Brian Trenchard-Smith

Birthday:
Birthplace: England
Gender: Male

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.

Credits

Year Title
2014-10-03 Drive Hard
2013-06-10 Absolute Deception
2011-08-02 The Cabin
2010-08-04 Arctic Blast
2009-01-09 Porky's: Pimpin' Pee Wee
2007-05-05 Aztec Rex
2006-07-24 Long Lost Son
2006-04-21 In Her Line of Fire
2005-04-01 Tides of War
2003-09-07 DC 9/11: Time of Crisis
2003-02-14 The Paradise Virus
2002-10-27 Sightings: Heartland Ghost
2002-05-01 Seconds to Spare
2001-09-07 Megiddo: The Omega Code 2
2000-01-10 Britannic
1999-09-05 Happy Face Murders
1998-01-14 Atomic Dog
1998-01-02 Voyage of Terror
1997-08-23 Doomsday Rock
1997-02-25 Leprechaun 4: In Space
1996-07-14 Escape Clause
1995-06-27 Leprechaun 3
1995-04-25 Sahara
1994-05-31 Night of the Demons 2
1993-11-20 Official Denial
1989-01-27 The Siege of Firebase Gloria
1989-01-04 Strike of the Panther
1988-06-30 Day of the Panther
1988-05-14 Out of the Body
1987-01-01 Dangerfreaks
1986-08-13 Dead End Drive-In
1986-05-01 Frog Dreaming
1986-02-06 Jenny Kissed Me
1983-12-29 BMX Bandits
1982-03-25 Turkey Shoot
1980-01-01 That Dangerous Summer
1979-12-15 Day of the Assassin
1978-06-30 Stunt Rock
1978-06-20 Hospitals Don't Burn Down
1976-12-16 Deathcheaters
1975-07-31 The Man from Hong Kong
1975-01-03 The Love Epidemic
1974-01-01 Kung Fu Killers
1973-01-01 The World of Kung Fu
1973-01-01 The Stuntmen