Brian Smrz

Brian Smrz (; born ), also Brian Delaney Smrz, is a Hollywood stunt coordinator and second unit director of projects such as Mission: Impossible 2, Live Free or Die Hard, Taxi, Eagle Eye, Night at the Museum, Windtalkers, Iron Man 3, and Superman Returns, among others. He is also the director of Hero Wanted, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Ray Liotta and of 24 Hours to Live, starring Ethan Hawke and Xu Qing. He won the Taurus Award twice and was nominated for a third time.

Career Smrz has worked as a stunt performer and stunt coordinator on Hollywood films since 1981. In more recent years, he has acted as second unit director and director on projects such as Hero Wanted, Fantastic Four, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, The Predator, and Face/Off. He has worked on several of director John Woo's American films, including Windtalkers, Paycheck and Mission: Impossible 2.

Smrz shared a Taurus Award for stuntwork on Mission: Impossible 2 and Live Free or Die Hard. He was also nominated for Taxi. In an otherwise negative review of Taxi, Variety praised Smrz's stunts.

Hero Wanted is his directorial debut. It is a crime drama/action film starring Cuba Gooding, Jr., Ray Liotta and Norman Reedus. Shooting occurred in Sofia and Bulgaria with a crew composed mostly of Bulgarians.

Personal life Smrz is from Strafford, Pennsylvania and was the brother of the stuntman Brett Smrz, who died while performing a stunt jump off a building. Smrz was hospitalized after a stunt went wrong in 1992 on Cyborg 2. The incident was investigated by the Screen Actors Guild.

Filmography Year Title Stunt coordinator Second unit director Director 2000 Mission: Impossible II John Woo 2001 Vanilla Sky Cameron Crowe 2002 Windtalkers John Woo Signs M. Night Shyamalan Minority Report Steven Spielberg 2003 X2 Bryan Singer Paycheck John Woo 2004 Taxi Tim Story 2005 Fantastic Four 2006 Superman Returns Bryan Singer Night at the Museum Shawn Levy 2007 Live Free or Die Hard Len Wiseman 2008 Eagle Eye D.J. Caruso 2009 Surrogates Jonathan Mostow X-Men Origins: Wolverine Gavin Hood Whiteout Dominic Sena 2010 Knight and Day James Mangold 2011 The Hangover Part II Todd Phillips X-Men: First Class Matthew Vaughn Rise of the Planet of the Apes Matt Reeves 2012 This Means War McG 2013 Iron Man 3 Shane Black 2014 X-Men: Days of Future Past Bryan Singer 2015 Fantastic Four Josh Trank 2016 X-Men: Apocalypse Bryan Singer 2017 The Predator Shane Black 2019 Dark Phoenix Simon Kinberg 2020 Loves and Monsters Michael Matthews 2021 Venom: Let There Be Carnage Andy Serkis Ghostbusters: Afterlife Jason Reitman 2022 The Adam Project Shawn Levy 2023 Shazam! Fury of the Gods David F. Sandberg 2023 Expend4bles Scott Waugh 2024 Venom: The Last Dance Kelly Marcel