine, Brendan Fraser and Do Thi Hai Yen in the big screen adaptation of Graham Greene's bestselling novel “The Quiet American” (2002). Noyce received a Golden Satellite nomination for Best Director and a Golden Kinnaree nomination for Best Film at the 2003 Bangkok International Film Festival. He also won London Critics Circle Film's ALFS Award for Director of the Year, a National Board of Review for Best Director and a Special Citation at the 2002 San Francisco Film Critics Circle (also for “Rabbit-Proof Fence”). Under his direction, Caine earned Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for his portrayal of Thomas Fowler. In 2003, Noyce returned to television when he directed and executive produced the pilot of Fox's supernatural series “Tru Calling.” He then directed the segment “Marca Zero” for the documentary “Welcome to São Paulo” (2004) and the episodes “Mark 8:36” (2006) and “One Too Many Mornings 3:4-8” (2007) for the Showtime series “Brotherhood.” In 2006, he helmed Derek Luke, Tim Robbins and Bonnie Henna in the dramatic film “Catch a Fire,” which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 2, 2006, before receiving a theatrical release in the U.S. on October 27, 2006. Recently, in 2010, Noyce directed the American thriller “Salt,” which starred Angelina Jolie. Released in North America on July 23, 2010, the film received mixed reviews but opened at No.2 at the box office. The cast also includes Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Daniel Olbrychski. Noyce also served as an executive producer of FX's drama “Lights Out” (2010), starring Melora Hardin. Noyce has signed on as executive producer of the upcoming thriller “Foolproof,” by director Christoffer Boe. He also has several additional projects in development. “I became a nowhere man, I wasn't an Australian, I wasn't an American. I was living in a country where I was a migrant guest worker. The only political organization I was a member of was the Directors Guild.” Phillip Noyce (on working in Hollywood)
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