- Born
- Height6′ 4″ (1.93 m)
- Born in the Australian rural town of Griffith, New South Wales, Phillip Noyce moved to Sydney with his family at the age of 12. As a teenager, he was introduced to underground films produced on shoestring budgets as well as mainstream American movies. He was 18 when he made his first film, the 15-minute Better to Reign in Hell (1969) utilizing a unique financing scheme selling roles in the movie to his friends.
In 1973 he was selected to attend the Australian National Film School in its inaugural year. Here, he made Castor and Pollux (1973) a 50 minute documentary which won the award for best Australian short film of 1974.
Noyce's first professional film was the 50-minute docudrama God Knows Why, But It Works (1976) in 1975. This helped pave the way for his first feature, the road movie Backroads (1977) which starred Australian Aboriginal activist Gary Foley and iconic Australian actor Bill Hunter who would go on to appear in 2 other Noyce films. In 1978, he directed and co-wrote Newsfront (1978), which won Best Film, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the Australian Film Awards, as well as proving a huge commercial hit in Australia. In addition to opening the London Film Festival, Newsfront was the first Australian film to screen at the New York Film Festival.
In 1982, Heatwave (1982), co-written and directed by Noyce and starring Judy Davis, was chosen to screen at the Director's Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.
The success of the Australian produced Dead Calm (1989), starring Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill and Billy Zane brought Noyce to Hollywood, where he directed 6 films over the next decade, including Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994) starring Harrison Ford, and The Bone Collector (1999), starring Oscar© winners Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie.
In 2002 Noyce returned to his native Australia, where released two films worldwide at almost the same time. The Quiet American (2002) starred Michael Caine in an Academy nominated Best Actor performance and appeared on over 20 top ten lists for 2002, including the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) was based on the true story of three Aboriginal girls abducted from their families by Australian authorities in 1931 as part of an official government policy. The film won Best Picture at the Australian Film Awards, and together with The Quiet American garnered Noyce numerous best director awards including National Board of Review in the US and UK's London Film Critics Circle.
In 2006 Noyce directed Tim Robbins and Derek Luke in the South African set political thriller Catch a Fire (2006).
2010 Saw Noyce re-teaming with Angelina Jolie for his biggest box-office hit, the spy thriller Salt (2010), which grossed $295 million worldwide.
In Spring 2011, Noyce directed and executive produced the pilot for the ABC series Revenge (2011), which ended a four-season run on May 10, 2015.
In 2013 Noyce directed and executive produced the NBC pilot Crisis (2014), which went to series. Later that year, he returned to South Africa to film The Giver (2014), starring Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, and Brenton Thwaites, which opened in the US on August 15, 2014 from The Weinstein Company.
In 2016 Noyce directed the first night of the Emmy nominated miniseries Roots (2016).
In 2017 Noyce directed the pilot and first episode of Fox Network's medical show The Resident (2018) reuniting him with Emily VanCamp, who starred in Revenge.
In 2018 Noyce directed the feature Above Suspicion (2019), starring Emilia Clarke and Jack Huston. In 2018 he also directed the pilot and first episode of the 10-part series What/If (2019), starring Renée Zellweger and created by Revenge creator Mike Kelley, to be released in June 2019 by Netflix.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Rumbalara Films
- SpousesVuyo Dyasi(2006 - present) (1 child)Jan Sharp(1979 - 2004) (2 children)Jan Chapman(December 1971 - 1977) (divorced)
- Step-daughter, Alice, is a props maker and production designer in Los Angeles.
- In early 1985, Phillip Noyce directed a film clip for the Australian rock band, The Angels, with what was then believed to be the most expensive budget for an Australian film clip. Shooting occurred in drains under Sydney, at a disused train tunnel north of Sydney and in the Outback, including various real biker gang members appearing as part of an involved back story. However, the song, 'Underground', did not end up charting well in Australia or its intended market in the US, so the film clip is rarely seen.
- Has directed one Oscar nominated performance: Michael Caine in The Quiet American (2002).
- Daughter, Lucia, works for Amnesty International.
- 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.
- [on leaving Australia and working in Hollywood] 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.
- I first became interested in movies as a result of my fascination with the traveling tent shows that came to my small country town when I was a child. And my fascination with the tent shows was an attraction to the ability of the performer to engage the audience. So I've always seen myself as an entertainer of the public. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to sit in a cinema where one of my films is screening and to feel the pleasure that I'm giving to the audience. That's what makes it all worthwhile. I'd make films for nothing if they told me there was no other way of getting a film financed, just so that I could continue to feel the thrill of that contact with a satisfied public as you take them into the make-believe world that you've created for them.
- [on Sliver (1993)] I just became so tired I couldn't get off the floor. I had to have doctors constantly injecting me with vitamins. I was trying to give up smoking at the time and I don't think I was all that stable myself, as I had been inhaling up to six packs a day previously; I was terribly addicted and had decided to give up before "Sliver". This probably wasn't a good idea for my equilibrium. But every day of pressure on the "Sliver" set caused bad nicotine-induced panic attacks, so the chaos of the whole thing was not something I could blame on others. The film had become a Hollywood nightmare with a producer (Robert Evans) who, from the beginning, had dreamt of his movie being directed by someone else, a writer (Joe Eszterhas) who had abandoned a best-selling novel to pen his own version of the story, an actress (Sharon Stone) who I couldn't communicate with and who loathed her co-star (William Baldwin) and producer, and a cinematographer (Vilmos Zsigmond) who was creating beautiful images at a snail's pace, on a set that made more noise than the actors when they spoke their lines. At night I dreamt of turning up at a schoolboy rugby match and then running onto the field only to discover I'd left my football boots at home. I'd wake with a deep sense of dread. Facing another day at the factory that filmmaking had become.
- [on The Saint (1997)] It was an opportunity at the time to create a franchise. At the end of the first screening, Sherry Lansing, the head of the studio, was genuinely crying. She said it was a brilliant film and that it was Doctor Zhivago (1965)-ish. Later I did feel resentful that Sherry Lansing had initially been so enthusiastic about the movie, only to eventually talk me into cutting those things which had most moved her when she first saw the film.
- The Hitchhiker (1983) - 25,000
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