Michael Petroni Michael Petroni i(A75218 works by)
Born: Established:
c
Australia,
c
;
Gender: Male
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BiographyHistory

Screenwriter, director, and actor.

Australian-born, American-trained script-writer Michael Petroni is a graduate of the American Film Institute (Los Angeles), where he wrote the script for Till Human Voices Wake Us, which he also directed (though his directorial debut was the 1999 short film Trespasses, which he filmed in Texas and which was produced by Sandra Bullock). He is credited as First Assistant Director of the film Ex Voto (1997). He has also directed an episode of American television series Masters of Science Fiction (the 2007 episode 'The Awakening', based on Howard Fast's short story 'The General Zapped') and the short film Boys Own Story (2007), which he also wrote and which was nominated for two AFI Awards: Best Screenplay in a Short Film and Best Short Fiction Film.

As an actor, he played a bit-part in the 1989 American film Lock Up, as well as appearing in two episodes of the Australian comedy series DAAS Kapital (1991-1992), in which he played Bob, a psychotic who inhabits the mind of one of the main characters. He also appeared in the first episode of the American television series Masters of Horror (2006).

Petroni is best known, however, as a script-writer. Petroni's professional biographies usually note that he worked as a comedy writer on Australian television in the early 1990s, though they do not specify the programs for which he wrote. In the same year in which he wrote and directed Till Human Voices Wake Us, he also scripted the films The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, co-written with Jeff Stockwell, and Queen of the Damned, co-written with Scott Abbott (both 2002).

In 2003, he co-created the supernatural television program Miracles for American network ABC-TV, but barring the first episode (which Petroni wrote with his co-creator Richard Hatem), Petroni contributed no scripts for the series (all scripts were written by American script-writers, including David Greenwalt).

He followed this in 2007 with the script for 'The Awakening' (for Masters of Science Fiction) and the short film Boys Own Story. His most recent films have all been supernatural works, including the horror films Possession (an American film based on the 2002 Korean film Addicted) and The Rite (2011) and the fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, co-written with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely,

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

form y separately published work icon He That Hath an Ear ( dir. James McTeigue ) United States of America (USA) : Netflix , 2020 20269231 2020 single work film/TV
2020 nominated AWGIE Awards Television Award Series or Mini-series of More than 4 Hours Duration
form y separately published work icon Boy's Own Story ( dir. Michael Petroni ) Australia : 2007 Z1890413 2007 single work film/TV

'Bob's got a problem. He spent most of his childhood indoors. His Aunt Eileen didn't see the sense in him hangin' around with other kids, bringin' home their germs and filthy ideas. Boy's Own Story is an 8 minute odyssey of a man's life from its troubled beginning to its disturbing end.'

Source: IMDB. (Sighted: 26/9/2012)

2007 nominated Australian Film Institute Awards Best Short Fiction Film
2007 nominated Australian Film Institute Awards Best Screenplay in a Short Film
form y separately published work icon Till Human Voices Wake Us ( dir. Michael Petroni ) Australia : Instinct Entertainment , 2002 Z1035742 2002 single work film/TV fantasy

As a young boy returning home from boarding school, Sam Franks is drawn to local girl Silvy, who wears leg braces to counteract a weakness that prevents her from walking. Silvy shares her love of poetry with Sam, and they draw slowly closer, ending with a night at the lake, where Sam removes Silvy's leg braces so that the two can dance in the water. But when Sam releases Silvy's hand to point out a shooting star, she slips under the water. Her body is not found for years.

Twenty years later, Sam returns home once more for his father's funeral. On the train, he meets a woman, Ruby, whom he later pulls from the river when she falls from a bridge. The more time he spends with Ruby, the more convinced Sam becomes that she is Silvy returned to him.

'Till human voices wake us, and we drown' is the final line of 'The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock' by T. S. Eliot. Other lines appear throughout the film (most notably, the opening line: 'Let us go then, you and I.)'

2003 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Betty Roland Prize for Scriptwriting
Last amended 26 Sep 2012 14:20:51
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