In development Hardy Pictures

Upcoming films

Filmmaker Historian, representing the individual work of Dr. Justin Hardy, has multiple projects in various stages of development. Filmmaker Historian represents a fusion of beautifully crafted cinema and a passion for history. Nowhere is this more present, than in our upcoming projects:

An Ill Wind
Fiction Feature

An Ill Wind is a feature fiction film written and directed by Justin Hardy. This folk horror film was shot on location in the Shetland Islands with a mixture of professional industry artisans and non-professional young filmmakers as a fusion project between Hardy Pictures, University College London, and the University of Birmingham.

Nestled within Hardy Pictures and Wicker Pictures, the film tracks the journey of Anna, a young Norwegian single mother, as she returns with her silent daughter, and her deceased husband's coffin, to the fictional island of Hel.

Dealing with mythology, abuse and trauma, all through the lens of folk-horror, this character driven piece is in the final stages of post-production.

Directed by Justin Hardy, Produced by Chris Nunn, Alison Palmer

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GUNS
10 Episode Drama

Justin has recently set about converting his 'Almost America' feature film script, one he has continually edited over the last ten years, into a ten-part series for streaming.

Guns is a 10x1 hour series that charts the founding fathers of the United States through the biopic of a single man, who more than any other, defined the “right to keep and bear arms” of the 2nd amendment to the Constitution he helped draw up.

Predicated by a focus on firearms, and from the perspective of Henry Knox, who later became the first secretary of war, this series charts a thrilling tale through each major battle of the American War for Independence and the guns which achieved it.

The combative origin story of the United States

Outside Child

Outside Child is a haunting, character-driven drama that follows Sarah, an Oxford academic whose ordered life begins to unravel after the death of a close friend. Sent to a Caribbean island to deliver a mysterious book, she is drawn into a world where history bleeds into the present. There, she encounters the ghostly figure of a boy, the “outside child”, whose presence leads her to uncover a buried story of colonial injustice, maternal grief, and lost identities. As Sarah investigates the life of a forgotten woman from the past, her own carefully suppressed traumas begin to surface, forcing her to confront truths she’s long avoided.

Set between present-day Oxford and the shadowed beauty of the Caribbean, the series weaves together grief, memory, and historical reckoning. Inspired by Don’t Look Now, The Piano, and The Wife, Outside Child explores the unseen consequences of empire, the weight of female silence, and the moral responsibility of those who inherit the power to shape narrative. A ghost story at heart, the series questions who gets remembered, who gets erased, and what it takes to set the record straight.

Co-written with Tina Pepler (Downton Abbey)

Want of a Wife

A rude and heart-rending spin on the real world of Jane Austen. The Favourite meets Pride and Prejudice. Imagine the life of Lizzie’s younger sister, Lydia, banished from the Bennett household – arriving at a boarding house with her runaway officer, only to be abandoned to the fate of so many unlucky young women of the time. But she is our heroine, and she will not be put down.

Based on recently discovered facts – that up to half of all women in the 18th Century entered the sex slavery of the demi monde, and Jane Austen’s own aunt was one such madame.

Feature film; co-written with Jemma Kennedy & John Toba