Brian Scott O'Malley (born March 12, 1971) is an American film director and screenwriter of several independent cult films. His most notable claim to fame is his production of the feature film Bleak Future, shot entirely in California's Death Valley desert on the tiny and now-obsolete consumer film gauge of Super 8mm. (also known as Brian O'Malley)

Early life

O'Malley was born in West Covina, California to Stephen O'Malley, a land surveyor, and Debra O'Malley. In 1987, O'Malley's parents were divorced. O'Malley's brother, Christopher O'Malley, two years his junior, is a land surveyor and a musician.

Film career

In 1989, O'Malley completed his first feature film, shot on VHS video, a Batman spoof entitled Johnny Wong - Hewo Of The 21st Century, and began attending film school at Cal State Northridge. The next year, he transferred to Cal State Fullerton and completed the sequel to Johnny Wong, Johnny Wong 2 - Wong Again. In 1993, O'Malley wrote and directed the feature film Inland Empire with Scott Michael Bier, over ten years before David Lynch would write and direct his film by the same title.

O'Malley worked for legendary independent film maverick Roger Corman in the late 1990s and wrote and directed his second feature film Minimum Wage in 1999. Several crew members lost their jobs when the production was caught shooting the film surreptitiously on Roger Corman's film lot. The film played at the 2000 NoDance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

O'Malley's feature screenwriting credits include Francis Hamper, Audie & The Wolf, Standard Fare, Girl Noise, Jason Christ, Radio Waves, James and Jeanette, The Man With One Left Arm, The Seven Clones of Krem, The Drip, Expedition To Hell, Anna Rogue, Dan Coyote, The Drip, and Boppin' At The Glue Factory (with Jeff Orgill).

Bleak Future

O'Malley's film Bleak Future, conceived and written in 1992 and shot on the now-obsolete film stock Super 8mm, has been described by Fangoria Magazine as "ridiculously fun to watch" and by Ain't It Cool News as "awesome." Bleak Future is set 500 years after the end of the world, and tells the tale of Slangman, a lone salesman of words and ancient relics, who teams up with a tongueless Scotsman, a blonde actress, and a hippy on a quest for a mysterious oracle called The Source, which is rumored to hold the power to restore the ruined world to its former glory.

The film began production in June 1995 and was beset by an array of troubles, which included two Super 8 cameras dying in the desert heat, film production trucks stuck for days in the mud, and being held at gunpoint by the Nevada State Police, who stumbled upon the filming of a mutant being decapitated.

Bleak Future was completed in 1997 and secured distribution via Chris Gore's Film Threat Video, but Film Threat never released the film. Gore let O'Malley out of his contract and O'Malley released the video on Screen Edge Video in the U.K. soon after.

In 2006, Cinema Epoch and Koch Entertainment released Bleak Future on DVD.

Igor Specter

O'Malley is the guitarist for the rock band Igor Spectre.

Feature filmography

• Johnny Wong - Hewo of The 21st Century (1989)
• Johnny Wong 2 - Wong Again! (1990)
• Inland Empire (1993)
• Bleak Future (1997)
• Minimum Wage (2000)
• Boppin' At The Glue Factory (2007) - Co-Writer
• Audie and The Wolf (2008) - Writer and Director

discography

• Igor specter - beautiful dead little girl (ep)
• Igor specter - we miss the Russians (lp)