The NeverEnding Story (film)

The NeverEnding Story
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Wolfgang Petersen
Screenplay by	Wolfgang Petersen Herman Weigel
Based on	The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
Produced by	Bernd Eichinger Dieter Geissler
Starring	Noah Hathaway Barret Oliver Tami Stronach Patricia Hayes Sydney Bromley Gerald McRaney Moses Gunn
Cinematography	Jost Vacano
Edited by	Jane Seitz
Music by	Klaus Doldinger Giorgio Moroder
Production companies	Neue Constantin Film Bavaria Film Producers Sales Organization
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	April 6, 1984 (1984-04-06) (West Germany) July 20, 1984 (1984-07-20) (USA)
Running time	94 minutes[1]
Countries	West Germany United States
Language	English
Budget	DM 60 million (~US$25–27 million[2][3])
Box office	US$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.