Jeff Byers — A Creative Force
Jeff will be the first to admit he doesn’t always know where his writing is taking him. The process is organic, and his trust in that higher power, coupled with an innate creativity, has allowed him to craft two original and engaging feature film trilogies. With a desire to uplift, Jeff’s writing tilts towards creating characters with struggles that are both noble and relatable — resulting in stories that are powerful and inspirational.
Originality is essential to Jeff. Years before virtual reality and augmented reality were mainstream, Jeff was creating his “Kumite” trilogy with VR and AR as core story components. His “Dark Avatar” trilogy is a gritty reality-bending scifi thriller that elegantly blends real-life events, quantum physics, alien worlds, and astral projection.
But let’s start at the beginning...
Jeff’s film career started off unusually easy. His first project pitch to Warner Home Entertainment resulted in the very successful “Lean At Last” health and nutrition series, with Jeff as co-writer, co-producer, and director. Building on that success allowed him to move on to directing commercials for Gehrisch Films, a German-based production company.
His work impressed the producers of “Without Warning”, the fourth film in the “Best of the Best” martial arts franchise, and Jeff was asked to rework their ailing screenplay. Once production started, he was hired to direct second-unit. When shooting fell behind schedule, Jeff and his crew stepped in and successfully directed some first-unit.
Jeff’s writing credits include a vibrant screenplay adaptation of the award-winning book, “The Last Algonquin” — to the applause of the book’s author and an agent at UTA. Working with the Managing Director of Prestige Studios, Jeff co-wrote the screenplay “Antar The Black Knight”, which was well received by producers at CAA Independent and Head of Worldwide Acquisitions at Sony Studios.
A rare opportunity presented itself when Jeff was invited to the UAE to direct “Big Cat Rescue”, a documentary chronicling the rescue and rehabilitation efforts of the Abu Dhabi Wildlife Centre; a passion project of H.H. Sheikh Mansoor Bin Zayed Al Nayan.
All this brings us back to Jeff’s two fully written action-adventure trilogies, “Kumite” and “Dark Avatar”. He disappeared down the rabbit hole years ago to crystalize these ambitious projects and has recently re-emerged to share them with the world.
