Albert Pyun was an award-winning US filmmaker known for his contributions to the science-fiction and action genres. He pioneered the cyborg sub-genre and is considered a maverick and renegade in independent genre cinema. With over 50 titles to his name, he enjoyed a prolific career spanning 30+ years, earning a fevered cult following.
Pyun's first film, The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982),was the highest-grossing independent film of 1982, earning $36,714,025 in the US. The film's success led to Pyun being attached to various large sci-fi projects, including Total Recall (1990),and he became a sought-after director by several studios. His follow-up film was the post-apocalyptic sci-fi Radioactive Dreams (1984),which helped launch the careers of Michael Dudikoff and John Stockwell.
The 1980s was a productive decade for Pyun, with the release of Dangerously Close (1986),Vicious Lips (1986),Down Twisted (1987),Alien from L.A. (1988),Journey to the Center of the Earth (1988),Cyborg (1989),and Deceit (1990).
Pyun's work with Cannon Pictures saw him direct more films for the company than any other filmmaker. His involvement with "Spider-Man" and "Masters of the Universe 2" became legendary. When both films were canceled mid-way into their productions, Pyun devised a breakneck strategy to combine the sets and costume designs from both to salvage the lost money and deliver a single stand-alone film. The result was Cyborg (1989),which opened in 1989 as the fourth highest-grossing film in the United States.
The 1990s proved to be an even more prolific decade, with Pyun directing a further 24 films, including Captain America (1990),Nemesis (1992),Nemesis 2: Nebula (1995),Nemesis 3: Time Lapse (1996),Nemesis 4: Death Angel (1996),Kickboxer 2: The Road Back (1991),Knightriders (1981),Omega Doom (1996),Adrenalin: Fear the Rush (1996),Hong Kong 97 (1994),Postmortem (1998),and Mean Guns (1997).
The 2000s marked a new era for Pyun, as he moved away from the independent studio system and began making films much more independently by self-funding and outsourcing money personally. This allowed for greater creative freedoms as a filmmaker, despite his budgets being drastically reduced.
Pyun's career has seen him work with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, many of whom got their first break with him. He has worked with the likes of Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sasha Mitchell, Christopher Lambert, Natasha Henstridge, Brion James, Tim Thomerson, Jackie Earle Haley, Teri Hatcher, Rutger Hauer, Olivier Gruner, Charlie Sheen, Burt Reynolds, Steven Seagal, Rob Lowe, Ice-T, Snoop Dogg, Kevin Sorbo, Tom Sizemore, Andrew Dice Clay, Dennis Hopper, Kevin Gage, Robert Patrick, Seth Green, Dennis Chan, Ned Beatty, Darren McGavin, Ronny Cox, Kris Kristofferson, George Kennedy, Richard Lynch, Lee Horsley, Richard Moll, Courteney Cox, Tom Matthews, Nicholas Guest, Kathy Ireland, Deep Roy, Michel Qissi, Andrew Divoff, David Carradine, Vincent Klyn, Mitch Pileggi, Yuji Okumoto, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Michael Pare, and Deborah Van Vulkenburgh.
Albert passed away on November 22, 2022, in Las Vegas, NV, where he lived with his wife and producer, Cynthia Curnan.
