Simon Duggan

One of the many contributions to Hollywood of New Zealand's film culture, Simon Duggan was the man behind the cameras for some of the biggest films of the 1990s and beyond. He got his start in the largest country in his neighborhood, Australia, handling the cinematography for the 1998 psychological crime thriller "The Interview," starring Hugo Weaving (later Agent Smith in the " Matrix" franchise). After the turn of the millennium, Duggan performed the same job for up-and-coming Aussie director Alex Proyas on his rock-&-roll slice of life, "Garage Days" (2002). America beckoned for the director, and the cinematographer was close behind. The first Hollywood collaboration for the two men was a big-budget adaptation of the Isaac Asimov robot yarn "I, Robot" (2004), starring Will Smith. From those successful films, the only way was up, and Duggan led the lensing on several movie blockbusters such as 2007's "Live Free or Die Hard," the fourth in the durable action series anchored by, naturally, Bruce Willis. The cinematographer was also behind the cameras in a later installment of another series, "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" (2008). Later in that decade, Duggan reunited with Proyas for the spooky premonition science-fiction film "Knowing," with Nicolas Cage (2009).