Search SFE    Search EoF

  Omit cross-reference entries  

Hyams, Peter

Entry updated 29 October 2021. Tagged: Film, People.

(1943-    ) US cinema director, producer and cinematographer, formerly a jazz drummer and television news anchorman; his first directed film of genre interest was Capricorn One (1977), which he also wrote: an exercise in Paranoia in which, with the unwise cooperation of NASA, a Mars mission is faked (Hyams is fond of government-based conspiracies). The next and perhaps his best is the "High Noon in space" adventure Outland (1981), set on Jupiter's moon Io. This was however overshadowed by the much-hyped 2010 (1984; vt 2010: The Year We Make Contact), based on 2010: Odyssey Two (1982) by Arthur C Clarke, with Hyams as director, producer, cinematographer and scriptwriter, which despite some neat Spaceship hardware could hardly live up to the expectations for a sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) directed by Stanley Kubrick; it nevertheless won a Hugo as best dramatic presentation.

Further films include the fantasy Stay Tuned (1992), in which a dysfunctional married couple are sucked into a kind of hellish Virtual Reality of cable television channels; Timecop (1994), a Time Police adventure involving much Time Travel and a mini-Changewar; The Relic (1997), a traditional Monster Movie set in a Chicago museum; End of Days (1999), an Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle pitting Satan (see Gods and Demons) against a New York security outfit headed by an ex-cop; and the unfortunate A Sound of Thunder (1995), very loosely based on the famous "A Sound of Thunder" (June 28 1952 Collier's Weekly) by Ray Bradbury. [DRL]

see also: Amazing Stories.

Peter Hyams

born New York: 26 July 1943

works

  • The Odyssey File (New York: Ballantine Books/Del Rey, 1985) with Arthur C Clarke [nonfiction: anth: electronic correspondence edited by Steven Jongeward: pb/photographic]

links

previous versions of this entry



x
This website uses cookies.  More information here. Accept Cookies