Braeburn Entertainment is the product of founder Rich Iott’s long standing passion for film. According to Iott, one of the basic elements of humanity is entertainment and storytelling. And films – good films – will last for generation upon generations. Good moviemaking is a way to make a lasting contribution to society.
Born and raised in Ohio, Iott’s interest in film developed early. In grade school, he experimented in making stop-action animated films using G.I. Joe® action figures. Later, in high school, he and several friends wrote, directed, and acted in a 45 minute live-action film about an incident during the American Civil War. The three-month production included home-made uniforms, horses, wagons, and even a few real Civil War muskets! Despite attending Hillsdale College and studying drama, his destiny was to go into the family grocery business.
Iott enlisted in Ohio’s state defense force, the Ohio Military Reserve, in 1983, and served for over 32 years before retiring as a Colonel and Deputy Commander of the State. Among other awards and achievements, he graduated from the U.S. Army MP School, the USMC Command and General Staff School, and the USAF Air War College. He also earned parachutist wings from The Netherlands and Israel.
Iott began investing in and producing films soon after his retirement in 2000 as President and CEO of Seaway Food Town, Inc. which by then operated 50 supermarkets and 25 deep discount drugstores with nearly 5,000 employees. Among Mr. Iott’s first productions are the short, Matters of Life and Death (2007), starring Joe Mazzello (Jurassic Park, The Pacific) and David Strathairn and the feature Deal (Seven Arts/MGM, 2008), starring Burt Reynolds, Shannon Elizabeth, and Jennifer Tilly.
In 2006 Mr. Iott joined forces with producer Eric Golzan, producing several thrillers for the Sci-Fi Channel including: Hallowed Ground (2007); Never Cry Werewolf (2007), featuring Nina Dobrev and Kevin Sorbo; and Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon (2007). “Yeti” was Sci-Fi’s top rated movie-of-the-week in their history at that point.
Mr. Iott formed Braeburn Entertainment, Ltd. in 2007 to produce Call of the Wild 3D, the first family-friendly 3D film in history to be shot entirely live action without special effects or animation. The film, directed by Richard Gabai and starring Christopher Lloyd, Ariel Gade, Wes Studi, Aimee Teegarden, and Timothy Bottoms, was released in 2009 by Vivendi Entertainment and Voltage Pictures.
In 2009, Mr. Iott’s Braeburn Entertainment, Ltd. partnered with Gozlan’s Montreal-based Reel Entertainment to form Goldrush Entertainment, a partnership which continues to this day. Together they have produced numerous films including multiple award-winning feature, Beautiful Boy (2010), starring Michael Sheen, Maria Bello and singer/songwriter Meatloaf.
Mr. Iott continues to produce films under both the Goldrush and Braeburn banners. Goldrush Entertainment Inc. produced Carjacked (Anchor Bay Films), a thriller starring Maria Bello and Stephen Dorff, in 2011.
Braeburn teamed again with Richard Gabai beginning in 2011 to produce a series of seven films for the Lifetime Channel including Insight, a psychological thriller starring Christopher Lloyd, Sean Patrick Flanery, and Natalie Zea; Imaginary Friend, another psychological thriller starring Lacey Chambert,, and In the Dark, an homage film similar to the famous 1967 film “Wait Until Dark”, starring Elisabeth Röhm, Shannon Elizabeth, and Sam Page. The Braeburn/Gabai team also produced The Good Mother, a thriller which deals with the condition of Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome, with Beverly D’Angelo as well as The Wrong Woman.
September 2013 saw the release of the Braeburn/Jeselu Films production of Alongside Night, J. Neil Schulman’s award-winning novel about the final economic collapse of the United States as seen through the eyes of the 16-year-old son of a Nobel Prize winning economist who is critical of the Administration’s policies and mysteriously disappears, starring Kevin Sorbo.
Through Braeburn, Iott also helps finance and support young and upcoming filmmakers. Braeburn partnered in 2008 – 2011 with local filmmakers John Klein and Cole Simon and their Glass City Films on three feature films, Glass City, Happily After, and Separation Anxiety. Braeburn also partnered in 2011 with Matt Cooper and Lamplight Films on the mega-short Closing Broadcast. In 2014 Braeburn again partnered with Glass City Films on the award winning post-apocalyptic thriller Chrysalis.
More recently, Goldrush Entertainment has moved more into mainstream, theatrical productions such as Standoff, starring Laurence Fishburne and Thomas Jane; Rage and A Score to Settle starring Nicolas Cage, and Gut Instinct starring Josh Hartnett. Goldrush has an exciting slate of new pictures in development.
When not producing films, Rich (who is also an instrument rated pilot and multi-discipline certified firearms instructor) enjoys riding his Harley on the rural backroads of Ohio where he lives with his awesome wife of 35+ years, Christine, and their three cats.