Gary Sherman

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Gary Sherman, born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, started directing short films, commercials, industrials, and documentaries while still an undergraduate at IIT's Institute of Design. After graduating, Gary moved to London, England, where he continued directing commercials, then co-wrote and directed his first feature film, Death Line starring Donald Pleasence. The British Film Institute called this debut "The Most Significant Directorial Debut of the Year".

Upon relocating to Los Angeles, California, he continued writing and collaborating on many feature scripts. He also wrote and directed several television pilots. Then Ronald Shusett (Executive Producer: Alien, Minority Report) asked Gary to direct the horror film Dead and Buried for Avco-Embassy. Gary followed that by helming the action/thriller Vice Squad shot by Stanley Kubrick's DP John Alcott. Like Death Line, these films often polarized critics and audiences and have since gone on to become genre classics.

Next he co-wrote and directed the thriller Wanted: Dead or Alive starring Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner) and rock legend Gene Simmons. Teamed with Gene, the award-winning Rock Against Drugs public service campaign for MTV came about as well as the pilot for the ABC series Sable. His next project was Poltergeist III for MGM, which was shot on location in Chicago between April-June 1987. Heather O'Rourke, the child star of the film, passed away in February of 1988, four months before the film's release. Although all press reports and studio statements at the time said that Heather had finished the movie before her death, Sherman would claim years later that Heather died before the ending of the film could be shot, forcing the use of a body double in a hastily re-written finale that he was forced to shoot by the studio.

However, his version of events is itself contradicted by numerous other cast/crew who also worked on the film. They supported the initial press reports by saying that Heather had finished the movie, but that the ending was re-shot using the body double after Heather died in March of 1988 (see [1]for more information). In addition, the MPAA awarded Poltergeist III a PG rating in November of 1987, three months before Heather died. Because the MPAA only awards ratings to completed films, the evidence does not seem to support Sherman's claim. After the stressful and tragic experience of working on Poltergeist III, Sherman did a string of TV pilots and MOWs that he wrote, produced and/or directed, as well as writing and directing the thriller Lisa for MGM.

Gary later went on to produce, direct, and write the pilot for the ABC TV series Missing Persons. After Executive Producing that series for its duration, he went on to Co-Executive Produce the MGM/SHOWTIME series Poltergeist: The Legacy.

For New Line Cinema and Fox TV, Gary wrote and was Executive Producer for the film The Glow as well as penning the script Toxic Love also for Fox TV.

Since 2000, when Death Line was chosen by a panel of British critics as one of "The Ten Most Imoortant British Horror Films of the 20th Century" then was subsequently screened at Lincoln Center, many fans, including one of his most ardent, director Guillermo Del Toro, have been trying to get Gary to return to his roots, directing horror. The 2006 horror/thriller 39 - A Film by Carroll McKane, a highly original and disturbing journey into the tortured mind of a serial killer, is that return.