Phillip Roger Noyce (born 29 April 1950) is an Australian film and television director. Since 1977, he has directed over 19 feature films in various genres, including historical drama (Newsfront, Rabbit-Proof Fence, The Quiet American); thrillers (Dead Calm, Sliver, The Bone Collector); and action films (Blind Fury, The Saint, Salt). He has also directed the Jack Ryan adaptations Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994), as well as the 2014 adaptation of Lois Lowry's The Giver. He has worked at various times with such actors as Val Kilmer, Harrison Ford, Denzel Washington, Michael Caine, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Rutger Hauer and three films with Thora Birch over 25 years. He has also directed, written and executive-produced television programmes in both Australia and North America, including The Cowra Breakout, Vietnam, Revenge, Roots, and Netflix's What/If. Noyce's work has won him several accolades, including AACTA Awards for Best Film, Best Director and a special Longford Lyell lifetime achievement award.

Early life and education

Phillip Roger Noyce was born on 29 April 1950 in Griffith, New South Wales. He attended high school at Barker College in Sydney, and began making short films at the age of 18. His first short film, the 15-minute Better to Reign in Hell, was financed by selling roles to his friends. He graduated from Sydney University, and then attended the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in 1973. In 1969, Noyce ran the Sydney Filmmakers Co-op, a collective of filmmakers. With Jan Chapman, he ran the Filmmaker's Cinema for three years above a bookshop in Sydney, screening the short films of the directors who would go on to form the Australian New Wave: Gillian Armstrong, Peter Weir, Bruce Beresford, George Miller and Paul Cox.

Career

Noyce released his first professional film in 1975. Many of his films feature espionage, as Noyce grew up listening to his father's stories of serving with the Australian Commando unit Z Force during World War II. After his debut feature, the medium-length Backroads (1977), Noyce achieved huge commercial and critical success with Newsfront (1978), which won Australian Film Institute (AFI) awards for Best Film, Director, Actor and Screenplay; it opened the London Film Festival and was the first Australian film to play at the New York Film Festival. Noyce worked on two miniseries for Australian television with fellow Australian filmmaker George Miller: The Dismissal (1983) and The Cowra Breakout (1984). Miller also produced the film that brought Noyce to the attention of Hollywood studios – Dead Calm (1988), which also launched the career of Nicole Kidman. After Dead Calm, Noyce went to the US to direct Blind Fury, starring Rutger Hauer, for Tri-Star Pictures. Moving with his young family to the US in 1991, Noyce directed five films over the following eight years, of which Clear and Present Danger, starring Harrison Ford, was the most successful, critically and commercially, grossing $216 million. After 1999's Bone Collector starring Angelina Jolie and Denzel Washington, Noyce decided to return to Australia for the Stolen Generations saga Rabbit-Proof Fence, which won the AFI Award for Best Film in 2002. He has described Rabbit-Proof Fence as "easily" his proudest moment as a director: "Showing that film to various Aboriginal communities around the country and seeing their response, because it gave validity to the experiences of the Stolen Generations." Noyce was also lauded for The Quiet American, the 2002 adaptation of Graham Greene's novel, which gave Michael Caine an Academy Award Best Actor nomination and earned best director awards from London Film Critics' Circle and National Board of Review in the US. After the apartheid-set Catch a Fire (2006) in South Africa, Noyce decided to make another big budget studio film with 2010's Salt starring Angelina Jolie, which proved to be his biggest commercial hit to date, making nearly $300 million worldwide. In 2011, Noyce directed and executive produced the pilot for the American Broadcasting Company series Revenge and has since directed numerous TV pilots, including Netflix's What/If starring Renée Zellweger and the FOX Network hit The Resident. In 2017, he signed a first look deal with 20th Century Fox Television. Above Suspicion, starring Emilia Clarke and Jack Huston, originally to be released in America in 2020 by Roadside Attractions, was delayed until May 2021 due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. In 2021, Noyce became executive producer on the film Show Me What You Got, written and directed by Svetlana Cvetko. The Desperate Hour, starring Naomi Watts, was released in the US by Roadside Attractions in March 2022. In late 2021, a 17 feature and 10 shorts retrospective of Noyce's work was presented at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris. Noyce's next film, Fast Charlie, a darkly comedic thriller starring Pierce Brosnan, Morena Baccarin and James Caan, written by Richard Wenk was released in the US in December 2023, earning Noyce highly positive reviews.

Other activities

Noyce is an ambassador for SmartFone Flick Fest (SF3), held annually in Sydney.

Recognition, honours, and awards

In the Australia Day Honours in January 2023, Noyce was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) by the Australian Government.

Filmography

Films

Executive producer

Short films

Documentary films

Television

TV movies TV series

Unmade films