Albert Pyun has directed 45 films and has written 15 of those beginning in 1982. He got an early start behind the camera at his home in Hawaii where he was raised. At the age of nine, he started shooting short films with an 8mm camera he borrowed from his parents.
Successful at overcoming lean budget constraints, he is known for his swift shooting style, often completing a film in just a few days, and occasonally in even less time than that, such as in the case of a recent movie, Invasion.
Pyun created the production company Filmwerks (which uses an awesome logo graphic on their films, I might add) in 1994 because his films were often re-edited by producers and re-framed to satisfy the television and video market requests. He felt that a large part of his style had been erased as a result, and he was eager to preserve the originality of his work.
Albert Pyun's movies cover every possible genre, and often combine several of them including Science Fiction, Action and Action Heros, Fantasy, Adventure, Drama, Mystery, Horror, Thriller and Crime, and even a bit of a Musical thrown in for good measure. He often includes cyborgs or altered humans, and frequently uses the same character names (such as Brick Bardo) throughout his movies.
He is also known for using a loyal group of actors in many of his movies, often referred to as "The Pyun Players." These include Norbert Weisser who has been associated with 16 projects, his son Morgan Weisser who is at 4 and counting, Thom Mathews with 11, Tim Thomerson who is hot on his heels at 10, and others including Rutger Hauer, Tina Cote, Scott Paulin and more.
All of the Albert Pyun movies that Norbert has been involved with are listed to the right. The synopsis will include spoilers with every movie. In the case of Cool Air, there is only a brief synopsis as this movie has not gone to DVD as of now.
If I appear to be a little tongue-in-cheek in some of my descriptions or graphics on these pages, it's all good natured and meant with respect to Mr. Pyun's work. I found myself really enjoying many of these movies, and not just because of Norbert's involvement in them.
Whether you love his work or not -- there is usually no middle ground with viewers -- this can certainly be said about Mr. Pyun: he has a huge and dedicated following and is reported to always be very loyal to his cast and crew, not to mention often completing his work under budget and always delivering his movies on time.
Keep up to date with all of Albert's current projects.
They announced the release of Cool Air by Halloween!
