Geoff Murphy was a successful New Zealand filmmaker bestknown for his work during the renaissance of New Zealand cinema that began in the last half of the 1970s He directed a string of bigbudget Hollywood features during the 1990s before returning to New Zealand as second unit director on all three movies of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy He has also worked as a scriptwriter assistant director special effects man schoolteacher and trumpet player Description above from the Wikipedia article Geoff Murphy licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia