Director
The best clues to director William Kaufman and his films are on his Myspace. His favorite bands? Tool, Pink Floyd, Nick Cave, and more. Favorite movies? Reservoir Dogs, Blade Runner, The Wild Bunch, and his own, among others. On television he likes The Shield and Deadwood, and his literary tastes run the gamut from horror (Stephen King) to mystery (Lawrence Block) to postmodernism (Kurt Vonnegut). While these influences don’t define the director, they do offer glimpses of the vast pop-culture ocean from which his films emerge.The first such film was The Prodigy, the 2005 thriller that followed a mysterious assassin targeting a small-time thug. Kaufman co-wrote the film with Holt Boggs, who also starred. Kaufman’s 2010 film, Sinners & Saints, is another crime epic. Two detectives try to track down a childhood friend who seems to be connected to a group of gangland killings. The film stars some higher-profile actors than Kaufman’s first. There’s Sean Patrick Flanery (Boondock Saints), Tom Berenger (Inception),and Method Man (Soul Plane), although Holt Boggs does have a small role as Detective Tom Wyatt.What’s next for the director? Kaufman is already wrapping up on his next film, The Hit List, in which an angry everyman unwittingly hires a hit man. The film is written by Chad and Evan Law, brothers from Indiana. Cuba Gooding, Jr. is playing a lead role. Expect plenty of action and thrills when this new film hits, and be on the lookout for more of Kaufman in the future.