British director and documentary maker Justin Hardy has died at the age of 61, passing away on Friday evening following a heart attack.
Hardy had recently finished production on Wrath of the Gods, the concluding instalment of a trilogy begun by his father Robin Hardy with the cult classic The Wicker Man. The new film, drawn from a recently uncovered script by Robin Hardy and featuring Francis Magee and Christiane Schaldemose, was scheduled to premiere on 28 August at FrightFest on London's Leicester Square. In 2024, Hardy and his brother Dominic released the documentary Children of the Wicker Man.
Across a career spanning decades, Hardy directed historical films and documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4 and CNN, with credits including Princes in the Tower and Spanish Flu: The Forgotten Fallen. He also taught screenwriting at University College London.