Tales Told Well

Director James Moran, the founder of Ethos Movies, set out to produce innovative feature movies based on quality, cerebral screenplays that are suspenseful, family-friendly, adventurous and packed with action and thrills, but which would also help humankind.

Director Moran's early years included lead acting roles in classic stage plays by writers like Charles Dickens and Thornton Wilder, and also awards and honors in music, acting, and sports during his school and university years. Director Moran was active in his universities' fraternal and athletic organizations as both a leader and a participant.

With both undergraduate and graduate studies in music, drama, and television which included broadcast law and mass media operations, and with corporate education in operations, finance, business law, insurance, banking, and marketing, Director Moran started out working briefly as an anchor reporting world and national news for a network in Charlotte, NC and served in leadership and educational positions in drama, music, broadcast, and information technology for global financial corporations. Director Moran led international teams in working on multi-million dollar global initiatives at one of the largest corporations in the world where he served for over a decade. This iron-clad experience gave him great depth as a director and producer as he works on film initiatives. As a writer, he immersed himself for decades in the creme de la creme of epic books and films of all eras, including early 1930s films, many of the internet-streamed five star movies and TV shows of old and modern eras, and books by authors like Tolkien, Defoe, Wyss, Hitchcock, Dumas, Bunyan, Lewis, Twain, Appleton, Verne, Doyle, London, Jewish oracles, and the Stratemeyer Syndicate. With a deep history in the arts as an action actor, TV tech, radio manager, movie director, writer, drama coach, news anchor, sound engineer, film score composer, builder, and VFX editor, Director Moran has performed the various roles of his talented cast and crew, so he understands the challenges they face. Director Moran believes "smart work, hard work, team work" is the path to success. It takes a village of artists to make a movie and each one is carefully chosen by the Director.

Hard Work. Smart Work. Team Work. ​

OUR STORY

Ethos Movies LLC began with a student film produced by Director Moran and a volunteer group of forty-five cast and fifteen crew members back in 1995-1996 with only two hundred dollars, a super VHS camera lit like film, and a standing ovation that inspired the founder that he could make films that make a difference for all of humankind globally.

​Sean Connery, one of the world's greatest actors, once discussed whether a film should be 'stirred' (heart stirring, riveting plot) or 'shaken' (action packed with fancy VFX). Our films seek to combine both elements. As Director Moran once phrased it: "A little stirring. A little shaking. It's all in the making."  ​ 

Recently, Director Moran was given a tiny​ micro budget and a timeline of only a week and a few weekends in order to champion racial justice at a critical window in time, Director Moran not only sidestepped these potential quality disasters by filming the movie quickly and using World War II era color grading to improve the DSLR camera images, but he also turned the short film into a feature film. This indie film was released in 2019 and in spite of its challenges, it competed with major studio films. Currently, a large scale film is planned with world-renowned talent, and an original blockbuster script similar to franchises like Bourne, Bond, Lara Croft, Hunger Games and Indiana Jones. Stay tuned!

Fear not! Out of ashes, a new fire springs! Out of death, life is borne! From sorrow, joy and hope will emerge!
Endings bring beginnings! So run! Do not be weary! As an eagle, you will mount up with wings and fly into glory! 

Copyright 2018 Ethos Movies LLC