Years active 1995–present Parents Pamela Taylor Anderson | Name Brad Anderson Known for The MachinistThe Call | |
 | ||
Occupation Film directorProducerWriter Nominations Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay, Deauville Film Festival Special Deauville Jury Award Movies The Machinist, The Call, Stonehearst Asylum, Transsiberian, Vanishing on 7th Street Similar People | ||
Brad Anderson (born 1964) is an American film director, producer and writer. A director of thriller and horror films and television projects, he is best known for having directed The Machinist (2004), starring Christian Bale, and The Call (2013), starring Halle Berry. He also produced and directed several installments of the FOX science fiction television series Fringe.
Contents
Early life
Anderson was born in Madison, Connecticut, the son of Pamela Taylor Anderson, a community services administrator. He is the nephew of Emmy Award-winning actress Holland Taylor. Before he began his film career, he attended Bowdoin College, where he majored in anthropology and Russian. He then went to London to finish his film education before returning to Boston.
Film career
Anderson started out directing the romantic comedy films Next Stop Wonderland (1998) and Happy Accidents (2000). The films were Sundance Film Festival audience favorites.
His next film was the 2001 psychological horror film Session 9. Unsuccessful at the box office, the film has since gained a cult following. In 2002, Anderson was a member of the dramatic jury at the Sundance Film Festival.
This was followed by his most notable work to date, The Machinist (2004), starring Christian Bale. The film has helped earn Anderson a cult following.
His next two films were Transsiberian (2008), a thriller starring Woody Harrelson, Emily Mortimer and Ben Kingsley and the horror film Vanishing on 7th Street (2010), starring Hayden Christensen, John Leguizamo and Thandie Newton. Notably, both Transsiberian and The Machinist were funded by Anglo-German production companies.
At one point, he was also one of the candidates to direct the sequel to Paranormal Activity.
In 2013 Anderson directed The Call, a thriller starring Halle Berry and Abigail Breslin.
His latest film is Stonehearst Asylum (aka Eliza Graves), with Kate Beckinsale, Jim Sturgess, David Thewlis and Ben Kingsley in the leading roles.
Television work
Anderson has directed numerous episodes of Fringe, as well as two episodes each of The Wire, The Killing, and Boardwalk Empire.
Anderson was one of the contributors to the horror series Masters of Horror, directing the season two episode "Sounds Like".
Anderson directed the pilot episode of the ABC prime time series Forever.
He also directed the pilot episode of CBS's "Zoo."
Future projects
Anderson replaced Joseph Ruben as director of Bold Films thriller Jack in May 2010, and cast John Cusack for the lead, who has since been replaced by Liev Schreiber. Anderson will direct The Living and the Dead, based on the novel of the same name by Robert Tinnell and Todd Livingston.
After working together on The Machinist, Anderson and Christian Bale plan to collaborate again on an adaptation of J.G. Ballard's novel Concrete Island.