Jeffrey Boam

A commercially successful writer who scripted David Cronenberg's fine adaptation of Stephen King's "The Dead Zone" (1983) and has recently specialized in action/adventure "blockbusters," Jeffrey Boam has also produced and occasionally directed for TV. He got his first break when director Ulu Grosbard optioned a script he had written and hired him to do a rewrite on "Straight Time" (1978), on which Boam eventually shared writing credit with Alvin Sargent and Edward Bunker. Grosbard also hired Boam as assistant director, although the screenplay he had optioned was never made. It was five years before "Dead Zone," Boam's second--and first solo--credit. He was also associate producer on the film, which focused on a man who finds himself with second sight after surviving a near-fatal accident. In 1987, Boam co-wrote "The Lost Boys," a tongue-in-cheek yet nevertheless frightening vampire story. That same year came the release of "Innerspace," which Boam and Chip Poser adapted from Poser's story about a man (Dennis Quaid) who is miniaturized and then injected into the body of a hypochondriac. He also acted in a bit role in the film.