Directing

Brett Leonard

Born 1959-05-14 · Toledo, Ohio, USA

Brett Leonard (born May 14, 1959) is an American film director, producer, and music video director specialising in the science fiction and horror genres. A few of his films, such as The Lawnmower Man (1992) and Virtuosity (1995), feature groundbreaking computer animation and visual effects. Leonard's work with the IMAX 3D process set him apart from most directors, having gained early experience with this cutting-edge presentation medium directing T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous in IMAX 3D. The film became the first number-one hit 3D movie to gross over $100 million worldwide (on IMAX screens alone). He created a sensation when he took his Swarm Cam-Fusion Station onto The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and, with guest Billy Idol, implemented one of the first live webcasts ever from the House of Blues in Los Angeles. Creative Artists Agency and Intel Corporation hired him to direct a state-of-the-art "interactive show" for CAA/Intel Media Lab to introduce the Hollywood community to the "future of entertainment," digitising actor Danny DeVito and using live performance animation to create the interactive animated character "Mr. Head," who guided the audience/participants through the experience. In the music video genre, Brett directed Peter Gabriel's "Kiss That Frog," the first all-computer graphic (CGI) music video/motion simulator ride film to tour the world, becoming the wildly popular themed entertainment attraction to win him a 1994 MTV Music Video Award. In 2009, Brett directed the documentary Hole in the Head: A Life Revealed. This feature-length documentary tells the story of Vertus Hardiman and nine other young children, attending the same elementary school in Lyles Station, Indiana, who, in 1927, were severely irradiated during a medical experiment conducted at the local county hospital. The experiment was misrepresented as a newly developed cure for the scalp fungus known as ringworm. In reality the ringworm fungus was merely the lure used to gain access to innocent children whose unsuspecting parents blindly signed permission slips for the treatment. Vertus was five years old and the youngest; after 20 years of friendship with writer/producer Wilbert Smith through their church choir, Vertus tells Wilbert his story, exposing the severe physical complications caused by the experiments. This crime had severe physical complications for Vertus—namely a harshly irradiated and malformed head, with an actual hole in his skull. In 2012, Brett formed a new concept in musical cinema called PopFictionLife. Seeing the proliferation of small high-definition screens on smartphones, tablets, and laptops, PopfictionLife "FragFilms" are full-length feature movies with existing artists that have multiple free "Frags" (fragments) of the movie that are watchable, shareable, and embeddable in social media, blogs, and webpages. Brett's latest film is a PopFictionLife FragFilm called The Other Country—Starring Burlap to Cashmere. The film also stars Samantha Lockwood and America's Next Top Model winner Nicole Fox. In 2017, he called for a use of the term "virtual experience" instead of "virtual reality." Description above from the Wikipedia article Brett Leonard, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

4.3

Agents of an oil tycoon vanish while exploring a swamp marked for drilling. The local sheriff investigates and faces a Seminole legend come to life: Man-Thing, a shambling swamp-monster whose touch burns those who feel fear.

Man-Thing

2005

5.2

The arrival of an amnesiac patient in a psychiatric hospital somehow frees a mad doctor, who was shot and entombed with his fiendish experiments in an abandoned wing of the asylum 20 years before.

The Dead Pit

1989

Behind the camera

5.5

The Law Enforcement Technology Advancement Centre (LETAC) has developed SID version 6.7: a Sadistic, Intelligent, and Dangerous virtual reality entity which is synthesized from the personalities of more than 150 serial killers, and only one man can stop him.

Virtuosity

1995

5.6

A simple man is turned into a genius through the application of computer science.

The Lawnmower Man

1992

5.6

A simple man is turned into a genius through the application of computer science.

The Lawnmower Man

1992

4.3

Man-Thing

2005

5.2

Hatch Harrison, his wife, Lindsey, and their daughter, Regina, are enjoying a pleasant drive when a car crash leaves wife and daughter unharmed but kills Hatch. However, an ingenious doctor, Jonas Nyebern, manages to revive Hatch after two lifeless hours. But Hatch does not come back unchanged. He begins to suffer horrible visions of murder -- only to find out the visions are the sights of a serial killer.

Hideaway

1995

4.0

The world is falling into chaos. As he roams a crumbling city, Duncan MacLeod, the Highlander, remembers happier times before the love of his life left... Hopeless and alone, MacLeod finds his way to a band of immortal companions, including his mysterious friend Methos, and a mortal, Watcher Joe Dawson. Together this small group sets out on a quest to find the origin of the first Immortal.

Highlander: The Source

2007

6.7

A bright and determined teen who has mild cerebral palsy strives to be a wrestler on his high school's team and to win over the heart of a classmate, the girl of his dreams.

Triumph

2021

5.6

A cybercrime investigator tracks a man suspected of force-feeding women to death.

Feed

2005

6.0

Take Me to the River is a film about the soul of American music. The film follows the recording of a new album featuring legends from Stax records and Memphis mentoring and passing on their musical magic to stars and artists of today.

Take Me to the River

2014

5.2

The arrival of an amnesiac patient in a psychiatric hospital somehow frees a mad doctor, who was shot and entombed with his fiendish experiments in an abandoned wing of the asylum 20 years before.

The Dead Pit

1989

5.2

The arrival of an amnesiac patient in a psychiatric hospital somehow frees a mad doctor, who was shot and entombed with his fiendish experiments in an abandoned wing of the asylum 20 years before.

The Dead Pit

1989

4.6

Dinosaurs are very much alive -- at least in the mind of teenager Ally Hayden who shares her father's passion for paleontology. When a museum accident transports Ally on a surreal adventure back in time, she encounters people and makes discoveries that might help her solve the mystery of her father's newest fossil... and even comes face to face with the most dangerous apex predator on earth.

T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous

1998

6.5

The story of how two boys from war-torn Germany turned their never-ending dreams into reality. The story is recounted within the virtual realms of the magic box, a surreal environment where past and present converge into 3D storybook reflections on their life's journey.

Siegfried & Roy: The Magic Box

1999

6.5

Siegfried & Roy: The Magic Box

1999

6.5

Following the members of Russell Crowe's band, 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, on a journey to record a new CD. The film follows the close-knit band as they journey from Australia to England and then onto Austin, Texas during the summer of 2000

Texas

2002

'Hole In The Head: A Life Revealed' tells the extraordinary life story of Vertus Hardiman, as expressed primarily through the personal video chronicles of his friend, Wilbert Smith. Vertus reveals to Wilbert a tragic and horrifying secret that he had hid under a wig and beanie for nearly eighty years - A secret that leads the two friends on a journey of the heart that speaks to the great resilience of the human spirit, even in the face of terrible suffering caused by the ignorance and hatred of others.

Hole in the Head: A Life Revealed

2025