Roger Donaldson

Roger Donaldson was born in Ballarat, Australia, in 1945. At 19 he was studying to be a geologist when he crossed the Tasman to avoid being drafted to fight in Vietnam. After a fruitless stretch as a Nelson beach photographer and a stint as an Auckland photographer's apprentice, a meeting with ad-man Bob Harvey led to his first filmmaking commissions:

"I came to New Zealand and fell in love with the place. I'd wanted to make movies since I was a kid, so being forced out of home, it seemed a good time to make the switch. I decided to start with commercials. My attitude was that nobody was going to make any openings for me, so my next move was to go down to the library and find a book on how to load a Bolex."

Donaldson began ploughing his advertising revenues into a series of self-financed documentaries under the banner of his company, Aardvark Films.

Offerings to the God of Speed (1971), was about Invercargill DIY legend Burt Munro, who had set speed records in Utah on his ancient Indian motorbike. Others included adventure documentaries sailing around Cape Horn with yachtsman Peter Mulgrew, and another two with Sir Edmund Hillary in Nepal and New Zealand.

Donaldson then met Ian Mune, a firebrand performer and writer, who introduced him to a world of actors and other people wanting to make New Zealand drama.

Their first film together was a TV drama called Derek (1974), the deadpan tale of a male office worker confronting turning thirty. It was a sensation (for several censor-challenging scenes), and led to the commissioning of a landmark series of TV dramas, Winners & Losers (1975), based on stories by notable NZ authors.

Sleeping Dogs (1977), starring Mune and Sam Neill (in a career-launching performance as a man alone against a police state), coincided with an audience willing to support our stories on screen. The film is credited with providing the impetus for the founding of the New Zealand Film Commission.

Smash Palace (1981) starred Bruno Lawrence as a petrolhead father fighting for access to his daughter. The picture become a New Zealand classic and got Donaldson noticed in Hollywood. Critic Pauline Kael described it as "amazingly accomplished".

Dino De Laurentis enlisted Donaldson to take over the troubled production of The Bounty (1984) and Donaldson found himself in the South Seas surrounded by a giant crew and a toey Anthony Hopkins. Donaldson survived what was an ordeal by fire.

He has since thrived as a Hollywood-based studio director. His films have been mixed in subject matter and genre, but have always shown a high degree of craftsmanship. He has worked in the top echelons of the business with stars like Kevin Costner, Tom Cruise, Anthony Hopkins, Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin.

Donaldson commented in 1994 on his decision to move from indie to studio filmmaking: "it was never really my intention to leave New Zealand ... [but] someone was going to pay me to make movies."

His long-awaited homecoming production was The World's Fastest Indian (2005). Donaldson transformed the Burt Munro story into an internationally successful feature starring Hopkins as the irrepresible Southland speedster.

Donaldson recently completed The Bank Job, a heist film set in London and starring Jason Statham.

For many years Donaldson has been rumoured to be developing an Everest project on the Ed Hillary story.