Donald Petrie’s spent most of last year in Greece shooting the Fox Searchlight comedy My Life In Ruins starring Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) as a guide of the ancient ruins leading the most outrageous bus tour group ever. Richard Dreyfuss heads up an international cast. Donald’s most recent release was the quirky comedy Just My Luck, starring Lindsay Lohan and Chris Pine. Before that, the political satire-romantic comedy Welcome To Mooseport, with Ray Romano and Gene Hackman.
Previously, Donald directed the hit comedy How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey for Paramount Pictures, and Miss Congeniality starring Sandra Bullock, Michael Caine and Benjamin Bratt for Warner Bros. Other feature credits include the gender-bender comedy The Associate starring Whoopi Goldberg, Disney’s My Favorite Martian with Jeff Daniels, Christopher Lloyd and the holiday hit Grumpy Old Men starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau and Ann- Margret.
Petrie began his entertainment career as an actor, getting his first professional gig while still a theater student at CSUN and going on to appear in many television episodes. In 1980, Donald decided to shift his focus to directing when he was accepted as a Fellow at the American Film Institute. While there he made a short film, The Expert that caught the eye of Steven Spielberg, who asked Donald to direct an episode of Amazing Stories. That episode, entitled “Mister Magic”, starring Sid Caesar, began Petrie’s professional directing career. Donald then began a busy period directing episodic television, including MacGyver, The Equalizer and the landmark series LA Law. A controversial episode he directed for the latter entitled “The Venus Butterfly” brought Petrie Directors Guild and Emmy nominations.
Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. offered Donald the chance to direct his first feature, Mystic Pizza. Both a critical and box office success, Mystic Pizza starred Annabeth Gish, Lili Taylor and provided Julia Roberts with her breakthrough role. (It also gave a very young Matt Damon his first appearance.) Petrie then directed the wacky comedy Opportunity Knocks with Dana Carvey; Richie Rich, starring Macauley Culkin; and the sleeper romantic comedy The Favor with Elizabeth McGovern, Bill Pullman and Brad Pitt.
