Emmy-nominated director Catherine Cyran loses battle with cancer

Catherine Cyran, an Emmy-nominated filmmaker, producer and writer who began her career working under Roger Corman, passed away following a battle with cancer. She was 59 years old.

Before emerging as director in the 1990s, Cyran established herself as a screenwriter, with credits on films such as 1990’s Slumber Party Massacre III and A Cry in the Wild, the 1990 adaptation of Gary Paulsen’s novel Hatchet. She made her feature film directorial debut with the 1993 sequel White Wolves: A Cry in the Wild II, for which she earned an Emmy nomination.

Cyran found her footing in the entertainment industry working as an executive assistant under the seminal, prolific producer and director Roger Corman, whose tutelage touched other filmmakers such as Francis Ford Coppola, Jonathan Demme and Peter Bogdonavich. Under Corman, Cyran wrote and produced titles such as Dead Space, starring Bryan Cranston; Uncaged, starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan; Fire on the Amazon, starring Sandra Bullock and Kiss Me a Killer, which earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination. Cyran also served as a ghost writer behind Frankenstein Unbound, Corman’s final feature as a director.

After working with Corman, Cyran began a fruitful relationship with Fox Family Television Studios, writing and directing the thrillers Dangerous Waters and Hostile Intensions.

She then took to helming television movies at ABC Family, directing Christmas films such as Christmas Do-Over, Homecoming for the Holidays, Christmas Duet and Cross Country Christmas.