Daniel Mannix Petrie Jr. (born November 30, 1951)[1] is a Canadian-American[2] producer, writer, and director of film and television.
He attended Northfield Mount Hermon School and the University of Redlands, earning degrees in psychology and creative writing.
His debut screenplay, Beverly Hills Cop, was the result of numerous rewrites and several radically different iterations over the course of a decade.
Petrie wrote a number of well-known and well-received films throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including the off-beat crime thriller The Big Easy starring Dennis Quaid and Ellen Barkin.
He made his directorial debut with Toy Soldiers, a 1991 action film revolving around a group of teenagers fighting terrorists that have taken over their prep school.