Geoff Murphy

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Geoff Murphy (born 12 October 1938^{[citation needed]}) 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 the Blerta 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.[1]

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, featuring Cliff Curtis. More recently Murphy directed the New Zealand comedy series Welcome to Paradise.