Peter Hewitt (born 9 October 1962) is an English

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, pr ...

and

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, ...

Career

Upon graduating from the

National Film and Television School The National Film and Television School (NFTS) is a film, television and games school established in 1971 and based at Beaconsfield Studios in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England. It is featured in the 2021 ranking by ''The Hollywood Rep ...

in 1990, Hewitt flew to the United States with his BAFTA award-winning short film, ''The Candy Show'', in hand. Once there, he called executives from major Hollywood studios and asked if he could show them his film. Soon after, he landed an agent and made his feature film directorial debut with ''

Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey ''Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey'' is a 1991 American science fiction comedy film, and the feature directorial debut of Pete Hewitt. It is the second film in the ''Bill & Ted'' franchise, and a sequel to '' Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'' (1989 ...

''. Although not as big a success as the original, ''

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure ''Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure'' is a 1989 American science fiction comedy film directed by Stephen Herek and written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon. The first installment of the ''Bill & Ted'' franchise, it stars Keanu Reeves, Alex Winte ...

'', the movie made a profit. He turned to TV next, directing the first two hours of the miniseries '' Wild Palms''. He directed Disney's ''

Tom and Huck Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

'' in 1995 which was based on

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has pr ...

's ''

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' is an 1876 novel by Mark Twain about a boy growing up along the Mississippi River. It is set in the 1840s in the town of St. Petersburg, which is based on Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain lived as a boy. In the no ...

''. Hewitt returned to the U.K. to film ''

The Borrowers ''The Borrowers'' is a children's fantasy novel by the English author Mary Norton, published by Dent in 1952. It features a family of tiny people who live secretly in the walls and floors of an English house and "borrow" from the big people in ...

'', loosely based on a children's novel by Mary Norton of the same name. He remained in England to helm ''

Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? ''Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?'' is a 1999 British comedy film directed by Peter Hewitt and written by Ben Steiner. It was filmed in Doncaster and Sheffield. The cult classic film is a love story set in the 1970s, showing Vince Smith's e ...

'' (1999), then tried his hand at TV work again with ''The Princess of Thieves'' (2001), filmed in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

but featuring a mostly British cast, including a young

Keira Knightley Keira Christina Righton (; née Knightley, born 26 March 1985) is an English actress. Known for her work in both independent films and blockbusters, particularly period dramas, she has received several accolades, including nominations for ...

as Robin Hood's daughter, Gwyn. Hewitt co-wrote the script for his next film, '' Thunderpants''. It was filmed in the U.K. Hewitt later went on to direct a few other movies, most notably the 2004 film adaptation of the comic strip Garfield and the 2006 Tim Allen superhero comedy film Zoom (the latter of which was a massive box office flop, only being able to recoup $12.5 million of its $75.6 million budget). More recently, he directed Home Alone 5: The Holiday Heist, which was produced for television, first aired on ABC Family (now Freeform) in 2012, and never received a theatrical release, but it was released on DVD in 2013.

Filmography

Film

Television

Trivia

*According to the DVD commentary for ''Garfield: The Movie'', Peter Hewitt had expressed interest in directing a ''Garfield'' sequel. Hewitt later became attached to direct the 2006 movie ''Zoom'', and so he became unavailable to direct the ''Garfield'' sequel, which was instead directed by Tim Hill. This is ironic, because Peter Hewitt is British and Tim Hill is American, and the ''Garfield'' sequel took place in Hewitt's native country of England. *His paternal cousin Simon Hewitt was a longtime animatronic designer for

Jim Henson's Creature Shop Jim Henson's Creature Shop is a special/visual effects company founded in 1979 by puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of The Muppets. The company is based out of Burbank, California, United States. History Jim Henson's Creature Shop was originally ...

until it permanently closed in 2005.

External links

*
Peter Hewitt
at

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hewitt, Peter Living people 1962 births English film directors Alumni of the National Film and Television School People from Brighton Comedy film directors