Christophe Gans

A visually gifted director, Christophe Gans' deep abiding love for genre fare and pop-culture imbued each of his film endeavors with a patina of authenticity and passion. A graduate of France's respected film school, Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinematopraphiques, he made his directorial debut with a gruesome vignette in the horror anthology "Necronomicon: Book of the Dead" (1993). His work on the direct-to-video release led to an ongoing relationship with producer Samuel Hadida, for whom he helmed the martial arts action-adventure "Crying Freeman" (1995). Gans achieved international recognition with his extremely successful 18th-century horror tale, "Brotherhood of the Wolf" (2001). He returned four years later with the video game adaptation "Silent Hill" (2006), a horror story that, while acknowledged for its impressive phantasmagoric imagery, was criticized for its aggravatingly vague and ambiguous narrative. Although by no means a prolific filmmaker, Gans' commitment to his material earned him the respect of genre fans everywhere who eagerly awaited the writer-director's next idiosyncratic offering.