Michael Thorp

Michael was born in Auckland, New Zealand. He completed a business degree at Massey University, then after working in London at JP Morgan for three years and travelling home through 35 countries, he sold everything he owned to finance his first film, The Lunatics' Ball (1999), which he wrote, directed and produced for $US25,000. It won the Special Jury Prize at the Shanghai Intl. Film Festival and was selected for screening at Cannes. In 2006 he completed his second low budget feature film, Eight Broken Fingers, for US$12,000 which won the Best International Narrative Feature, Brilliant Light International Film Festival of Los Angeles, 2007, and Best Foreign Film award at the L.A. FAIF International Film Festival, 2006. In 2010 he completed his first novel "Ben Brown's Flying Machine" in 2010, a sci-fi fantasy adventure story about a high school boy who flies beyond our universe in search of redemption, love, and his place in the world. In 2012 he completed a pilot comedy news satire show TWITS, which wasn't picked up by the two TV network stations in New Zealand. He is currently seeking co=production partners for the feature film projects: 1. Ben Brown's Flying Machine, a sci-fi fantasy adventure 2D animated feature film, 2. The Gene Maker, a murder mystery thriller based around the death of the world's leading genetic scientist, and 3. The Little Violin Girl, a touching story about a young cabaret dancer struggling to become an actress as her world implodes around her.