Michael Katleman

Primarily a television director, Michael Katleman is perhaps best known for his feature film debut, "Primeval." Katleman began his career as an assistant director on television series and movies like the Whoopi Goldberg comedy "Jumpin' Jack Flash," the Ritchie Valens biopic "La Bamba," and the Arnold Schwarzenegger science-fiction thriller "Predator." Katleman's directorial debut came in 1990 with the critically acclaimed Vietnam War drama series "China Beach." From there, he directed episodes of a number of popular shows, including "Quantum Leap," "The X-Files," "Northern Exposure," and "ER." In the early 2000s, Katleman helmed several episodes of the hit comedy-drama "Gilmore Girls" (on which he also served as an executive producer), as well as the two-hour finale of Steven Spielberg's science fiction miniseries "Taken." He oversaw episodes of the superhero drama "Smallville" and FOX's supernatural series "Tru Calling," which he again produced. In 2007, Katleman directed his first feature, the horror film "Primeval," about a giant man-eating crocodile living in the swamps of the Eastern African country Burundi. Following his foray into film, Katleman returned to television with the science fiction series "Life on Mars"; "Eastwick," starring Rebecca Romijn and based on John Updike's novel "The Witches of Eastwick"; and the Jason Lee drama "Memphis Beat," all of which he also produced.