John Mahaffie

John Mahaffie is a New Zealand filmmaker, steadicam operator, second unit director, and second unit director of photography.^[1] He is most well known for his work on superhero movies (both in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Extended Universe series of films) and his collaborations with director Martin Campbell.

Life and career

Mahaffie, alongside Geoff Murphy, Rick Porras, Barrie M. Osborne, and George Marshall Ruge, served as second unit director on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, under Jackson's supervision via satellite feed.^[2]

Other films Mahaffie has directed second unit on include The Avengers and its sequel Avengers: Age of Ultron, Aquaman and its sequel Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Shazam, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Edge of Darkness, The Legend of Zorro, Zero Dark Thirty, Racing Stripes, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, and Where the Wild Things Are.^[3]

Filmography

Year	Title	Second unit director	Second unit director of photography	Director
2001	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	Yes	No	Peter Jackson
2002	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	Yes	No
2003	The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King	Yes	No
2005	The Legend of Zorro	Yes	Yes	Martin Campbell
2005	Racing Stripes	Yes	No	Frederik Du Chau
2006	The Painted Veil	Yes	Yes	John Curran
2006	Charlotte's Web	Yes	Yes	Gary Winick
2007	The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep	Yes	No	Jay Russell
2008	The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian	Yes	Yes	Andrew Adamson
2009	Aliens in the Attic	Yes	No	John Schultz
	The International	Yes	Yes	Tom Tykwer
	Where the Wild Things Are	Yes	No	Spike Jonze
2010	Edge of Darkness	Yes	Yes	Martin Campbell
2010	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader	Yes	Yes	Michael Apted
2011	Green Lantern	Yes	No	Martin Campbell
2012	The Avengers	Yes	Yes	Joss Whedon
	Snow White and the Huntsman	Yes	No	Rupert Sanders
	Zero Dark Thirty	Yes	No	Kathryn Bigelow
2013	Thor: The Dark World	Yes	Yes	Alan Taylor
2014	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	Yes	No	Marc Webb
2015	Avengers: Age of Ultron	Yes	Yes	Joss Whedon
2015	Ant-Man	Yes	Yes	Peyton Reed
2016	Rogue One: A Star Wars Story	Yes	No	Gareth Edwards
2017	Spider-Man: Homecoming	Yes	No	Jon Watts
2018	Aquaman	Yes	No	James Wan
2018	The Meg	Yes	No	Jon Turteltaub
2019	Shazam!	Yes	No	David F. Sandberg
2020	Mulan	Yes	No	Niki Caro
2021	Home Sweet Home Alone	Yes	No	Dan Mazer
2023	Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom	Yes	Yes	James Wan

References

^ McLevy, Alex (2015-06-22). "What's it like to be a second-unit director on Hollywood blockbusters?". AV Club. Retrieved 2024-09-30.
^ The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers "Appendices" (DVD). New Line Cinema. 2003.
^ "John Mahaffie - Turner Classic Movies". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2024-09-29.

[1] McLevy, Alex (2015-06-22). "What's it like to be a second-unit director on Hollywood blockbusters?". AV Club. Retrieved 2024-09-30.

[TTT_SEE-2] The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers "Appendices" (DVD). New Line Cinema. 2003.

[3] "John Mahaffie - Turner Classic Movies". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 2024-09-29.

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