Wes Craven, `Scream' and `Nightmare on Elm Street' Director, Dies at 76   
       
   August 30, 2015 | 06:25PM PT   
       
   Pat Saperstein   
   Deputy Editor@Variety_PatS   
       
       
   Legendary horror director Wes Craven, known for the "Scream" films and the   
   "Nightmare on Elm Street" series, died Sunday in his Los Angeles home of brain   
   cancer. He was 76.   
       
   Known for creating the iconic Freddy Krueger character from "Nightmare on Elm   
   Street" and Ghostface in "Scream," the versatile filmmaker also wrote and   
   produced features, directed for television and wrote novels.   
       
   Craven was a humanities professor before leaving academia to work in post   
   production and on porn movies, using a pseudonym. His first credited feature   
   was the controversial shocker "The Last House on the Left," which he wrote,   
   directed and edited in 1972. He followed with the blackly comic "The Hills   
   Have Eyes" and "Swamp Thing," an early entry in the comic book genre.   
       
   He wrote and directed "A Nightmare on Elm Street," with Robert Englund as   
   Krueger and an early Johnny Depp performance, in 1984. The surreal slasher pic   
   is credited with having started the "dream reality" style of 1980s horror   
   filmmakers and helped launch independent film studio New Line Cinema, which is   
   sometimes referred to as "the house that Freddy built."   
       
   Bill Pullman starred in 1988's "Serpent and the Rainbow," which was based on a   
   non-fiction book about voodoo. Craven tried his hand at non-horror fare   
   between "Scream 2" and "Scream 3" with "Music of the Heart" in 1999, for which   
   Meryl Streep was Oscar-nommed for best actress. He also wrote a novel, "The   
   Fountain Society," that year.   
       
   In the 1990s he pioneered the meta horror movie with film-within-a-film "Wes   
   Craven's New Nightmare," then followed with "Scream" in 1996. He directed all   
   four installments of the satirical scarer; the first grossed more than $100   
   million domestically. Starring Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David   
   Arquette, it became a cultural phenomenon and inspired the "Scary Movie" spoof   
   series.   
       
   He mixed it up again with 2005 psychological thriller "Red Eye" and with a   
   romantic comedy segment in "Paris Je t'aime," then produced remakes of his   
   earlier films "The Hills Have Eyes" and "The Last House on the Left."   
       
   Craven was still actively developing projects, having recently signed an   
   overall television deal with Universal Cable Productions. He had television   
   projects in development including "The People Under the Stairs" with Syfy   
   Networks, "Disciples" with UCP, "We Are All Completely Fine" with Syfy/UCP,   
   and "Sleepers" with Federation Entertainment.  He was also executive producing   
   the new "Scream" series for MTV. His most recent films were 2010's "My Soul to   
   Take" and "Scream 4" in 2011.   
       
   He had recently written and was to direct the "Thou Shalt Not Kill" segment   
   for the Weinstein Company/WGN's "Ten Commandments" television miniseries, and   
   had also been working on a graphic novel series based on his original idea   
   "Coming of Rage" for Liquid Comics, in collaboration with Steve Niles. He was   
   exec producer of "The Girl in the Photographs," which will premiere in Toronto.   
       
   Born August 2, 1939, in Cleveland, Ohio, the longtime bird lover served as a   
   longtime member of the Audubon California Board of Directors.   
       
   "I am heartbroken at the news of Wes Craven's passing," Bob Weinstein,   
   co-chairman of the Weinstein Company and Dimension Films, said in a statement.   
   "We enjoyed a 20 year professional relationship and more importantly a warm   
   and close friendship.  He was a consummate filmmaker and his body of work will   
   live on forever. My brother and I are eternally grateful for all his   
   collaborations with us."   
       
   Craven is survived by his wife, producer and former Disney Studios VP Iya   
   Labunka; sister Carol Buhrow; son Jonathan Craven; daughter Jessica Craven;   
   stepdaughter Nina Tarnawksy and three grandchildren.   
       
       
   Regards,   
       
   Roger   
      
   --- D'Bridge 3.99   
    * Origin: NCS BBS -Houma, LoUiSiAna (1:3828/7)