Franc Roddam

A former advertising copywriter and maker of documentary films for the BBC. Franc Roddam has tended to make films about the morality and integrity of men. He made his feature directorial debut with "Quadrophenia" (1979), a finely observed coming-of-age saga set against a backdrop of teenage gang rivalry in 1950s Britain and based on a song cycle by rock group The Who. His first American film, "The Lords of Discipline" (1982) was a tense drama set in a military school while "The Bride" (1985) was a critically-panned but atmospheric reworking of 1935's "The Bride of Frankenstein." After helming the unsuccessful screen version of the stage play "K2" (1991), about two men who set out to climb the world's second highest mountain. Roddam spent several years developing his small screen remake of "Moby Dick." The two-part USA Network original starring Patrick Stewart and Henry Thomas was well-received both by critics and audiences.