About: Peter Hyams
Researched by Christopher Michael Dalton, 2011

Peter Hyams (born July 26, 1943) is an American screenwriter, director and cinematographer, probably best known for directing the 1984 science fiction adventure 2010 (the sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey), Capricorn One, the comic book adaptation Timecop and the Arnold Schwarzenegger horror/action film End of Days.

Hyams was born in New York City, New York, the son of Ruth Hurok and Barry Hyams, who was a theatrical producer and publicist on Broadway. His maternal grandfather was Sol Hurok, the Russian Jewish impresario. His stepfather was blacklisted Arthur Lief. His sister is casting director Nessa Hyams.

Studied art and music at Hunter College and Syracuse University, before working as producer/anchorman for WHDH-TV and later WBBM-TV. He has described himself as "one of the very few writer/directors of major films who also photographs his own pictures". During his time with CBS (where he worked from 1964 to 1970), he began to shoot documentary films. Hyams moved to Los Angeles in 1970 and sold his first screenplay, T.R. Baskin, to Paramount Pictures in 1971.

Hyams worked in television through the early to mid-1970s. His first major film was Capricorn One (1977), a critically acclaimed conspiracy thriller about a faked mission to Mars. This was followed by the less successful Hanover Street (1979) which starred Harrison Ford and Christopher Plummer, and the science fiction cult classic Outland (1981), which starred Sir Sean Connery in a 'High Noon' scenario set on Io, one of Jupiter's moons. In 1983, he would return to Jupiter and its moons by producing, directing, and writing the screenplay for 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984), collaborating closely with author Sir Arthur C. Clarke (2010).

Hyams also co-authored with Clarke The Odyssey File: The Making of 2010 (See left image), published 1985, a collection of their email correspondence which illustrates their fascination with the then pioneering medium and its use for them to communicate on an almost daily basis at the time of planning and production of the MGM sequel film.

Other movies Hyams has directed/photographed include: The Star Chamber (1983), Running Scared (1986), The Presidio (1988), Narrow Margin (1990), Stay Tuned (1992), Timecop (1994), The Relic (1997), and End of Days (1999). In addition, Hyams also directed various episodes of Steven Spielberg's television show, Amazing Stories, executive produced the 1980s cult kids movie, The Monster Squad (1986), and co-wrote the screenplay for the Charles Bronson thriller, Telefon (1977). Since the mid-1980s, Hyams has directed several Hollywood-based movies with varying degrees of commercial and critical success. He is also well known for acting as his own cinematographer on the movies he directs.

His two most recent films are The Musketeer (2001) and A Sound of Thunder (2005). The Musketeer (2001) was a minor box office success in the United States. However, A Sound of Thunder (2005), which faced many troubles during its production (including the bankruptcy of the original production company during post-production), performed particularly badly at the box office worldwide.

In 2007, he directed the remake of the 1956 film noir starring Michael Douglas, which was released in 2009. He also elaborated the cinematography of his son John's effort, Universal Soldier: Regeneration, the third official Universal Soldier sequel starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren.

On December 19, 1964 he married George-Ann Spota, with whom he has three children.

As a reference to his wife's family, there's a minor character named Spota in many of his films, the exceptions being, Peeper, Capricorn One, Hanover Street, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, Running Scared, Stay Tuned, Narrow Margin, End Of Days (although there was a bar called "Spotas"), and A Sound Of Thunder. His love for her and her family makes the fact that most of the "Spotas" in his movies are villains ironic.

Even before he became a CBS-News anchorman in New York at the age of 21, Hyams had been a drummer with such important jazz musicians as Bill Evans and Maynard Ferguson and had played at Birdland, Small's Paradise and the Newport Jazz Festival. His paintings have hung in such prestigious galleries as the Whitney Museum of American Art. Hyams brings to film direction essential elements of music and painting. From music comes a special sensitivity to structure and rhythm; from painting a heightened sense of light and color. These important insights help Hyams to achieve his goal of creating films, which "reach people's emotions, not their minds." Peter Hyams is six-foot-one-inch tall and lives in Brentwood California with his wife George-Ann. He has three sons, Chris, John, and Nick.

Shoots his movies in as close to natural light levels as possible, even during night and interior scenes. As a result his work is often criticized for being poorly lit.

One of the few writer/directors of major films who also serves as his own cinematographer.

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