Jeff Katz is an American film producer and comic book author, best known for genre movies such as The Pope's Exorcist, Snakes On A Plane and Freddy vs. Jason.
Early life
Katz is from Franklin, Michigan. He started a pen-pal relationship with New Line Cinema founder and future boss Bob Shaye after meeting Shaye's father at a dinner party as an eight year old boy. As a teenager, Katz achieved some measure of local fame, including a feature on NBC's The Today Show, as the host of an AM talk radio show on WDFN, which at the time was a sports talk radio station. His radio guests included Jeff Bagwell, Bob Arum, Marv Albert, Mr. T and, notably, several professional wrestlers including Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Jimmy Hart and Sherri Martel. It was in this role that he would first catch the eye of World Championship Wrestling executives Eric Bischoff and Zane Bresloff, who would eventually hire Katz for WCW. Katz briefly attended Michigan State before dropping out after accepting an internship at New Line in Los Angeles.
Career
Film producer
Katz, arriving in Los Angeles on his 20th birthday, first worked as an unpaid intern for New Line Cinema where he eventually became a studio executive and film producer, producing Freddy vs. Jason at 24 years old, followed by Snakes on a Plane, Shoot 'Em Up and Normal Adolescent Behavior. While serving as a studio executive at New Line, during the production of Blade: Trinity, he thought Ryan Reynolds was the only actor suitable for the role of Deadpool and championed the idea with the support of Marvel's Avi Arad and Kevin Feige. However, rights issues emerged with 20th Century Fox and their X-Men films, and the project did not move forward with that studio. Katz subsequently moved to 20th Century Fox, finally bringing the Ryan Reynolds deal over to the studio, where he worked on productions such as Deadpool, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men: First Class and The A-Team while there. Katz was named one of Variety's "10 Producers to Watch" and was also named a member of The Hollywood Reporter's annual "35 Under 35."
Katz also appears as an interview subject in several documentaries including Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy, Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film, Halloween: 25 Years of Terror and His Name Was Jason: 30 Years of Friday The 13th.
He most recently produced The Pope's Exorcist starring Russell Crowe and based on the life of Father Gabriele Amorth for Sony Pictures and Screen Gems, for which he also received a story credit. The film has grossed $76.6 million on a budget of $18 million and a sequel is in development.
Wrestling promotion
Katz began his career in sports entertainment at World Championship Wrestling in 1996, when he was hired by Eric Bischoff at the age of 17. He would spend his late teens alternating between high school and traveling for WCW during the Monday Night Wars. Katz primarily handled play-by-play on PPV events for online streaming alongside color commentator Mark Madden and wrote columns for WCW's print and online outlets. He briefly took over for Gene Okerlund on the WCW hotline during Okerlund's absence, ultimately shifting to his own segment on the hotline following Okerlund's eventual return. He would later shift to hosting a weekly segment on the breakaway New World Order hotline. Katz also served as host of the infamous Ms. NWO pageant at the Souled Out (1997) PPV event. He would eventually segue out of WCW upon his move to Los Angeles to intern at New Line Cinema.
During his later Hollywood career, he briefly returned to wrestling in early 2011, while venting frustrations via his Twitter page with the current wrestling product broadcast worldwide by companies such as WWE and TNA. In May 2011, he began a fundraising drive via the crowdfunding website Kickstarter with a goal to raise $100,000 for an alternative wrestling venture. By June 21, 2011, the goal was achieved through 187 pledges, and became the Wrestling Retribution Project. A thirteen-week first season was taped from October 10 to 12, 2011, at the Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California.
The WRP concept featured a standalone story universe that didn't acknowledge any outside wrestling history or existing promotions like World Wrestling Entertainment. The roster of wrestling talent all played entirely new characters created by Katz, who workshopped the new characters with each performer during pre-production. The series format was designed to feature a full beginning, middle and end similar to the structure of a film or limited television series, including darker themes and characterizations than common to most wrestling programming.