Several weeks ago, Daniel Craft found out that he had terminal cancer. He said that as a Trek fan, a major regret was that he knew he wouldn't live long enough to see the new Trek film 'Into Darkness' which is due for release in May. His friends and family reached out to J J Abrams and Paramount to see if it would be possible to show Daniel some footage. After sorting out some necessary legalities and non-disclosure agreements, the director personally called Daniel and the studio came through, with a special security detail arriving at Daniel's home with a DVD of a rough-cut of the yet-to-be-fully-completed film.
Daniel apparently loved the film. Several days later his family took him to a local hospice and he passed away on January 4th. He was only 41.
Those who have heard this story still might not the immediate connection that this is the same Daniel Craft who ran and co-founded the famous New York Asian Film Festival, which we've covered a number of times over the years. Many people in the business consider the festival and the efforts of Craft and his team to be instrumental in raising the profile of eastern talent. Between his day job at MTV, Daniel was fluent in Mandarin and had appeared in several chinese television series. He was also an extra in Kill Bill Vol 1.
A statement from the festival, celebrating Daniel, said:
Last night around 10:15pm, Dan Craft, who has been a member of Subway Cinema since 2004, passed away. His wife and brother were with him when he went, and he wasn't in any pain. He'd been a bit loopy for a few days as his liver failed and toxins built up in his blood, and on Thursday his wife asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom. "I'm going..." he proclaimed, "Into the future."
"Dan would be rolling his eyes at being 'the inspirational cancer story,' but he's done a lot for movies over the years," friend and colleague Grady Hendrix told The Hollywood Reporter. "It's nice that the movies finally did something for him."
We send all our condolences to Daniel's friends and family.
