Brendan has written, produced and directed independent feature films since 2004, featuring Roger Daltrey, Sir Derek Jacobi, Vinnie Jones, Vanessa Redgrave and more – distributed by Sony, Lionsgate and others.
Produced movies include Brendan’s first feature film in 2005, Action-drama Johnny Was (Sony), shot in Brendan’s home town of Belfast, starred Vinnie Jones, Patrick Bergin, Roger Daltrey, Eriq LaSalle and Lennox Lewis. It tells the story of the world’s least safe ‘safe house’ in London. He wrote and produced the film and also directed sound post and music, with cult reggae DJ Adrian Sherwood. It won seven film festivals as Best Feature or Audience Award.
His follow-up feature, as writer-producer-director, was a thriller with a supernatural twist. The Riddle (Image Entertainment) had one of the largest circulations in indie film history, 2.6 million DVDs courtesy of a unique deal with Britain’s largest circulation newspaper. It starred Sir Derek Jacobi, pictured below with Brendan, and featured Vanessa Redgrave, along with Vinnie Jones also pictured on location.
Brendan then directed TV movie Legend of the Bog (Lionsgate /Grindstone), a horror satire on the Irish property boom, starring Jason Barry (Titanic) and Nora-Jane Noone (Brooklyn), about a body preserved for millennia in an Irish peat bog, dug up and dumped by greedy property developers.
Future features in development include Soldier Bear, the story of the only bear to become an enlisted soldier in WWII, with Film Poland; and The Warrior Wakes, a family action adventure with T&B (Thailand).
