Biography
Bryan Brown
Bryan Brown became not only an Australian star but also an international name with the successes of ‘Breaker Morant’ and the TV series ‘A Town Like Alice’ in the early eighties. Over the past twenty years a stream of well known Australian hits and Hollywood productions followed: ‘The Thorn Birds’, ‘Gorillas in the Mist’, ‘FX’, ‘Newsfront’, ‘The Shiralee’, ‘Cocktail’ ‘Blood Oath’ ‘Risk’ and ‘Two Hands’ in 1999, for which he won his second Australian Film Institute Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 1999 he starred with his wife Rachel Ward in the Golden Globe nominated telemovie ‘On The Beach”, which won an Australian Film Institute Award. 2002 saw him star in the Oz Box office success ‘Dirty Deeds’. In 2004 he starred, alongside Candice Bergen in ‘Footsteps’ for CBS. 2004 also saw the release of the Box Office smash ‘Along Came Polly’ for Universal in which Bryan played a major supporting role. In 2006 he starred in the Australia/UK Co-production for Channel 10 of the Joanne Lees story ‘To Catch a Killer’. In 2007 he played a major support role in the Baz Luhrman movie ‘Australia’ and starred with Peter O’Toole, Sam Neill and Jeremy Northern in ‘ My Talks with Dean Spanley’.
In the nineties Bryan also began producing film and television, through his company New Town Films. ‘Dead Heart’, an Aboriginal-themed film, was seen as a very powerful contemporary drama while his 12 part series ‘Twisted Tales’, featuring some of Australia’s most highly profiled actors and promising new directors, has been seen in over 100 countries. With the success of the first series, in 2005 Channel 9 commissioned him to produce a second series of 14 tales called ‘two Twisted’. He also starred in one of the tales and presented the Introductions. The series aired in August 2006.
In 2002 he produced and starred in ‘Dirty Deeds’ directed by David Caesar which was released through Hoyts Australia. In 2007 he executive produced the new Indivision feature ‘Cactus’ directed by Jasmine Yuen-Carrcuan which was released by Hoyts in 2008. He is co-producing with Leah Churchill Brown, ‘Beautiful Kate’ written and directed by Rachel Ward, which will be screening June / July 2009.
New Town Films also produced the three short films ‘ Blindman’s Bluff’, the 2000 AFI award winning ‘The Big House’, both written and directed by Rachel Ward and the 50 minute drama ‘Martha’s New Coat’ directed by Rachel Ward. In 2003 ‘Martha’s New Coat’ won Australian Film Critic’s Circle Award for best Short drama. ‘The Animated Leunig’ together with 50 x 1 minute animations based on the cartoons of Michael Leunig, were completed in 2001.