The NeverEnding Story (film)

The NeverEnding Story
Theatrical release poster
Directed byWolfgang Petersen
Screenplay by
Based onThe Neverending Story
by Michael Ende
Produced byBernd Eichinger
Dieter Geissler
Starring
CinematographyJost Vacano
Edited byJane Seitz
Music byKlaus Doldinger
Giorgio Moroder
Production
companies
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release dates
  • April 6, 1984 (1984-04-06) (West Germany)
  • July 20, 1984 (1984-07-20) (United States)
Running time
94 minutes[1]
CountriesWest Germany
United States
LanguageEnglish
BudgetDM 60 million (~US$25–27 million[2][3])
Box officeUS$100 million[2]

The NeverEnding Story (German: Die unendliche Geschichte) is a 1984 fantasy film, co-written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen (in his first English-language film), based on the 1979 novel The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. It was produced by Bernd Eichinger and Dieter Giessler, and stars Noah Hathaway, Barret Oliver, Tami Stronach, Patricia Hayes, Sydney Bromley, Gerald McRaney and Moses Gunn, with Alan Oppenheimer providing the voices of Falkor, Gmork, and others. It follows a boy who finds a magical book that tells of a young warrior who is given the task of stopping the Nothing, a dark force, from engulfing the wonderland world of Fantasia.

At the time of its release, it was the most expensive film produced outside the United States or the Soviet Union. It is the first in The NeverEnding Story film series.[4] It adapts only the first half of the book, so it does not convey the message of the title as portrayed in the novel. The second half of the book was then used as a rough basis for the second film, The NeverEnding Story II: The Next Chapter (1990). The third film, The NeverEnding Story III: Escape from Fantasia (1994), has an original plot not based on the book.

  1. ^ "THE NEVER ENDING STORY (U)". British Board of Film Classification. 26 June 1984.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Haase was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference People was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "The Neverending Story Review". Variety. 31 December 1983.