Ian Armer
Starting out in the commercial sector, Ian Armer has written corporate scripts and had work published in film music magazine ‘Music from the Movies’ and ‘The Film & TV Yearbook’ before working on his own short films.
Ian worked with the BBC, Shoreline Films and Pure Television before developing his own style and he's since been a regular contributor to ‘The Illustrated Ape’ - his work appearing alongside Maximo Park's Paul Smith and Radiohead's Stanley Donwood.
Funding from the UK Film Council enabled him to shoot cult short ‘Notre Dame’, which was nominated for the BBC Audience Award at Manchester's Commonwealth Film Festival.
Ian's films have screened at various UK festivals and his roles have included director, writer and editor, plus he's been a guest programmer at Kino's International Film Festival. In 2010 Ian co-wrote a short script with Amanda Webster – ‘Cherry Lips & Liquorice Whips’ - to be directed by Ken Russell, who sadly passed away before the project reached fruition.
Ian's first novella, ‘Mad Gods and Englishmen’, was published to great acclaim in 2013.
In 2018 he contributed to the acclaimed analysis of the film ‘Spirits of the Dead’ by film historian, Tim Lucas and co-wrote the feature ‘Introspectum Motel’, as well as directing and producing 2nd unit material for the film.
In 2019 Ian wrote, directed and produced the LGBTQI short music film 'Butterfly' for Icelandic artist Possimiste. He also co-wrote the script for the film 'Lead Belly' starring Jamie Lomas.
REVIEWS & ENDORSEMENTS
"If the Large Hadron Collider smashed particles of Philip K Dick and Charles Bukowski into each other the result would be Ian Armer. This book is a classic of its kind." ~ Anthony Peake, author of 'A Life of Philip K Dick: The Man Who Remembered the Future'
"Ian Armer explores a fantastic situation in "Mad Gods and Englishmen." His poetic style and brutal frankness will lead you to look inside, to examine your own soul. It ranks with the best novels of our time." ~ Tessa B. Dick, author of 'Philip K. Dick: Remembering Firebright' & 'My Life on the Edge of Reality'
"It's hilarious, painful, sexy, brutal and deeply intelligent. 'Mad Gods and Englishmen' feels like a trip to a dangerous city existing within your mind." ~ Fredo Viola, musician and visual artist
"A marvellously entertaining Hollywood story that is scary, fascinating and undeniably addictive." ~ David Bircham, Comic Author of Brodie's Law, and Channel Four's Alien Ink.
"Ian Armer is a genius. Mad Gods and Englishmen kicks the butt off the ancient dilemma of God's bewildering behaviour towards man (if indeed, God or Man can be said to exist definitively in this questioning, quantum multiverse of Armer's). Armer makes this knotty philosophical problem one of the most rip-roaring, action-packed and achingly delicious yarns ever, via one sexy and all-too-human private dick - Tommy Storm. Storm is a Hollywood gumshoe (with a penchant for trouble and grim wisecracks) and is one of the most original and filmic characters in literature and will surely spawn sequels; if anyone should be multiplied, it's this guy. Armer's book is part Raymond Chandler, part Hunter S. Thompson, part Charles Bukowski, part Fritz Leiber, part Philip K. Dick, yet wholly itself and unique from those writers. Not since Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny or City of Spades by Colin MacInnes has a book crashed into consciousness like this as the indisputably next big thing. This book makes the creator gods, the sex drive, conscience and the necessity for verbal karate in the seedy side of the movie industry something to gallop through with Tommy Storm in the lead. Armer's world is populated by unforgettable characters who vie for Storm's blood and his evolutionary potential. People like Pliers, Cross and the heavenly Rochelle, who meet up in bars like the Ding-Dong and Heave-Ho. Ian Armer could write the leg off a plucked chicken, serve it raw and make you beg for more. Take this edgy, urban, futuristic, meta-morphing, yet improbably romantic roller coaster ride. This book is a classic." ~ Lisi Russell, actor, scriptwriter, columnist, singer & wife of director Ken Russell and actress in 8 Ken Russell films.
