inmate profile: David Michael Latt

This is the first time COMMITTED has slung an inmate profile the partners' way (I wanted to hone myself a little), and I think the perfect partner to start with is producer/ director/writer/editor/Asylum co-founder David Michael Latt.

A California native, Latt's first job in Hollywood - or at least the first job that seems studio-oriented as reported by his IMDB bio - was as an Art Director for Absolute Production, which, if my googling skills are accurate, is an events management company. From there he moved on to a position as Vice President, Production, for Chimera Multimedia. But despite this success, it wasn't until 1997 that Latt found his true calling and, along with former Village Roadshow executives David Rimawi and Sherri Strain, he strode out down his own road and formed The Asylum. 

Latt's present role at The Asylum is to oversee production and marketing, placing him in charge of a small crew that produces 10-15 feature-length motion pictures a year, each with an average of three- to four-week shoots. In a nutshell, this means every single Asylum production is steered by the practiced hands of Mr. Latt; think of him as the James M. Nicholson to Rimawi's Samuel Z. Arkoff, or the other way around - one of 'em's one of 'em and the other's the other, I know that much. 

Furthermore, not only is Latt an ace behind the scenes, he's darn good at creating them as well, as he's an accomplished and award-winning filmmaker in his own right. For The Asylum, Mr. Latt has directed eight titles, three of which he wrote. Another 16 Asylum-scripts bear his name. 

A look at Latt's Asylum filmography:

WRITER: Jane White is Sick & Twisted, Scarecrow Slayer, War of the Worlds, King of the Lost World, Da Vinci Treasure, Pirates of Treasure Island, Halloween Night, Supercroc, The Apocalypse, Universal Soldiers, Alien vs. Hunter, Monster, War of the Worlds 2, Allan Quatermain and the Temple of Skulls, Countdown: Jerusalem, The Terminators

DIRECTOR: Rock and Roll Fantasy, Killers, Jane White is Sick & Twisted, Killers 2, Scarecrow Slayer, War of the Worlds, MegaFault.

Also worth noting, Latt is married to Asylum staple Kim Little, and together the two have made seven films together.


And there you have it, a look at one of the founding partners of The Asylum, writer/director/filmmaker extraordinaire and the head of production, David Michael Latt. Call me a sycophant (and some have), but this guy's pretty much got the coolest job in the universe, and - like the other partners and indeed anyone working in the arts - he carved it out for himself. Where I from, that's worth saluting.


So, Mr. Latt, consider yourself saluted.