Christophe Gans (born 11 March 1960) is a French

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

, producer, and screenwriter who specializes in horror and

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...

movies.

Life and career

Gans was born in

Antibes Antibes (, also , ; oc, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal, Antíbol) is a coastal city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department of southeastern France, on the French Riviera, Côte d'Azur between Cannes and Nice. The town of ...

, France. As a teenager, he spent a large portion of his time creating

kung fu Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (), are multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common ...

-themed Super 8 movies with his friends. He later went on to attend the French film school Idhec, where he created his first short film, ''Silver Slime'', dedicated to

Mario Bava Mario Bava (31 July 1914 – 27 April 1980) was an Italian filmmaker who worked variously as a director, cinematographer, special effects artist and screenwriter, frequently referred to as the "Master of Italian Horror" and the "Master of the M ...

. He later spent time as a film critic before co-directing his first film, '' H.P. Lovecraft's: Necronomicon''. His $29 million-budgeted film ''

Le Pacte des Loups ''Brotherhood of the Wolf'' (french: Le Pacte des loups) is a 2001 French period action horror film directed by Christophe Gans, co-written by Gans and Stéphane Cabel, and starring Samuel Le Bihan, Mark Dacascos, Émilie Dequenne, Monica Bel ...

'' was a worldwide success, grossing over $70 million in theaters worldwide. It became the sixth-highest-grossing

French-language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

film of all time in the United States, After the film's success, many producers approached Gans to work on very similar projects to appeal to young audience. He went on to direct 2006's cinematic adaptation of the video game ''

Silent Hill is a horror anthology media franchise centered on a series of survival horror games created by Keiichiro Toyama and published by Konami. The first four video games in the series, ''Silent Hill'', '' Silent Hill 2'', ''Silent Hill 3'' and '' ...

'', as well as the 2014 fantasy film, ''

Beauty and the Beast ''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' ( ...

''. Gans has also appeared in films as an actor, as he portrayed himself in the 2016 mockumentary ''

Fury of the Demon ''Fury of the Demon'' (''french: La rage du Démon'') is a 2016 French/Croatian/United States mockumentary film that was written and directed by Fabien Delage. The movie tells the history of film pioneer and director Georges Méliès by way of a ...

''.

Future projects

Gans was to write and direct the Capcom video game ''

Onimusha is a series of video games developed and published by Capcom. It makes use of the historic figures that shaped Japan's history, retelling their stories with supernatural elements. Most of the games are of the action-adventure genre, a combinat ...

;'' however, after several setbacks he abandoned it and is now attached to the French film ''

Fantômas Fantômas () is a fictional character created by French writers Marcel Allain (1885–1969) and Pierre Souvestre (1874–1914). One of the most popular characters in the history of French crime fiction, Fantômas was created in 1911 and appear ...

''. He initially was to direct a sequel to ''

'', but later pulled out and was replaced by M. J. Bassett. Gans was developing a new live action ''

Corto Maltese ''Corto Maltese'' is a series of adventure and fantasy comics named after the character Corto Maltese, an adventurous sailor. It was created by the Italian comic book creator Hugo Pratt in 1967. The comics are highly praised as some of the most ...

'' film for release in 2020. It was to star Tom Hughes and

Milla Jovovich Milica Bogdanovna Jovovich; sr-Latn, Milica Bogdanovna Jovović; russian: Милица Богдановна Йовович; uk, Милиця Богданoвна Йовович ( ; born December 17, 1975), known professionally as Milla Jovo ...

. However, it was cancelled due to legal problems. In January 2020, Gans expressed an interest in directing new ''Silent Hill'' and ''

Fatal Frame ''Fatal Frame'', titled in Japan and ''Project Zero'' in Europe and Australia, is a Japanese survival horror video game series created, published and developed by Koei Tecmo (originally Tecmo). Debuting in 2001 with the first entry in the seri ...

'' films, stating that he is developing a screenplay for the former. In 2022, in an interview with French gaming website Jeux Video, Gans confirmed that he had completed a script for a third ''Silent Hill'' film, and is aiming for a 2023 release for the project. He later reiterated this in an interview with JeuxActu, and elaborated that the third film project is to be part of what will be a 'relaunch' of the ''Silent Hill'' brand, accompanied by new video games. In October 2022, it was announced that the film would be called ''Return to Silent Hill'' and would be based on '' Silent Hill 2''.

Filmography

Notes

External links

*
BBC interviewYahoo.com Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gans, Christophe 1960 births Fantasy film directors French film directors French screenwriters Horror film directors Living people People from Antibes