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Backdrop from a project of Brian Trenchard-Smith
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Brian Trenchard-Smith

1946 (80) • Directing

Brian Trenchard-Smith is an Anglo Australian film and television director, producer, and writer, with a reputation for large scale movies on small scale budgets, many of which display a quirky sense of humor that has earned him a cult following. Quentin Tarantino referred to him in Entertainment Weekly as one of his favorite directors. His early work is featured in Not Quite Hollywood, an award winning documentary released by Magnolia. Among his early successes were the 20th Century Fox release The Man from Hong Kong, a wry James Bond/Chop Sockey cocktail, the Vietnam battle movie Siege of Firebase Gloria, and the futuristic satire Dead End Drive-In, a particular Tarantino favorite. BMX Bandits, showcasing a 15-year old Nicole Kidman, and Miramax's The Quest, starring ET's Henry Thomas, won prizes at children's film festivals in Montreal and Europe. He has also directed 35 episodes of television series as diverse as Silk Stalkings, Time Trax, The Others, and Flipper. Born in England, where his Australian father was in the RAF, Trenchard-Smith attended UK's prestigious Wellington College, where he neglected studies in favor of acting and making short films, before migrating to Australia. He started as a news film editor, then graduated to network promos before he became one of a group of young people that, as he recalls, "pushed, shoved, lobbied and bullied the government into introducing investment for Australian made films." He persuaded Australia's largest distribution-exhibition circuit at the time, the Greater Union Theater Organization, to form an in-house production company that he would run. The company made three successful films in a row, and his career was underway. In parallel careers, he was also founding editor of Australia's quarterly Movie magazine for 6 years, and has made over 100 trailers for other directors in Australia, Europe, and America. Among his 39 movies, 5 were commissioned by Showtime, including the remake of the World War II classic, Sahara, the highly rated, Happy Face Murders, starring Ann-Margret, and DC 9/11: Time of Crisis, with Timothy Bottoms as President Bush. His frequently repeated family drama for Lifetime, Long Lost Son starring Gabrielle Anwar, introduced future Gossip Girl's Chace Crawford to audiences in the title role." I knew from his first scene, he was going to be hot." In 2009, Trenchard-Smith shot Porky's - The College Years, a re-imagining of the famous 80's franchise of teen comedies. His recent ecological thriller Arctic Blast, starring Michael Shanks, was chosen to premiere at the 2010 Possible Worlds Canadian Film Festival in Sydney. Trenchard-Smith writes for filmindustrybloggers.com as The Genre Director, and is a contributing guru to trailersfromhell.com. He is married to Byzantine historian Dr. Margaret Trenchard-Smith, lives in Los Angeles, and is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Known For

Leprechaun 3

58%

Director

1995

Leprechaun 4: In Space

46%

Director

1997

Mission: Impossible

75%

Director

1988

Arctic Blast

56%

Director

2010

Night of the Demons 2

62%

Director

1994

BMX Bandits

56%

Director

1983

Drive Hard

43%

Director

2014

Dead End Drive-In

56%

Director

1986

Game of Death: The Six Doors to Hell

Major Paul Anders

2024

Thanatomania

2023

Tales of the Uncanny

70%

Self

2020

Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks

67%

Self

2019

Turkey Shoot

42%

Executive Producer

2014

Drive Hard

43%

Director

2014

Drive Hard

43%

Screenplay

2014

The Leprechaun Chronicles

2014

Absolute Deception

51%

Director

2013

Chemistry

66%

Director

2011

The Cabin

62%

Director

2011

Machete Maidens Unleashed!

66%

Self

2010

Arctic Blast

56%

Director

2010

Malibu Shark Attack

40%

Producer

2009

Porky's: Pimpin' Pee Wee

42%

Director

2009

Not Quite Hollywood

67%

Self

2008

Tyrannosaurus Azteca

47%

Director

2007

Long Lost Son

56%

Director

2006

In Her Line of Fire

43%

Director

2006

In Her Line of Fire

43%

Producer

2006

Tides of War

44%

Director

2005

Tides of War

44%

Producer

2005

DC 9/11: Time of Crisis

66%

Director

2003

The Paradise Virus

48%

Director

2003

The Paradise Virus

48%

Producer

2003

Sightings: Heartland Ghost

45%

Director

2002

Seconds to Spare

52%

Director

2002

Seconds to Spare

52%

Writer

2002

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