BIOGRAPHY
Richard Brandes is an accomplished, successful writer, director, and producer of over thirty feature films. His extensive list of credits also includes documentaries, commercials, reality television, and music videos. Richard’s films have been released through such well known companies as Alliance/Atlantis, Screen Gems, Sony, HBO, CBS, NBC/Universal, Screen Media Ventures, and Lionsgate, to name just a few. Known in the industry for creating highly commercial, profitable films Richard has an impeccable reputation with financiers, production companies, and distributors for completing his projects on schedule and on budget.
Most recently, Richard signed a three year contract with Cinedigm, a major U.S. Distributor, to develop and produce a minimum of three movies per year. First in the Cinedigm lineup is the action thriller, “Tin Soldiers”, which Richard wrote and will produce. Richard also was recently a Producer on Jeepers Creepers 3, the third film in the very successful horror franchise whose first two films have to date earned over $100 million dollars. Jeepers Creepers 3 was released in theaters around the world in fall 2017 to great success.
Other feature film credits include the suspenseful horror/thriller hit, “Penny Dreadful”, starring Rachel Miner and Mimi Rogers. Written, directed, and produced by Richard the film was released in theaters across the U.S. and was acclaimed by critics as “intensely frightening”, “masterful in it’s execution”, and “a cleaver horror film that takes the genre to new heights!” After it’s theatrical release “Penny Dreadful” went on to generate robust sales on DVD through Lionsgate and enjoyed it’s Cable TV Premiere on NBC/Universal’s popular SyFy Channel.Richard also wrote, directed, and produced the SyFy Channel Premiere hit, “Out For Blood”, starring Kevin Dillon and Lance Henriksen, and other notable accomplishments in feature films include “Dead Cold”, “The Killing Grounds”, “The Fear”, “Cruel and Unusual”, “The Nurse”, and the hit HBO World Premiere Movie franchise “Devil In The Flesh 1 and 2”, starring Rose McGowan and Jodi Lyn O’Keefe respectively. During their run on HBO the “Devil In The Flesh” franchise had the distinction of garnering the most viewers of any films in HBO’s history up to that time and the films continue to enjoy a popular cult status worldwide today.
His latest film was the recently completed exciting thriller, "Devious Deeds", with MarVista Entertainment, (2023), which he developed and Executive Produced and shot on location in Alberta, Canada. Prior to that he completed the popular Lifetime Movie Network thriller, “My Daughter Was Stolen”, which he wrote and produced and shot on location in Chicago, Illinois. The film premiered on the channel March 9, 2018, and has since garnered high ratings.
Able to adapt his skills to any genre, another of his more recent feature films is the family film, “Ugly Benny”, an uplifting, feel good “Disney” type of tale about a lovable little stray dog who mysteriously appears in the small town of Summerville and the positive impact he has on the lives of the colorful, eccentric characters he comes into contact with there. Richard wrote, directed, and produced the film and shot it entirely on location in Sisters, Oregon. A series spinoff is presently in development at a major Cable TV network.
Richard has also worked in the music video arena, most notably writing, directing, and producing the hit music video “Stay Away” by the popular rock group, Sanity, which, upon it’s release on FuseTV, won the viewers choice for best video of the week, beating out new videos by such popular bands as The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Audioslave.
A UC Berkeley graduate, Richard was on the Dean’s List while attending UC Berkeley and worked in radio there where he developed an appreciation for the documentary format while writing, directing, and producing a radio documentary whose subject matter was the creation of the California Coastal Commission.
Other more recent documentary film work includes writing, directing, and producing a documentary about the controversial “Divided State Of America” art exhibit which was created by acclaimed San Francisco street artist, Chor Boogie. The exhibit made its debut during the Presidential election of 2012 and traveled to various cities and college campuses in the U.S. Richard also worked as a writer, director, and producer on “A Day In The Life Of Country Music” for CBS where he traveled the southeastern United States documenting the daily lives of such country music superstars as John Berry, Doug Stone, and Kenny Rogers.
In addition, as a writer, Richard adapted the best selling MTV published book, “Bad Girls”, a thriller, for Inferno Entertainment, (“The Grey”) . He also worked as a writer and director for the pilot of a Reality TV show, “The Bet”, which involved an exciting helicopter and multi camera shoot of a high stakes, high performance auto race at the Las Vegas International Speedway. Richard has worked on other Reality TV projects as well, including, most recently, a Reality TV project he conceived, directed, produced and shot on location in Chicago, Illinois. When not in production Richard is a teacher and mentor to film students enrolled in a Los Angeles based film school.