PEN DENSHAM
FOUNDER and CO-CHAIRMAN
Pen is best described as a triple-hyphenate – a writer, producer and director (although he prefers to think of himself as a filmmaker). He was born in England to parents who worked in the British film industry. He loved photography and creative writing but hated math. So he left school at fifteen. At sixteen he was employed by British TV to photograph the Rolling Stones and sold many pictures to national magazines. At nineteen he moved to Canada, where he directed commercials and documentaries, including films with the guru of communications, Marshall McLuhan.
Following these early achievements, he joined John Watson in founding Insight Productions in Toronto, a company which gained recognition for innovative documentaries such as LIFE TIMES NINE, where children created and directed commercials selling life as if it were a product. This film was one of two Insight films that earned Academy Award nominations. In total, Pen and John received over seventy international awards for their personally styled works as well as medals from the Queen of England for their contributions to the Arts of Canada.
Pen's first drama, IF WISHES WERE HORSES, was a half-hour film about a horse owner who fights for the life of his animal during a breach birth. It won fourteen awards and brought Densham's work to the attention of Norman Jewison, who sponsored his move to Hollywood. In Hollywood, Pen was joined by John and founded the Trilogy Entertainment Group. They were employed as creative consultants on ROCKY II, VICTORY, COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER, NIGHTHAWKS, FOOTLOOSE, and QUICKSILVER.
In 1988 Pen directed Trilogy's first Studio feature, THE KISS, a supernatural tale for Tri-Star Pictures. In 1990, Densham and Watson sold their spec script for ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES, and produced the film for Morgan Creek and Warner Brothers. In the same year, they produced BACKDRAFT for Imagine and Universal, a project they had developed.
Inspired by the loss of his mother at an early age, he wrote and directed his own very personal version of MOLL FLANDERS, which was distributed by MGM and Spelling Entertainment, starring Morgan Freeman & Robin Wright. He also wrote and directed HOUDINI, a TNT feature for television, starring Johnathon Schaech.
Pen Densham has been actively involved as a Producer on every feature film that Trilogy has produced, including: BLOWN AWAY, TANK GIRL, LARGER THAN LIFE, and THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS.
In Television, Pen Densham made his network television debut with the series SPACE RANGERS, which he created and executive produced for CBS with his partners. Pen's great love of visually inspired and imaginative storytelling caused him to re-generate the OUTER LIMITS science fiction anthology series, which he Exec produced with his partners for its seven year run on American Television. He re-introduced THE TWILIGHT ZONE fantasy anthology series for UPN in 2003. Trilogy has produced over three hundred hours of Television series, mini-series and MOW's.
Pen continues to believe in creating from his instincts and has several visionary projects on his slate. Recently, he and Trilogy have teamed up with Robin Wright's new production company Wcu3e Films. One of their first projects together is ROGUE, an original action-adventure "steam-punk" swashbuckler written and to be directed by Pen. Another collaboration is LAND OF ENCHANTMENT, a metaphysical mystery thriller about a detective with a tragedy in his past who is forced to team up with a tribal police woman in New Mexico to solve the murder of a local potter.
In addition to his day-to-day job co-running Trilogy, Pen has written a book on the art and business of screenplay writing in Hollywood. The book is called Riding The Alligator: Strategies for a Career in Screenplay Writing (And Not Getting Eaten) and was released January 2011. Published by MWP (Save the Cat!, The Writer's Journey), Riding the Alligator has gained praise from critics and Hollywood insiders as well as representatives from top film schools around the country. To learn more, visit ridingthealligator.com.
Pen is married to Wendy Savage, a Canadian, and has two children: Victoria, and a son, Nevin, also a screenwriter.
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JOHN WATSON
FOUNDER and CO-CHAIRMAN
John brings his extensive literary training, as well as his writing, editing and producing experience to Trilogy's numerous feature film and television projects.
Born and educated in England, Watson graduated with a Classics MA from Cambridge University. In his early filmmaking career, based primarily in Toronto, Watson teamed with Pen Densham to write, produce, direct, and edit more than a hundred films over a ten-year period. These included short subjects, documentaries, educational films, television dramas and specials, and garnered over seventy international awards, including 2 Oscar nominations.
Densham and Watson moved to Los Angeles to focus on feature films. They wrote, co-directed, and produced THE ZOO GANG, which was released by New World, wrote and co-produced A GNOME NAMED GNORM, released by Seven Arts, and produced THE KISS for Tri-star, a film Densham also directed. They broke through in 1991 with their fourth and fifth feature collaborations as producers: ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES (which they also co-wrote) and BACKDRAFT. Since then, they have produced together the features: BLOWN AWAY, MOLL FLANDERS, TANK GIRL, LARGER THAN LIFE, and THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTAR BOYS. All of these projects were developed from scratch under the Trilogy banner and under Watson's supervision. Recently John was the key Producer on Trilogy North's JUST BURIED (Rose Byrne, Jay Baruchel), which debuted at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.
Branching into television in the mid 1990's, Trilogy's business expanded rapidly. Watson has executive produced over 300 hours of network and cable television, including the TNT movies, HOUDINI and BUFFALO SOLDIERS, seven seasons of THE OUTER LIMITS, four seasons of POLTERGEIST: THE LEGACY. He developed for television the CBS series, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, on which he was the sole showrunner for two seasons, and co-created the TNT series BREAKING NEWS, also serving as executive producer. He was also executive producer on the series: THE TWILIGHT ZONE for New Line Television and UPN, FAME L.A., and SPACE RANGERS; the mini-series PETER BENCHLEY'S THE CREATURE, and CARRIE; and MOWs TAKING OF PELHAM 123, LIFEPOD and BROTHER'S KEEPER.
John has completed screenplay adaptations of Tom Wolfe's novel ‘I AM CHARLOTTE SIMMONS', and Richard Condon's novel ‘AN INFINITY OF MIRRORS'. He is Adjunct Professor at USC School of Cinematic Arts.
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