Christophe Gans

Born: March 11 1960
Where: Antibes, France

The director is probably best known for the award-winning horror thriller Brotherhood of the Wolf.

As a teenager he made samurai and kung fu super-8 films with his friends and at the end of the seventies founded the B-Movie fanzine Rhesus Zero.

In 1980, he studied at the French cinema school Idhec and directed a short movie called Silver Slime, a tribute to Mario Bava.

Two years later he founded the magazine Starfix, which championed controversial directors such as David Cronenberg, Dario Argento, Russel Mulcahy and David Lynch.

Launching his film career pro He decided to make movies and directed one of the three parts of Necronomicon called The Drowned.

Next up was the action thriller Crying Freeman, based on the famous Japanese manga cartoon.

Gans worked for two years on a free adaptation of Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues under the Sea before being asked to direct Brotherhood of the Wolf.

More than five million people have seen the story about the Beast of Gévaudan, an unknown animal who killed more than 100 people in France at the end of 18th century.