| abstract
| - Charles Robert Band (b. December 27, 1951 in Los Angeles, California) is a director, writer, and producer of horror films. He is the son of director-producer Albert Band, and brother of the composer Richard Band. With his former wife Meda, he has two children, Alex Band, the vocalist for band The Calling, and Taryn Band. He has two sons with his former wife Debra Dion, Harlan and Zalman. Charles' grandfather was the artist Max Band. One of the few non-horror films he worked on was the Prehysteria trilogy, which were made by his family-oriented company Moonbeam Entertainment. His most famous films are those in the Puppet Master franchise, made by his Full Moon Features company. Before he had Full Moon Features, his earlier (and now defunct) company Empire Pictures made films like Ghoulies and Re-Animator. Starting in the seventies, Band formed Charles Band Productions. Dissatisfied with distributors' handling of his films, Band created Empire Pictures in the early eighties. Through Empire, he could produce and distribute his films ensuring proper distribution and return on profits. Empire entered the video market with Wizard Video during this time, which also released films by others in addition to Empire product. At the height of its run, Empire produced 12 theatrical and 12 direct to video films a year. Wizard would also produce two games for the Atari 2600 in 1982: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween both based on the films of the same names and both quite controversial at the time for the levels of violence. Citing the fall of the Italian lira, the Rome based Empire closed its doors in the late eighties and Band returned to the States. There he formed Full Moon Productions which was quickly changed to Full Moon Entertainment and later became Full Moon Studios and Full Moon Features before settling on the current Full Moon Pictures. During this time, Band produced exclusively with Paramount Home Video before parting ways with that company in 1994. Since then, Full Moon has been an independent company, producing and distributing solely for the home market. Notable side companies have included Moonbeam Entertainment, Filmonsters, Action Xtreme and Pulsepounders all of which produced films aimed at kids and tweens as well as Torchlight Entertainment and Surrender Cinema which produced soft core films for the adult market. In addition, Monster Island Entertainment produced man in a rubber suit monster movies, Alchemy Entertainment later Big City Pictures created urban horror, and Pulp Fantasy Productions specialized in non Full Moon type horror. For a short time in the early 2000s, Full Moon became Shadow Entertainment when Band felt the company's product had strayed too far from the brand that he had created. During this time, many of the films were produced by J. R. Bookwalter's Tempe Entertainment. Since 2004, Band has taken a more active hand in the company, producing and directing almost every film released. Also in 2004, the Wizard Video line was reintroduced. In 2008, Band struck a deal with Walt Disney Pictures in that he'd serve as producer of select films from Disney. In return, Full Moon received home video rights to all those films. Without exception, all have been released on home video under the Wizard Video banner. For a short time, fans could buy a line of toys based on characters from the films such as Shrieker, Radu from Subspecies and the Puppet Master puppets as well. Branded Full Moon Toys, this line lasted a couple of years. More recently, the Monster Bra line has been created, specializing in gag brassieres. CD soundtracks have also been released through the Full Moon Records line including many works by Band's brother Richard Band and comics based on Dollman, Puppet Master, Subspecies and Trancers were released through Eternity Comics.
- Charles Band is the creator of Full Moon Features and the producer of the Puppet Master movies. Charles Band has sustained a remarkable track record as an industry pioneer over the past 30 years. With nearly 300 feature films under his belt, the founder and CEO of Full Moon Features shows no signs of slowing down. In 1975 Charles Band produced his first film Mansion of the Doomed. Within a few years, Band was fast becoming a rising star in Hollywood, producing and directing movies starring established names such as John Carradine, José Ferrer, Sue Lyon, Christopher Lee, and Roddy McDowall. In 1978 Band formed MEDA Home Entertainment, the first independent home video distribution company in North America. MEDA was among the first companies to distribute films to the home video market on the beta-max format and found success with a wide variety of titles ranging from horror movies such as Halloween to family entertainment like the animated Peanuts specials. Band went on to form Wizard Video in 1981. The company was a pioneer in the home video market and was the original video distributor for classic horror movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I Spit on Your Grave, and Zombie. A forward thinking company, Wizard foresaw the potential for massive growth in home video gaming and produced adaptations of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween for the Atari 2600, which were the first horror console video games ever released. Charles Band continued to produce and direct his own films during this era, including the horror movie Parasite, which featured actress Demi Moore’s first starring role. In 1983 Charles Band founded Empire Entertainment. Based in Los Angeles, the film production company was highly prosperous throughout the eighties and produced as many as twelve theatrical features a year. Empire Entertainment was responsible for some of the biggest cult hits of the eighties including Ghoulies, Re-Animator, Troll, and Robot Jox. Charles Band continued his track record of discovering untapped talent during this time, casting such future stars as Helen Hunt, Viggo Mortensen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mariska Hargitay, and many more. At the end of the decade, Charles Band pioneered the direct-to-video feature in 1989 with the formation of Full Moon Entertainment and the creation of Puppet Master, which has gone on to become the most successful direct-to-video film series of all time. Band soon teamed with Paramount Pictures and Pioneer Home Entertainment for direct-to-video releases on VHS and Laserdisc. The “VideoZone” featurettes at the end of Full Moon’s movies, which showed how each film was made, presaged the behind-the-scenes bonus content that is now considered a standard among modern day DVD and Blu-ray discs. With upwards of twenty releases per year, Band built a reputation as a versatile and frequent director of entertaining low-budget horror, sci-fi, and fantasy films. Charles Band’s Full Moon Entertainment, later renamed Full Moon Features, created many well-known video franchises throughout the nineties and into the new millennium. Aside from its extremely popular Puppet Master series, Full Moon produced the Trancers series starring Helen Hunt and Tim Thomerson, the Subspecies series shot on location in Transylvania, the bizarre Evil Bong series featuring Tommy Chong, and the infamous Gingerdead Man series starring Gary Busey. During this period, Band worked with many talents who would later achieve greater fame in the industry like Seth Green, Jackie Earle Haley, and David S. Goyer, to name a few. In addition to his relentless filming schedule, Charles Band continued to be very active in creating and marketing a wide variety of merchandise including T-shirts, action figures, resin statues, and 1:1 scale replicas of Full Moon’s better-known puppets and dolls. Most recently, Charles Band has taken another step into the future with the creation of Full Moon Streaming. This pioneering video streaming service allows subscribers from all over the world to watch Full Moon films from the comfort of their computer or other Internet-ready device. Full Moon Streaming adds new movies on a weekly basis, both under Band’s established Full Moon banner and his emerging GrindhouseFlix label. Full Moon’s transition into the digital age has introduced Charles Band’s immense body of work to an entirely new generation of fans. After decades of experience in the entertainment industry, Charles Band has cemented his legacy as a progressive businessman, prolific filmmaker, and cult movie icon.
- He is the son of film maker Albert Band, the brother of composer Richard Band and the father of rock star Alex Band of The Calling.
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