Cocktail, No Way Out, The Bounty, Species, The World’s Fastest Indian, Dante’s Peak - director Roger Donaldson’s resume is brimming with crowd-pleasing Hollywood movies, some of them seminal.

It all started with his first feature film, Sleeping Dogs, a tour de force action thriller from 1977 that starred then newcomer Sam Neill. That movie, which is finally getting a Blu-ray release, not only kicked off Donaldson's film career after years of making commercials, it also changed the face of filmmaking in New Zealand.

Meet: Roger Donaldson.