Peter Hyams

Peter Hyams Photo

PETER HYAMS

Date of Birth: July 26, 1943

Native to New York City, Hyams is the son of a successful Broadway press agent, and the grandson of famed theatrical impresario Sol Hurok. After majoring in music and art at Hunter College and Syracuse University, he became an artist and noted jazz drummer. When he completed his education, he joined CBS-TV News and was promoted to anchorman shortly after his 21st birthday. For the next few years he worked in New York, Chicago and eventually Vietnam, covering the war and ultimately creating a documentary on the conflict.

Moving to Los Angeles in 1970, he soon sold his first screenplay, T.R. Baskin, which was filmed and released the following year. Following T.R. Baskin, Hyams was offered writing and directing assignments on various telefilms, including The Rolling Man and Goodnight My Love. By 1974 he had made his feature-length directorial debut with Busting, which he also wrote.

Although Busting was not favored by either viewers or critics, he plugged on for the next two decades writing or directing various films including Our Time (1974), Telefon (1977), Capricorn One (1979), 2010 (1984) which was the sequel to Kubrick's 2001, and Narrow Margin (1990).

In 1995 he teamed up with action star Jean-Claude Van Damme and completed Time Cop, receiving mixed reactions. Hyams teamed up with Van Damme again to complete Sudden Death, before taking on the horror/thriller genre with The Relic (1997) and End of Days (1999) with Arnold Schwarzenegger. For the start of the new millennium, Hyams returned to the action genre with The Musketeer. Unfortunately, the film was poorly received and Hyams took a break before directing A Sound of Thunder (2005) starring Edward Burns and Ben Kingsley and based on a short story by Ray Bradbury.

Filmography (director):

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (2009)
A Sound of Thunder (2005)
The Musketeer (2001)
End of Days (1999)
The Relic (1997)
Sudden Death (1995)
Timecop (1994)
Stay Tuned (1992)
Narrow Margin (1990)
The Presidio (1988)
Running Scared (1986)
2010 (1984)
The Star Chamber (1983)
Outland (1981)
Hanover Street (1979)
Capricorn One (1978)
Peeper (1975)
Our Time (1974)
Busting (1974)