Creative Powerhouse
Bristow Films / Media was founded by Bill Bristow with Roger Cottrell as the creative force. The combination of these two minds as writers and producers makes Bristow Film/Media a creative powerhouse with serious creative, production and managerial skills.
BILL BRISTOW. BA.
Producer. Director. Writer. Manager.
Bill left the city of London to study film at Los Angeles City College. After LACC his first feature film work was as The Double and Production Assistant on the “The Hitcher” for Rutger Hauer. The two became friends and worked on several projects including the setting up of the I’ve Seen Films festival in Milan.
He has directed and produced several documentaries including the highly regarded “Who are They?” which is about the life of a homeless handicap in Los Angeles in the 1980s. He presented the idea to Whoopi Goldberg and Rutger Hauer. They executive produced the film and HBO financed the production.
Bill went on to make behind the scenes films of some major Hollywood productions. Such as “Wanted Dead or Alive”. “Blind Fury”. “Escape from Sorbibor”. “Split Second”. “Salute of The Jugger”.and the Italian films “Legend of The Holy Drinker”. and “Up To Date”. Besides Rutger Hauer and Whoopi Goldberg he worked with Peter O’Toole, Faye Dunaway, Nastasia Kinski, Philip Noyce, Lina Wurtmuller, Robert Harmon, and other Movie Greats.
Bill left LA, to write the book “A Game of Moles, Deceptions of an MI6 Officer”, with his father Major Desmond Bristow, who was a senior MI6 Officer who had worked closely with Kim Philby. Desmond Bristow is known as helping Charles De Gaulle in North Africa in 1943. After the war he was head of the Iberian section of MI6 until 1955. Our Man in Gibraltar is based on Major Bristow’s WW2 secret service work when head of MI6 section V on Gibraltar. This includes meetings with Admiral Canaris and General Eisenhower.
Having a father who was a spy has had an enlightening influence on Bill. After writing the book he stayed in Spain and set up Locations Spain, where he worked as a producer for many ad campaigns and tv shows. He kept some of his contacts in LA and has worked with some writers to develop scripts.
He went on to gain his BA in Film Media and Social Studies. He has helped develop several t.v. and feature film scripts. The writer and University lecturer Dr Roger Cottrell asked Bill to take him on a location recce in Spain for one his scripts. The two worked well and Bill immediately saw the creative powers in Roger Cottrell. Bill formed BristowFilm/media productions. The two of them collaborate creatively. Roger being a creative powerhouse, has agreed for Bill Bristow to be his manager.
ROGER COTTRELL, PhD
Creative Story teller. Scriptwriter, Author of several books.
Has a Primary Degree in Modern World History and Sociology and MA in Script writing.
Began career on a local newspaper in the West Midlands (Worcester Evening News). Specialised in crime reporting after he passed his NCTJ.
A war correspondent in the Middle East when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and the 1st Iraq War. Worked at both Channel 4’s Dispatches and Granada TV’s World In Action, where he worked on investigations into Hilda Murrell’s murder and the Lockerbie Bombing.
His book Valley of the Shadow of Death is a retrospective crime thriller set during the 1985 miners’ strike, it was shortlisted for the Dundee Book Prize where one of the judges was Ian Rankin.
Most recently he has been a sessional lecturer in creative writing and film script writing at both Bath Spa University and his old film school in Dun Laoghaire.
While a Senior Lecturer of Media Studies and Acting Head of Film and Television Production at Edge Hill University he became a regular media pundit on Al Jazeera, BBC and Iran’s Press TV..
Blood Rites, co-created with Bill Bristow and written by Roger, is in development with Telegael Productions.. An urban thriller, with a Nigerian asylum seeker trying to find his niece abducted and held by an international criminal gang linked to law enforcement corruption and the black market in human organs.
Now as a creative partner of Bristow Film/ Media he has developed Valley of the Shadow of Death as a long form drama for tv. His other novel the trilogy of “Ingrid “, is also developed as a TV long form drama script. Ingrid Kleist, is a fictional character, whose story refers to the real life assassinations of banker Alfred Herrhaussen and terrorist activities