With a feature debut, a Bitcoin thriller and a new project led by Millicent Simmonds and Troy Kotsur, the producer turned director is stepping into a new chapter.
A cursed inheritance in the California desert. A lost Bitcoin fortune. A woman whose relationship with a humanoid robot turns unsettling. The premises at the center of Garrett Patten’s recent projects are strikingly different, but each begins with a familiar source of anxiety: the moment something that promises security becomes a threat.
For Patten, that range reflects a career that has grown beyond the producer’s role. After years of working on independent films, the entrepreneur and TBK Productions founder is emerging as a director with an interest in suspense, family and the unexpected consequences of modern life.
His latest project, Alone, may be his most ambitious indication yet of where that path is leading. The psychological thriller short, directed by Patten and co-written with Tiziano Tucci, features Millicent Simmonds, Academy Award winner Troy Kotsur, Nyle DiMarco and Phylicia Rashad. With a majority-Deaf cast, the film follows a Deaf woman whose connection with an advanced humanoid robot takes a darker turn. Filming has wrapped in Brooklyn, and the project is in post-production. The filmmakers have also expressed interest in developing it into a feature, though that version has not been confirmed.
The project arrives during a significant year for Patten, one that has seen him move further into the director’s chair while continuing to build on a producing résumé that includes Bandit, The Luckiest Man in America and In the Hand of Dante. His credits on those films are as an executive producer, reflecting an established presence in independent cinema before his more recent work as a director.
A Return to the Camera
Patten’s interest in filmmaking began long before those credits. As a child, he experimented with a Sony camcorder and taught himself to edit short videos. He later studied at the University of Southern California, where he spent time around film students and other creatives, before pursuing a career in business.
That experience gave him a perspective on the practical side of getting projects made. Patten founded TBK Productions and became involved in independent films across genres, gaining producing experience before taking on a more hands-on creative role.
In 2026, he brought that perspective to Self Custody, a short thriller he co-directed with Fernando Ferro. Patten also stars as a struggling father who discovers that a Bitcoin bonus he received years earlier is now worth millions, only to face the challenge of recovering it. Adrian Grenier, Odette Annable and Henry Cejudo appear in the film, which uses the world of cryptocurrency as the backdrop for a story about trust, responsibility and family.
The film brought Patten to Park City in January for a screening and a panel during the Sundance period. Its premise also attracted attention for Grenier, whose appearance marked a return to acting after several years away from the screen.
Opening The Iron Door
If Self Custody found suspense in the digital world, Patten’s feature directorial debut, The Iron Door, looked to the California desert and its legends.
The supernatural thriller stars Casey Deidrick as Zach, a motorcycle shop owner drawn into a search for his family’s hidden gold after receiving a journal and a ring from his estranged father. What begins as a journey into family history becomes something more dangerous, as buried secrets and a rumored curse come into view. Inspired by desert folklore, the film also features Brooke Chamberlain and Brock O’Hurn.
The film won Best Horror Feature at the 2026 Arizona International Film Festival. In May, Patten presented The Iron Door at the Cannes market alongside another TBK title, the road-trip drama Start Without Me, directed by Joel Gretsch and starring Finn Wittrock and Rita Wilson. The following September, The Iron Door reached Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre for its premiere.
For a filmmaker building a directorial career within the independent space, those milestones trace a progression: from developing and completing a feature to introducing it to festival audiences, industry buyers and the public.
What Comes Next
With Alone, Patten is returning to the short-film format while exploring another kind of contemporary unease. Where Self Custody turns a forgotten password into a source of jeopardy, Alone centers on a machine designed to make life easier and the unsettling intimacy that can follow.
It is too early to know whether the short will become a feature, or what shape Patten’s future slate will take. What is clear is that he is expanding his role in the stories he brings to the screen. His producing background remains part of that foundation, while his recent directing work suggests a filmmaker increasingly interested in the creative decisions at the center of a project.
For Patten, the journey from childhood camera experiments to independent producing and directing has unfolded over years rather than overnight. Now, with The Iron Door, Self Custody and Alone, he is entering a new chapter, one defined not only by the projects he helps bring to life, but by the stories he chooses to tell himself. And as his ambitions continue to evolve, his transition from producer to director may be just the beginning.