James O'Brien is an American independent film director, screenwriter and producer.

Early life and education

Raised in Harrington Park, New Jersey, O’Brien attended

Bergen Catholic High School Bergen Catholic High School is an all-male Roman Catholic high school in Oradell, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grade. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Coll ...

, and was a captain of the cross country and track teams. He is a graduate of Providence College, and competed in his early collegiate years for Ray Treacy's

Providence Friars The Providence Friars are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Providence College, located in Providence, Rhode Island. They compete in the Big East Conference (NCAA Division I) for every sport except for ice hockey, where they compe ...

. Midway through college, O'Brien shifted gears from athletics to English and Drama, directing a number of university-screened short films and documentaries and acting in the

Blackfriars Theatre Blackfriars Theatre was the name given to two separate theatres located in the former Blackfriars Dominican priory in the City of London during the Renaissance. The first theatre began as a venue for the Children of the Chapel Royal, child ac ...

productions. After backpacking around Europe, and inspired by the DIY cinema of Jim Jarmusch,

Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks, has produced more than 35 films since 1983. He made his directorial debut ...

and Richard Linklater, O’Brien moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, to make independent films.

Early career

The first film he made after moving to LA was ''Bastard,'' a B&W short about a schizophrenic hit man. It was selected by the

American Cinematheque The American Cinematheque is an independent, nonprofit cultural organization in Los Angeles, California, United States dedicated exclusively to the public presentation of the moving image in all its forms. The Cinematheque was created in 1981 as ...

to open for

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with u ...

’s

Nosferatu the Vampyre ''Nosferatu the Vampyre'' (german: Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, lit=Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night) is a 1979 horror film written and directed by Werner Herzog. It is set primarily in 19th-century Wismar, Germany and Transylvania, and was conce ...

at a 1993

Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is an entertainment guild that represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. Founded as the Screen Directors Guild in 1936, the group merge ...

retrospective.

''Venice Bound''

O'Brien's debut feature '' Venice Bound'' follows the lives of three off-beat twenty-somethings who meet by chance on

Venice Beach Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed by ...

and agree to pull a robbery. The film debuted at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles before making its international premiere at Cannes. ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' called O'Brien a "talent in the raw" but said the film is "too narratively chaotic and technically hamstrung to connect commercially". ''Venice Bound'' was released theatrically in 1996–97, playing an extended run at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, as well as the Laemmle Sunset 5 (now Sundance Sunset Cinemas). It also played on the east coast at the Cable Car Cinema in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

''Wish You Were Here'' & ''Hyperfutura''

''Wish You Were Here'' stars Louie Sabatasso, Gary Douglas Kohn and Arroyn Ambrose in a road adventure film about on the effects of addiction and the bond of family and friends. Jonathan Freeman-Anderson of ''LA Film and Music Magazine'' called the film "an entertaining and soul searching ride of comical and sobering proportions". Nelson Madison Films released the movie in 2013 . On the other end of the spectrum, O'Brien made the mashup '' Hyperfutura''. Created with Eric Kopatz, producer and star of ''Bastard'', the science fiction film '' Hyperfutura'' involves genetic engineering,

mind control Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwashin ...

and

time travel Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a ...

. It has polarized audiences since its 2013 worldwide digital release by PanGlobal Entertainment. Chris Garcia, the

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

culture specialist behind the

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile art ...

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

, ''Three Minute Modernist'' and the film journal ''Klaus at Gunpoint'', included the film in his ''52 Episodes to Science Fiction Literacy'', linking it to the works of artist

Bruce Conner Bruce Conner (November 18, 1933 – July 7, 2008) was an American artist who worked with assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography. Biography Bruce Conner was born November 18, 1933 in McPherson, Kansas.His well- ...

and the Stanley Kubrick epic 2001: A Space Odyssey, in the episode entitled: "''Hyperfutura'':

Avant-Garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

or Really Messed Up?"

''Western Religion''

O’Brien's most recent work is the independent Western film ''

Western Religion The Western religions are the religions that originated within Western culture, which are thus historically, culturally, and theologically distinct from Eastern, African and Iranian religions. The term Abrahamic religions ( Islam, Christia ...

''. It features Claude Duhamel,

Peter Shinkoda Peter Shinkoda (born March 25, 1971) is a Canadian film and television actor who stars as Dai on the TNT science fiction series ''Falling Skies'' from Steven Spielberg and as Sektor in the Warner Bros. webseries '' Mortal Kombat: Legacy'' dir ...

and Miles Szanto, among others. The 'making of' story of the production was first picked up by ''

'' in 2013 as the filmmakers looked to overcome the government shutdown of all national parks just weeks before their scheduled shoot at Paramount Ranch.Johnson, Ted. ''Variety Magazine'' (2013)
/ref> To remedy the situation, O'Brien and his producing partner Louie Sabatasso of 3rd Partner Productions enlisted Peter Sherayko, who had worked on '' Tombstone''. Together, they built a Western tent city in the mountains of

Agua Dulce, California Agua Dulce () (Spanish for "Sweet Water") is a census-designated place in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It lies at an elevation of , northeast of Santa Clarita. The community had a population of 3,342 at the 2010 census and co ...

. Sherayko, who played

Texas Jack Vermillion John Wilson Vermillion (1842–1911), also known as "Texas Jack" or later as "Shoot-Your-Eye-Out Vermillion", was a gunfighter of the Old West known for his participation in the Earp Vendetta Ride and his later association with Soapy Smith. Ea ...

in ''Tombstone'', is also featured in the film as Southern Bill. Sabatasso plays a lead as the eccentric, deadly dandy Salt Peter.

Selected filmography

* ''Bastard'' (short film, 1993) * ''Venice Bound'' (1995) * ''Hyperfutura'' (2013) * ''Wish You Were Here'' (2013) * ''Western Religion'' (2015)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:OBrien, James Living people American filmmakers American film directors American screenwriters American film producers Providence College alumni People from Bergen County, New Jersey People from Harrington Park, New Jersey Year of birth missing (living people)