Ellory Elkayem Biography

Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, Ellory Elkayem began making films at a young age. He later attended a film school designed to give students practical experience and preparation for a career in the film business. He learned the ropes first hand while, working in the camera department on many commercials, music videos, and Television shows such as The New Adventures of the Black Stallion starring Mickey Rooney.During this time, Elkayem also made several short form films with steadfast support and financial assistance from the New Zealand Government. His big break came with, Larger Than Life, a 13 minute, black and white, FX driven homage to the 1950's Hollywood horror genre featuring a giant, man-eating spider.Produced by Academy Award winner Jamie Selkirk, and financed with the largest grant of its kind from the New Zealand Film Commission, Larger than Life received critical acclaim at the 1998 Telluride Film Festival and later caught the eye of heavyweight Hollywood producers, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich. (Independence, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow.) Roland and Dean then tapped Elkayem to write and direct Eight-Legged Freaks, a 30 million dollar feature film based on Larger Than Life, starring David Arquette and Scarlett Johansson, and distributed by Warner Brothers.In 2000, while in development on Eight Legged Freaks, Elkayem directed They Nest, a television movie for USA Networks starring Dean Stockwell, John Savage, Thomas Calabro and Kristin Dalton. The movie, also known as Creepy Crawlers, told the tale of a small New England town infested with an exotic breed of killer cockroaches.In 2001 Elkayem directed Eight Legged Freaks and in 2002, the film was released to rave reviews.Most recently, Elkayem directed two classic zombie movies, back to back, in Romania, Return of the Living Dead - Necropolis, and Return of the Living Dead - Rave from the Grave, starring Peter Coyote.