Brendan Foley is a Northern Irish

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

, film producer and

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

Career

Raised in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

, Northern Ireland, he has written feature film and TV series scripts for producers and studios in UK, Hollywood, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Poland, South Africa and Thailand. He wrote and produced the 2005 action-thriller ''

Johnny Was ''Johnny Was'' is an Irish/English gangster movie directed by Mark Hammond, written by Brendan Foley, and made in 2005 by Ben Katz Productions, Borderline Productions and Nordisk Film. It was released in the UK in 2006 by Sony Pictures and in t ...

'', starring

Vinnie Jones Vincent Peter Jones (born 5 January 1965) is a British actor, presenter, and former professional footballer. Jones played professionally as a defensive midfielder from 1984 to 1999, notably for Wimbledon, Leeds United, Sheffield United, Chels ...

Eriq La Salle Erik Ki La Salle (born July 23, 1962), professionally known as Eriq La Salle, is an American actor, director, writer and producer. La Salle is best known for his performance in the film ''Coming to America'' (1988) and especially as Dr. Pete ...

and

Patrick Bergin Patrick Connolly Bergin (born 4 February 1951) is an Irish actor and singer perhaps best known for his leading role opposite Julia Roberts in '' Sleeping with the Enemy'' (1991), the title character in Robin Hood (1991 film), terrorist Kevin ...

. The film won awards including Audience Awards and Best Feature Awards from six film festivals. His most recent work includes Cold Courage, a TV series thriller for Lionsgate, Viaplay and Luminoir shot in Europe in 2019. He wrote, produced and directed '' The Riddle'' in 2006, starring Jones, Sir

Derek Jacobi Sir Derek George Jacobi (; born 22 October 1938) is an English actor. He has appeared in various stage productions of William Shakespeare such as ''Hamlet'', ''Much Ado About Nothing'', '' Macbeth'', ''Twelfth Night'', '' The Tempest'', ''Kin ...

and

Vanessa Redgrave Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and activist. Throughout her career spanning over seven decades, Redgrave has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Television Award, tw ...

. In September 2007, ''The Riddle'' became the world's first feature film to be released as a DVD premiere by a national newspaper. The UK's ''

Mail on Sunday ''The Mail on Sunday'' is a British conservative newspaper, published in a tabloid format. It is the biggest-selling Sunday newspaper in the UK and was launched in 1982 by Lord Rothermere. Its sister paper, the ''Daily Mail'', was first pub ...

'' bought UK DVD rights and distributed 2.6 million copies, making the film one of the most widely watched independent films in the UK. During 2006-07, Foley wrote and directed ''Legend of the Bog'', a satirical horror film set in rural

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, starring Jones,

Jason Barry Jason Barry (born 14 December 1972) is an Irish actor best known for his portrayal of Tommy Ryan in the 1997 film '' Titanic''. He also starred in '' The Still Life'' for which he won numerous awards. Early life Jason Barry was born in Artane ...

and Nora Jane Noone. It was released by Lionsgate in the US on DVD in 2009. Foley co-created and was a writer on ''

Shelldon ''Shelldon'' ( th, เชลล์ดอน, Chell̒ dxn) is a computer-animated children's television series directed by Dr. Jirayuth Chusanachoti. The series debuted on Channel 3 in Thailand in October 13, 2008 and debuted at Qubo in October 16 ...

'', a children's environmental animated TV series on NBC (2010–12) and ''Byrdland'' (five seasons of animated TV series in Asia with GMM Grammy). In 2015, he started developing a new TV detective series for BBC TV, Farmoor (makers of ''The Fall'') and Northern Ireland Screen (UK home of ''Game of Thrones'') and, in 2016, he developed ''Tunnel Kings'', a mini-series on World War II POW ‘escape-artists’ for CBC and Dream Street, Canada. Foley completed pilot scripts for ''SOS'', a new eco-thriller series by Finnish producers Luminoir, and ''Kvenland'', set in the Dark Ages. Previously he wrote the pilot for drama ''Dr Feelgood'' for Monday TV (

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

). He has written books for US and UK publishers. ''Under The Wire'', a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

POW escape drama, which he wrote along with its subject, pilot William Ash, was published by

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

, London and St Martin's Press, New York in 2005 and 2006. It became a best-seller, reaching number one on Amazon UK's history and biography charts. In 2018/19 a related TV series was developed as a future miniseries by CBC in Canada and Northern Ireland Screen. Foley's next book, ''Archerfield'', a novel, published in 2015, covers 16,000 years of history in one square mile of Scotland. ''

Cold Courage ''Cold Courage'' is an international crime-drama series based on the ''Studio'' book series and named after the first installment by Pekka Hiltunen. The 8 episodes were available on Viaplay on 3 May 2020. Premise The series follows two Finnish w ...

'', described as a Nordic Noir series involving Finnish characters in present-day London made by Finnish producers Luminoir for Lionsgate and Viaplay, shot in London, Dublin, Belgium and Finland in 2019. Actor John Simm told Variety magazine that he was attracted to the series by the quality of the writing and the fact that it was a pan-European thriller.

Other

He is a member of the Writers Guild (GB), a Fellow of the British Association of Communicators in Business, and was made an honorary life member of the

National Union of Journalists The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) is a trade union for journalists in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was founded in 1907 and has 38,000 members. It is a member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). Structure There is ...

in June 2006.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foley, Brendan Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Screenwriters from Northern Ireland Journalists from Northern Ireland Film producers from Northern Ireland Film directors from Northern Ireland Male writers from Northern Ireland Television writers from Northern Ireland British male television writers