Justin Hardy, the British film and television director, has died aged 61. His family confirmed that he suffered a heart attack and died on Friday, just weeks before his latest film, Wrath Of The Gods, was set to premiere at FrightFest in Leicester Square on August 28.
In a statement released via PA, his family said: "Our family is devastated to share that Justin Hardy passed away last night. He was so full of life right to the end, and incredibly energised to be working towards premiering his latest film this month. We are all so proud of him and heartbroken he won't be with us at his premiere. He was a man of family, of boundless creativity, and of devotion for everyone he held dear."
A Wicker Man connection
Justin was the son of Robin Hardy, director of the 1973 folk horror classic The Wicker Man. That film, starring Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee and Britt Ekland, followed a police officer sent to the fictional Scottish island of Summerisle to investigate the disappearance of a young girl.
Wrath Of The Gods, Justin's final film, draws on a concept discovered in a recently unearthed script written by his father. It stars Game of Thrones actor Francis Magee and Norwegian actress Christiane Schaldemose. According to the production, the story centres on a woman isolated on an island, "torn between the ghosts of the past and the gods of the present" before she is forced to confront "dark family secrets lurking in the shadows."
Justin's brother Dominic told PA he will be remembered as someone "with an incredible appetite for life." Dominic added: "He really became a filmmaker his own right, one who always brought the productions in under-budget, who got extraordinary performances, and who had a wonderful sense of narrative."
Career highlights
Over his career, Justin directed a number of series and films, including The Bill, Princes In The Tower, Trafalgar Battle Surgeon, The Relief Of Belsen, Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen and London's Burning. He was nominated for an Emmy and a Bafta, and had begun teaching screenwriting at University College London.
In 2024, Justin and Dominic released the documentary Children Of The Wicker Man together. The film examined their complicated relationship with their father's magnum opus, showing how Robin had sacrificed family life for a movie that bombed at the box office before later becoming a cult classic.
Completing the trilogy
Robin Hardy had said before his death in 2016 that he wanted to make The Wicker Man a trilogy, after releasing The Wicker Tree in 2011. Following their father's death, the brothers were contacted about a possible third film, which Dominic called the "impetus to close the chapter on the films."
Dominic said: "After Children Of The Wicker Man, Justin was also going in a new direction and looking forward to writing more scripts." The brothers went on to complete their father's trilogy with Wrath Of The Gods.
Dominic spoke highly of Justin's work on the film, saying "he did an incredibly beautiful job" on it. He said: "When he showed the final version to me, I said, 'Now you have made a film with a capital F. It is your film. It is your vision', and it settles the legacy of our father, who had invented a massive thing of the same name, but Justin made something humanist telling an important story."
Justin is survived by his wife Larissa and their children Sam, Ludo, Nico and Summer.
