The German director of which submarine saga went on to direct the films "Air Force One" and "Troy"?

Wolfgang Petersen, the German director of "Das Boot" (1981), a submarine saga, went on to direct the films "Air Force One" (1997) and "Troy" (2004). Petersen is a director, according to critics, who seems to shine most when making movies (thrillers) that can best be described as part action and part disaster sagas.

The title “Das Boot”, meaning "The Boat", is a good one for Petersen's German war film epic, which is a shrewd adaptation of Lothar-Günther Buchheim's 1973 German novel of the same name. Set in WW II, it tells the fictional story of the crew of the U-96. The film's screenplay was inspired in part by exploits of the real life U-96, a Type VII C-class U-boat.

In the film, a German submarine has the job of patrolling the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. Manned by a skilled crew, the sub must contend with tense conflicts and long stretches of confined boredom. While war correspondent Werner (Herbert Grönemeyer) observes day-to-day life aboard the U-boat, the grizzled captain (Jürgen Prochnow) struggles to maintain his own motivation as he attempts to keep the ship's morale up in the face of fierce battles, intense storms, and dwindling supplies (personal and military).